São Paulo - Brás

Towards the end of the 19th century the outlying settlement of Brás, near Praça da Sé, which had hitherto been occupied by craftsmen and small traders, began to be transformed into an industrial suburb of São Paulo inhabited mainly by Italian immigrants. Although it has kept its old cantinas (typically Italian restaurants) and its folk traditions like the Festa de San Gennaro, it is now one of the districts of São Paulo occupied mainly by impoverished immigrants from north-eastern Brazil.