São Paulo

By population, the largest city in Brazil and in the Southern Hemisphere. The city proper is the sixth largest municipality in the world by population, and the largest in the Western hemisphere. The metro area is the seventh largest in the world, and competes with Mexico City for the position of largest in Latin America. São Paulo is capital of the state of São Paulo, and the two are often confused even in Brazil - being as over half the population of the state lives in it. People from the state are properly called Paulistas, and people from the city are called Paulistanos, but only paulistanos who were born in the city proper and care about it will insist on that distinction. People from other parts of the country will largely ignore it.

The metropolitan area alone is responsible for around 20% of Brazil's GDP, but it is under-represented in media, even Brazilian media.This is largely due to its significant cultural differences from the rest of the country, the fact that the Brazilian media industry mostly developed in Rio de Janeiro, and the perceived "ugliness" of São Paulo. It is mostly famous for:

• Its high proportion of immigrants. Nearly everyone in São Paulo has some sort of immigrant descent, and almost half of that are Italians. It has the largest community of expat Japanese and descendants in the world, and the largest Jewish community in Latin America. It also has sizeable Turkish, Lebanese, Chinese, Korean, Greek, Bolivian, and Polish communities. The Italian influence is responsible for a great deal of the cultural differences with the rest of the country, and to the particular accent that Paulistanos have. "Brazilian" culture, being largely an amalgam of regional cultures from other parts of the country, is ever-so-subtly foreign to paulistanos.
• Its terrific traffic. São Paulo has some of the worst traffic jams on the planet. It counts with eight million cars and a street network that is not great. Although the pothole problem is slowly coming under control, the street layout in São Paulo is maddening, with streets that turn corners, bizarre five-way crossings, and various other things that make the Magic Roundabout look like the bumper car ride at a fairground. Only locals can understand it or hope to navigate it. The city does count with a high-quality subway system, which doesn't reach nearly enough places in the city and seems to be perpetually expanding at a very slow pace. Because of this, Paulistanos expand the Brazilian disregard for punctuality. Nobody bats an eye at being twenty minutes late for something, and "traffic was bad" is always an excuse.
• Its hard-working, industrious people. In Brazilian media this is alternately portrayed as a virtue or as a vice; Paulistanos are perceived as dull workaholics - something akin to a Brazilian Salaryman. São Paulo working culture is workaholic - meetings extend well past work hours and people expect you to always pick up the phone to talk about work.
• Its gentle and sunny weather. São Paulo is euphemistically nicknamed Cidade da Garoa by older Brazilians (Lit. "city of drizzle"). In reality, the characteristic drizzle, if it was ever this common, now mostly gives way to violent, sudden thunderstorms. São Paulo sees very little sunlight - it is overcast most days of the year. Its weather resembles a warmer Seattle. Paulistanos seem to sometimes shy away from the sun in warmer Brazilian cities. Strong winds are not uncommon, and sudden, unpredictable temperature shifts are considered the norm. The monsoons during the summer cause floods - usually tragic, thanks to insufficient drainage. Most if not all small streams in the city have been paved over, leaving underground galleries that can't accommodate the water flow during heavy rain, and both major rivers are surrounded by multi-lane highways.
• Its food. With so many ethnic groups put together, and such a great Italian population (Nearly 40% of S. Paulo's population was Italian at one point) the city has great restaurants. São Paulo has something of a gourmet culture. Sushi bars are ubiquitous, as is the more drinking-oriented kind of bar - and a bar in São Paulo is only truly successful if it also serves good food. In particular, Paulistanos, much like New Yorkers, believe their city to be the only place on Earth to get a decent pizza and will scoff at pale imitations produced in other parts of the country. Their pizza is fairly different from the American or Italian variations on the dish, but no less loved and delicious for it. Just don't put ketchup on it.
• Its night life. People in Rio go to the beach; people in São Paulo go clubbing, or on pub crawls. There's too much variety to properly describe this in the article.

São Paulo in fiction

• Linha De Passe
• Carandiru
• Pixote
• Coffin Joe's (Zé do Caixão) horror trilogy: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse and Embodiment of Evil.
• The Year My Parents Went On Vacation
• Turma Da Monica (Monica's gang) takes place mainly in São Paulo, although this rarely referenced.
• Max Payne 3, of all things, will actually take place there. Which makes a whole lot of sense: if any Brazilian city can be portrayed as noir, it's definitely Sao Paulo.
  • Won't stop the cries of Ruined FOREVER, though.
    • And it won't be much nois if it is all taken place in the favelas, as the screenshots suggests...
    • The trailer suggests a more varied set of environs.
• Nodame Cantabile: The manga has a short trip to Sao Paulo.