Paulínia is a Brazilian municipality in the interior of the state of São Paulo. It is located in the northwest of the São Paulo Macrometropolis and is about 119 km from the state capital. It occupies an area of 139 km2 and in 2022 Census, IBGE estimated its population at 110,537. It was emancipated on 28 February 1964, but its foundation dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. The town is named after José Paulino Nogueira, a well-known farmer in the Campinas region, the municipality from which Paulínia emancipated and who lent his name to the railroad station around which the town developed. It is located in the Rio-São Paulo axis, serving as a link between Greater São Paulo and cities in the area, such as Cosmópolis, Artur Nogueira, and Conchal.
It is known for hosting one of the largest petrochemical poles in Latin America, centered on the Paulínia Refinery (Replan). Thanks to Replan and the petrochemical pole, which are based in the northern part of the city, Paulínia has the seventh highest per capita income in Brazil. Also due to the pole, the city presents high levels of ozone pollution, mainly in the district of Betel and in the Replan region, where companies such as Rhodia, Purina, Shell, Syngenta, and Petrobras are located. Paulínia stands out for its intense population growth, the largest in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. Historically, the service sector has not been very important for the municipality, but recently it has been developing because of projects like Paulínia Magia do Cinema (English: Paulínia Magic of Cinema).
Since 2019, Paulínia has had a new source of income and employment for the city and the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. The technology sector has been growing in Paulínia with the arrival of ASCENTY, a multinational company specialized in the field of "Data Centers", with data processing centers and branches in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Colombia, thus opening the door for the arrival of two other companies in the city, CloudHQ and Amazon.
The municipality is formed by the city of Paulínia and the district of Betel, in the eastern region. Paulínia is part of the so-called Extended Metropolitan Complex, which exceeds 29 million inhabitants, approximately 75% of the population of the entire state of São Paulo. The metropolitan regions of Campinas and São Paulo already form the first megalopolis in the southern hemisphere, uniting 65 municipalities that together are home to 12% of the Brazilian population.
Etymology
The term Paulínia pays homage to José Paulino Nogueira, a farmer from Campineiro, one of the owners of Funil farm, located between the present-day cities of Paulínia and Cosmópolis. The village that gave rise to the city of Paulínia was called José Paulino Village until 1944, when a state decree prohibited localities from having names of living people. Due to this fact, the village was elevated to a district with the name "Paulínia".
José Paulino was born on 13 February 1853, in Campinas. At the end of the Empire, as a member of the Republican Party of São Paulo, he was elected an alderman in his hometown, alongside Júlio de Mesquita and Salvador Penteado. In March 1889, when there was an outbreak of yellow fever in Campinas, José Paulino was one of the few authorities who did not abandon the city; he fought the disease and became loved by the people of Campinas. At the end of the 19th century, Paulino and his brothers started to clear the way for Funil farm, between Paulínia and Cosmópolis. With the construction of the Funilense Railroad, a railroad station was also built in the São Bento neighborhood, which became known as José Paulino. The small neighborhood of São Bento grew up around the station and also became known as José Paulino. Due to the decree that prohibited names of living people in localities, upon its elevation to district José Paulino was renamed Paulínia.
History Paulínia's history begins long before its emancipation, which occurred in 1964; it goes back to the beginning of the 16th century, with the beginning of the occupation of the Campinas region.
Origins During the 18th century, the region of Campinas began to be occupied due to the passage of the bandeirantes routes that headed for the gold mines in the interior of Brazil. The settlement began more precisely in the period between 1739 and 1744, when Captain Francisco Barreto Leme do Prado arrived at the then parish of Nossa Senhora de Conceição de Campinas.
The history of Paulínia as an urban agglomeration begins with the donation of sesmarias by the Portuguese government. There are reports of the donation of two large sesmarias in the region of the Atibaia and Jaguari rivers, where the city of Paulínia is located today, one in 1796 and another, called the Morro Azul sesmaria, in 1807. From the latter originated the São Bento farm, acquired by Comendador Francisco de Paula Camargo, and the Funil farm; both have a great connection with the establishment of Paulínia. Officially Paulínia was founded on 16 July 1906, by José Seixas de Queiroz; however, the city's anniversary is celebrated on the date the municipality was created, 28 February.
Paulínia's population was formed mainly by Italian immigrants, who replaced the slaves that worked on the farms after the abolition of slavery in 1888. However, with the economic growth, the city has become a destination for many immigrants from neighboring cities and other parts of Brazil, especially from the Northeast, who are looking for work or better living conditions.
From village to district
The first urban center in the region of Paulínia was a village called São Bento where, in 1903, a chapel was inaugurated in honor of the same saint, which had begun to be built in 1897, the same year in which the plans and budget for the José Paulino station were approved. Around this chapel the São Bento neighborhood began to develop. At this time São Bento was a suburb of Campinas.
Due to the expansion of the agricultural culture, the farmers of the region started to feel difficulties in draining their production due to the presence of the Atibaia and Jaguari rivers, which made it difficult for them to cross with the products. In this context, the producers started to demand from the captaincy of São Paulo the construction of a railroad that would make it possible to transport their production to other centers. In 1880 credits were approved for the construction of the Companhia Carril Agrícola Funilense, connecting the city of Campinas to the region of Funil farm.
The inauguration of the carriage section of the Funilense Railroad, on 18 September 1899, changed the economic order of the São Bento neighborhood. The José Paulino Station attracted many merchants to the neighborhood and gave rise to José Paulino Village, the result of the development of the São Bento neighborhood. Around the station there was Comércio Street, later renamed José Paulino Avenue, and a replica of the chapel of the São Bento farm, the São Bento Church, which still exists today. On 30 November 1944, through Decree-Law 14334, José Paulino was elevated to a district with the name Paulínia.
From district to municipality Paulínia remained a district of Campinas for twenty years. During this period the agricultural and industrial development reached the whole region, mainly with the installation of Rhodia in São Francisco farm in 1942. This fact represented an increase in tax collection for Campinas. In the mid-1950s, a retired employee from the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo, José Lozano Araújo, founded the Friends of Paulínia association and started a movement for the emancipation of Paulínia. The movement culminated with the holding of a plebiscite on 6 November 1963, which determined emancipation. On 28 February 1964, Law 8092 was published, creating the town of Paulínia.
The first elections took place on 7 March 1965, and José Lozano Araújo was elected. He was responsible for major works in the city and for the installation of Replan on the site, as he donated the land and exempted it from taxes for twenty years. The refinery transformed Paulínia into a population attraction center, growing from 6,900 inhabitants in 1972 to 28,620 in 1973, tripling the number of inhabitants.
Economic Growth
The first industrial unit to be installed where Paulínia is today was Rhodia, in 1942. For years it was the main industry in the city, initially focused on agro-industrial production and later transformed into a chemical industry. In 1968, General Arthur Duarte Candal Fonseca, president of Petrobras, announced the construction of an oil refinery in Paulínia. Construction began on 28 February 1969, on the five-year anniversary of emancipation, and the refinery was inaugurated on 12 May 1972. The president of Brazil, General Emílio Garrastazu Médici, the president of Petrobras, Ernesto Geisel, and the head of the military cabinet of the presidency, General João Batista de Oliveira Figueiredo were present at the ceremony.
Replan has attracted thousands of immigrants to Paulínia, as well as other companies, which have transformed the town into the largest petrochemical complex in Latin America. Industries in Paulínia are concentrated in two distinct points: the REPLAN region and the district of Betel, which are consequently the richest and most polluted areas in Paulínia.
In 2005, Braskem and Petrobras Química S.A. - Petroquisa - set up Petroquímica Paulínia S.A., a joint venture responsible for operating a polypropylene industrial unit in the Replan region. It started operating in 2008, with initial capacity to produce 300 thousand tons per year of polypropylene, and potential to reach 350 thousand tons per year.
In late 2010, LG announced that it would build an industrial plant in the city of Paulínia, on land donated by the city government, which would produce white goods such as refrigerators, stoves, microwave ovens, among others. Construction was scheduled to begin in March 2011, with completion in October of the same year. The factory would employ 4.000 employees, surpassing Petrobras and becoming Paulínia's largest employer. However, by October, the construction work had not begun, causing the councilors to question the city hall. The initial project foresaw a three-story building, more suitable to the irregularity of the terrain. However, LG's headquarters requested a change to a single floor, which would have required the company to spend R$30 million on earthmoving. LG then asked the city to exchange the donated land, which was refused because there was no other land with the same measurements. After this refusal, the company asked the city to pay for the earthmoving, which was also rejected, because Mayor José Pavan Júnior considered that the administration had already spent too much on the project (the donated land was valued at at least R$100 million). Since then the contacts between the company and the city hall have decreased. The donated area will return to the city hall if construction does not begin by the end of 2015.
Recent History
Paulínia's recent history is marked by great economic development, urban and population growth. Since the 1980s, when the municipal hospital was inaugurated, many works have been carried out to increase the capacity of some services. In 1981, the mayor of Paulínia at the time, Geraldo José Ballone, sent a law bill to the city council that created the municipal hospital. At the time the city had about 20,753 inhabitants, but the population did not have a public health facility in town that could provide examinations and consultations.
In the 1990s, great works were carried out in Paulínia, among them the construction of a virtual library, where citizens have free access to the internet, Paulínia's sambodrome, which is the largest indoor sambodrome in the country, and the improvement of the city's road systems.