Guajiru is a village on the coast of the Brazilian state of

Ceará Ceará (, ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It is the List of Brazilian states by population, eighth-largest Brazilian State by ...

. It is part of the district of Flecheiras in the municipality of

Trairi Trairi is a municipality in the state of Ceará in the Northeast region of Brazil. Trairi has a population of approximately 56000 inhabitants (2020) and is famous for its shoreline stretching from Guajiru to Mundaú Mundaú is a village in the ...

and is about a 130 km drive from the state capital

Fortaleza Fortaleza ( ; ; ) is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in 2022 census with a population of slightly over 2.4 mi ...

. ''Guajiru'' is a Tupi name for the

coco plum ''Chrysobalanus icaco'', the cocoplum, paradise plum, abajeru or icaco, also called fat pork in Trinidad and Tobago, is a low shrub or bushy tree found near sea beaches and inland throughout tropical Africa, tropical Americas and the Caribbean, ...

that grows in abundance in this area.

Population

Guajiru had 958 inhabitants as of 2022. Almost 700 of those identified as

pardo In the former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Americas, ''pardos'' (feminine ''pardas'') are triracial descendants of Europeans, Indigenous Americans and Africans. History In some places they were defined as neither exclusively ...

History

Archaeological evidence suggests human presence in the area dating back at to at least 3460

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

. Before

wind turbines A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each y ...

were constructed in the 2010s, several

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

sites were discovered within 1 km of what is now Guajiru. Researchers uncovered signs of fishing, fire usage, and

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

weaponry. The

Tremembé Tremembé is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte. The population is 47,714 (2020 est.) in an area of 191.09 km². The elevation is 560 m. A s ...

indigenous group historically inhabited the coastline of Ceará including the area between the Trairi and Mundaú river

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

. During the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

incursions along the coast, they retreated from the beaches to the dunes, establishing the settlement of Curimãs, among others, located a few kilometers from Guajiru. They continued to use Guajiru beach, then known as ''Flecheirinha'', for fishing. Towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Guajiru was permanently resettled and the modern village emerged. Today, many Guajiru residents maintain family connections in Curimãs, and many own land between the dunes and Curimãs. In 2021, the first road linking the two was constructed. Electricity arrived the 1980s and in the 1990s the first road linking Guajiru to the outside world was constructed.

Fishing

Jangada vertrekt van het strand van Guajiru

Fishing is the main source of income for the people of Guajiru. Fishermen use the traditional

jangada A jangada is a traditional fishing boat (in fact a sailing raft) made of wood used in the North Region, Brazil, northern region of Brazil. The construction of the jangada incorporates some improvements in Neolithic handcraft - better materials ...

for their activities. In 2009, 40% of the population was directly depended on fishing and 90% was indirectly depended.Brower, M., ''O Último Peixe, Ideas About the Future in Coastal Trairi'', SIT Fortaleza, 2009.

Tourism

The strong winds and stable

trade winds The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere ...

make perfect conditions for nautical sports like

kite surfing Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, snow, sand, or other surface. It combines the aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snow ...

Religion

Capela Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes Guajiru 1987

Our Lady of Navigators Our Lady of Navigators also known as Our Lady of Seafarers (''Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes'' in Portuguese) is a devotional title given to the Virgin Mary by Roman Catholics. It is a widespread devotion in South America, especially in Brazil, ...

is the patron saint of the fishermen. Every year in August she is celebrated with a

novena A novena (from , "nine") is an ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity, consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days or weeks. The nine days between the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost, when the ...

. The chapel of Guajiru, named after the patron, was built in 1975 under the lead of Father Tomás en mister Zezeca. Everyone in the community helped to get the building materials and constructed the building. It was drastically reformed between 2018 and 2021. Although most people remain

catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

christianity is growing in importance.

References

{{coord, -3.23697, -39.23716, display=title Populated places in Ceará