Dateline: Ouro Preto, March 12

Appears in
Brazil: A Cook's Tour
Brazil

By Christopher Idone

Published 1995

  • About

By the first decade of the eighteenth century, Brazilians began/making expeditions from São Paulo to the hills of Minas Gerais on a quest for gold. The travelers called themselves bandeirantes, —not bandits, as the sound of the word implies, but banner-carriers in the name of the Portuguese royal court.

Saturday street market in Ouro Preto

Minas Gerais (General Mines) is hemmed in by the surrounding states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Goiás, Bahia, and Espírito Santo. The state owes its name to what once seemed an inexhaustible reserve of gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, diamonds, emeralds, semiprecious stones, crystalline masses, and quartz. The mineral-rich center is Ouro Preto, once the seat of Minas government.