Holambra Brazil

My parents went on a trip to California recently. They talked to people about my interest in Dutch things and the man they were talking to mentioned that I should look up Holambra, Brazil. So I did. This is an excerpt from a website I found (http://www.v-brazil.com/tourism/foreigner/holambra.html). Add this to the list of places that speak Dutch outside of the Netherlands and places I would like to visit. The town is on the South-East side of Brazil near Sao Paulo.

Holland, in Portuguese, is Holanda. A city built jointly by Holland and Brazil should, then, be called Holan + Bra = Holanbra. However, Portuguese orthography requires that, before a "b", an "m" must be used. Hence, Holambra, a piece of Holland in Brazil. Or Holland-America-Brazil.

In 1948, after World War II, Holland was not so rich as today; many families, particularly from the countryside, didn't have bright perspectives in their country, and wanted to emigrate.
Brazil was the option for some of them; the catholics had a particular preference for Brazil. The Brazilian governments (Federal and State) were offering to the Dutch immigrants 5,000 hectares of land in the interior of the State of Sao Paulo; the immigrants would bring along herds of Dutch cattle, famous for their milk production; the original intention was to start farms which would provide high quality dairy products for the State of Sao Paulo.
On July, 14th, 1948, the Holambra Cooperative began, officially, to work.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The cattle, brought from the temperated climate of Europe, didn't adapt well in the warm Brazil, and was also severely attacked by tropical diseases. The Dutch, then, started to work with chickens and pigs, and cultivate several crops.
Eventually, the cultures moved to a product typical from Holland: flowers. Today, no other place in Brazil produces flowers comparable to those of Holambra, be it in variety or in quality. The production is auctioned through the Veilling Holambra, one of the most sophisticated in the world; the output is the largest in Latin America; most of the flowers are exported.

Over the past few years, the tourism is becoming an important sector of the city's economy. More and more Brazilians are traveling to see this charmful city, result of the efforts of two people and their cultures.

This is a nice segway to a topic I've been wanted to write about, and probably will next week. The topic of things the Dutch are known for. Like things they are good at or are world renowned for. This touches on the Flowers side but there are other things, obviously.