Horizontina () is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...
, in southern
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
, with 19,389 inhabitants in 2020. It is located 496 km north of the state capital. The first settlers were
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
Italian
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* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
and
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
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immigrants who arrived in the region in 1927. Nowadays, most of the inhabitants are of
German-Brazilian
German Brazilians (German: ''Deutschbrasilianer'', Hunsrik: ''Deitschbrasiliooner'', ) refers to Brazilians of full or partial German ancestry. German Brazilians live mostly in the country's South Region, with a smaller but still significant p ...
descent.
The city has an average annual temperature of 20.8 °C. Horizontina's human development index is 0.783, considered high by the United Nations Development Programme, ranking 110th in Brazil, 11th in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and 1st in its micro-region.
The colonization of the city occurred in 1927, when the first German colonists arrived in the region. A year later came more families from other ethnic groups, causing the place to develop. The first name of the city council was ''Belo Horizonte'', later becoming ''Vila Horizonte'' and ''Horizonte'' before settling on the current name, Horizontina, in 1944. Before being elevated to a municipality, it was a district in the municipality of ''Santa Rosa''. Only in December 1954 was the district emancipated.
The city is known as the "Cradle of National Automotive Harvesters," due to the construction of the first Brazilian automotive harvester in the city in 1965. A unit of US company John Deere is installed in Horizontina, generating about 80% of the city's tax revenue.
Supermodel
A supermodel is a highly paid fashion model who has a worldwide reputation and background in ''haute couture'' and commercial modeling. The term became popular in the 1990s.
Supermodels usually work for prominent fashion designers and clothin ...
Gisele Bündchen
Gisele Caroline Bündchen (, , born 20 July 1980) is a Brazilian fashion model. Since 2001, she has been one of the highest-paid models in the world. In 2007, Bündchen was the 16th-richest woman in the entertainment industry and earned the ...
was born and raised in Horizontina. Her grandfather, Walter Bündchen (died 2010) also once served as the municipality's mayor.
Regional language
The German dialect
Riograndenser Hunsrückisch
Hunsrik (natively ''Hunsrik'' , ''Hunsrückisch'' or ''Hunsrickisch'' and Portuguese ''hunsriqueano'' or ''hunsriqueano riograndense''), also called Riograndese Hunsrik, ' or ', is a Moselle Franconian language derived primarily from the Hunsrà ...
is the most-spoken German dialect in Brazil and as such an integral part of the history of many municipalities throughout the state of Rio Grande do Sul, including Horizontina. In 2012 the Legislative Assembly voted unanimously in favor of official recognition of Riograndenser Hunsrückisch as a piece of cultural heritage to be preserved and protected.
See also
*
List of municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul
This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), located in the South Region of Brazil. Rio Grande do Sul is divided into 497 municipalities, which are grouped into 35 microregions, which are grouped into 7 mesoregio ...
References
{{RioGrandedoSul-geo-stub
Municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul