Cavalcante

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Cavalcante is a small town and municipality in northern Goiás state, Brazil. It is one of the poorest municipalities in the state. It is home to communities of descendants of runaway slaves called Kalungas.

Population: 9,773 (2005 estimate)
Total area: 6,979.5 km² (ranked 7th in the state in area in 2002)
Elevation: 823
Became a city: 1833 (one of the oldest cities in Goiás.
Postal code: 73790-000

It is located just north of the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park and is connected by tarmacked road with Teresina de Goiás. It is part of the Chapada dos Veadeiros Microregion. The distance to the state capital of Goiânia is 510 km and most residents have greater contact with Brasília than with the state capital. Highway connections from Goiânia are made by BR-153 / Anápolis / Alexânia / BR-060 / Planaltina / GO-430 / GO-118 / BR-010 / São João da Aliança / Alto Paraíso de Goiás / Teresina de Goiás / GO-241. For all the distances in Goiás see [Seplan]

Neighboring municipalities and states are:

Contents

1 Demographic data
2 Economy
3 History
4 Kalunga
5 External links

Demographic data

Population density: 1.36 inhab/km²
Population growth rate 1991-2000: 1.29.%
Population in 1980: 11,181
Population in 1991: 8,156
Urban population in 2003: 4,360
Rural population in 2003: 5,096 (one of the few municipalities in the state in which the rural population exceeds the urban population)
Eligible voters in 2004: 6,575
City government in 2005: mayor (Felipe Ferreira da Silva), vice-mayor (Josias Magalhães Costa Sobrinho), and 09 councilmembers
Households: 2,214

Economy

The economy is based on cattle raising (44,500 head in 2003) and agriculture. The economy grew substantially from 2002 to 2003. The main crops in planted area are:

rice: 3.5 km²
corn: 8 km²
manioc: 1 km²
beans: 1.9 km²
bananas: 0.8 km²

Data are from [IBGE]

Industrial establishments in 2005: 01
Banks: Banco do Brasil
Retail establishments: 37
Automobiles in 2004: 86
Gross Domestic Product in 2003: R$168.655 millions
GDP in 2002: R$26.593 million (0.08 of the state GDP)
GDP per capita in 2003: R$17,664
GDP per capita in 2002: R$2,819 (state average was R$5,921)

Health and Education

Infant mortality rate in 2000: 30.02
There were 05 public health clinics and 01 hospital with 12 beds in 2003.

Literacy rate in 2000: 61.7 (one of the lowest in the state)
There were 58 schools, 114 classrooms, 161 teachers, and 2,918 students in 2005.

History

Founded in 1740 with the discovery of gold, Cavalcante still has traces of the colonial arquitecture of the gold period. Located 330 km. from Brasília it has waterfalls, streams and trails. Crossing the low mountains one can reach the springs of hot mineral water that gave the name to a now extinct mining town--Água Quente. The town is one of the oldest cities in Goiás, becoming a municipality n 1831.

Cavalcante was once considered in the golden age of mining to be a great producer of gold and other minerals. These years are no more and now livestock raising is the strong point of the local economy. The town also gets some tourism, which enters the national park in Alto Paraíso de Goiás, 100 km to the south. Many tourists come to visit the more than 150 catalogued waterfalls, most of which can only be visited on foot. On a dirt road that borders the national park there are connections with Colinas do Sul and the Serra da Mesa artficial lake.

Kalunga

Nearby there is a community, called the Kalunga, who are black descendants of the slaves who escaped into the interior to form communities called quilombos. These runaway slaves lived in isolation, building their own identity and their own culture, with African elements added to European elements, mainly the traditional Catholicism of the rural milieu, and intermingling with the indigenous population.

Today the Kalunga (approximately 4,500 people) occupy a territory that takes in part of the municipalities of Cavalcante, Monte Alegre and Teresina de Goiás. In these territories there are four main population centers: the region of Contenda and Vão do Calunga, Vão de Almas, Vão do Moleque and the former Ribeirão dos Negros, later renamed as Ribeirão dos Bois.[link]

Ranking on the Municipal Human Development Index

Life expectancy: 66.7
Adult literacy rate: 0.583
School attendance rate: 0.643
MHDI: 0.609
State ranking: 241 (out of 242 municipalities)
National ranking: 4,509 (out of 5,507 municipalities)

Data are from 2000

For the complete list see [Frigoletto.com]

External links

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