Qualla: Catalão

Catalão: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Texugo, CC BY-SA 3.0. A priest gave the town its name. Frei Antonio came to Brazil from the region of Catalonia in Spain, and his companions on one of the early bandeirante expeditions called him simply "o Catalao" - the Catalan. Sometime around 1728, Frei Antonio decided to build a small rest stop beside a stream in the south of what is now Goias, where troops penetrating inland could water their horses and sleep without fear. The camp grew. The Catalan's name stuck. Nearly three centuries later, his rest point has become a city of 68,000 people that assembles Mitsubishi cars, operates John Deere factories, digs phosphate out of the subsoil, and each September hosts the largest Congadas festival in Brazil.

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Image: Texugo | CC BY-SA 3.0

Catalão: Bandeirantes and Chaplains

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ariel S. Freitas, CC BY-SA 3.0. The first Portuguese presence in the region came around 1722 or 1723, when the bandeirante Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva planted crops here to supply his expedition southward. A few years later, in 1728, the chaplains accompanying similar expeditions - including Frei Antonio - establ...

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Image: Ariel S. Freitas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Catalão: The Festival of Congadas

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leider, CC BY 2.5. In 1820, enslaved Africans were brought to the Vila of Catalao to work the coffee plantations. Forced into bondage and stripped of their names, they carried with them anyway the cultural practices Portuguese overseers could not take away: among them, the cult of Our Lady of the R...

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Image: Leider | CC BY 2.5

Catalão: Phosphate and Horsepower

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vera L. Silva, CC BY-SA 3.0. Beneath Catalao lies one of Brazil's richest phosphate deposits, and three major fertilizer plants - Copebras (controlled by the Anglo-American mining group), Fosfertil, and Mineracao Catalao De Goias - extract the phosphate rock and convert it into the fertilizer that sustains B...

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Image: Vera L. Silva | CC BY-SA 3.0

Catalão: Cattle and Garlic

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit owmself, Public domain. Industry arrived on top of older agricultural foundations that still drive much of the economy. In 2003, Catalao grazed 150,000 head of cattle and raised 424,000 head of poultry. Soybeans covered 650 square kilometers and yielded 238,500 tons. Corn came in at 110 square kilometer...

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Image: owmself | Public domain

Catalão: A Medical Center and a University

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bruno Victor Borges, CC BY-SA 3.0. Catalao has become the medical center for southeast Goias. Four hospitals, 347 beds total (275 public), and 33 health establishments serve not only Catalao's residents but the populations of surrounding towns - Tres Ranchos, Ouvidor, Goiandira, Ipameri - that depend on the city f...

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Image: Bruno Victor Borges | CC BY-SA 3.0