Czech Brazilians

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More or less influence of the Czech immigration can be noticed in the three states of Southern Brazil (Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Rio Grande do Sul). In such states, the Czechs arrived since the 19th century and were often a minority in areas predominantly settled by Germans or Poles.[5][6]

In Santa Catarina, the Czech immigrants occupied the regions of Vale do Itajaí[5] and Northern parts of the state, e.g. Joinville,[7] São Bento do Sul[8][9] and Mafra.[10]

In Rio Grande do Sul, most Czechs settled down in the Serra Gaúcha (notably in the town of Nova Petrópolis), the North Coast, the area of Missões[11] and the Central Lowlands.[12]

In Paraná, the Czech immigration is noticeable in the Northern areas, e.g. Rolândia and Londrina, where in 1932-1940s Czechs and Poles used to dispute the available lands for coffee cultivation, particularly in the rural district of Warta (Northern Londrina).[13][14]

In Central-Western Brazil the Czech immigrants arrived mostly in the 1940-1950s led by the entrepreneur Jan Antonín Baťa, a Czech shoe manufacturer who left Czechoslovakia after the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland.[15]

The colonization of part of the Southeastern region of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul was made possible thanks to the Companhia Viação São Paulo-Mato Grosso (São Paulo-Mato Grosso Transport Company) owned by Baťa and managed by another Czech immigrant, Vladimir Kubik.