Qualla: Santa Rita do Sapucaí

Santa Rita do Sapucaí: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit lplemos26, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1959, a woman named Sinha Moreira founded an electronics school in a small coffee town in southern Minas Gerais - the first technical school of its kind anywhere in Latin America. The Escola Tecnica de Eletronica Francisco Moreira da Costa was named for her husband. Six years later came a full university, INATEL, the Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicacoes. Together the two institutions reshaped a town of 43,000 people into what Brazilians now call the Vale do Silicio Mineiro - the Mineiran Silicon Valley - the only small city in Latin America where more than 110 technology companies have clustered around two local schools.

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Image: lplemos26 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Santa Rita do Sapucaí: Sinha Moreira's Decision

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WOtP, CC BY-SA 3.0. Santa Rita do Sapucai was a coffee town in 1959. The national grid of technical education barely existed. Higher education was concentrated in state capitals like Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Belo Horizonte. When Sinha Moreira decided to establish an electronics school in a tow...

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Image: WOtP | CC BY-SA 3.0

Santa Rita do Sapucaí: INATEL and the Cluster

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Py4nf, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicacoes opened in 1965, offering engineering degrees in telecommunications, electronics, and computer science. Together with the technical school, INATEL now anchors a cluster of more than 110 technology companies in and around Santa Rita do Sap...

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Image: Py4nf | CC BY-SA 3.0

Santa Rita do Sapucaí: Prisoners on Bicycles

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vinícius Montgomery, CC BY-SA 4.0. In a local plaza, the street lamps are powered in part by inmates pedaling stationary bicycles. The program lets prisoners shorten their sentences by hours pedaled - each bicycle's generator feeds a car battery, which then feeds the plaza's lighting grid. The arrangement began as...

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Image: Vinícius Montgomery | CC BY-SA 4.0

Santa Rita do Sapucaí: A First in Minas

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Py4nf, Public domain. In July 2012, Santa Rita do Sapucai became the first municipality in Minas Gerais to adopt same-sex marriage, and the first municipality anywhere in Brazil to legalize it individually - before the Supreme Federal Tribunal's 2013 ruling that brought equal marriage to the country a...

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Image: Py4nf | Public domain

Santa Rita do Sapucaí: Roque Junior's Hometown

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RogerCamacho, CC BY-SA 4.0. The 2002 FIFA World Cup-winning Brazilian team had a defender named Roque Junior, who played alongside Cafu and Lucio in the backline. He was born in Santa Rita do Sapucai and began his professional career with the local club, Santarritense. Former Brazilian president Delfim More...

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Image: RogerCamacho | CC BY-SA 4.0