In 1864, princess Isabel, daughter of the then Brazilian emperor Pedro II and heir of the Brazilian throne, married Count D´Eu. As part of her marriage present, the dowry, were the lands that would be the region of Jaraguá do Sul. The engineer and honored colonel of the Brazilian Army, Emilio Carlos Jourdan (Belgium, 1838.7.19 – Rio de Janeiro, 1900.8.8), friend of Count D´Eu, was in charge of the task of marking the lands that were to the left of river Itapocuru and to the left of Jaraguá river, extending to the North till the river Negro. In the beginning, the area covered 12 square leagues, but was later extended to 25 square leagues.

In the beginning of 1876, Emilio Carlos Jourdan arrived with 60 workers, of whom 54 were black and 6 were white, almost all of them from the north of Brazil. Jourdan required the ownership of part of the land, enchanted by its beauty and richness: he started a sugarcane plantation and built a sugar-making mill.
During its history, Jaraguá belonged first to São Francisco do Sul, by the time of the land marking; to Paraty (present Araquari), in 1876, after the marking and emancipation of Paraty; in 1883 it was added to Joinville; in 1896 Jaraguá was added back to Paraty and in 1898, it was again added to Joinville.
On the way to being recognized and emancipated, the village of Jaraguá had its first Police District inaugurated on September 20, 1894. On August 22, 1895, a Justice District of the Peace was created.

It was only last century that, through the Decree no. 565 of March 26, 1934 Jaraguá was separated from Joinville and became a city. The limits of the new city obeyed those of the Police District created in 1894 and included the present territory of the city of Corupá (district of Hansa-Humboldt), separated on June 21, 1958.
With no record of the precise date when Emilio Carlos Jourdan arrived, it was decided that the day of July 25, 1876 would be celebrated as the foundation date of Jaraguá do Sul. Therefore, every July 25, the city celebrates its anniversary, together with three other important celebrations: the colonial workers, the immigrant and the drivers.
When Emilio Carlos Jourdan arrived here, the river and the hill both called Jaraguá were already known. The sawmill also had the name Jaraguá. Jourdan used the name in his first development, calling it “Jaragua Setllement”. In 1895, when he required the colonization of the region, he called his second development, Jaraguá Colony.
By the time of the emancipation, the new municipality was called simply Jaraguá. The name was altered to Jaraguá do Sul (Southern Jaraguá) on December 31, 1943, by means of the state decree number 941, because there was an older city with the same name in the state of Goiás.

Etymologically, there is a grass that is recurrent in the Center-North region of the country as well as in other parts of the continent and in Africa, which is popularly called Jaraguá (Hyparhenia rufa (Nees) stapf), not been totally impossible for the grass to have generated the denominations of the toponym Jaraguá in the Brazilian territory (throughout other states like Alagoas, Goiás, Paraíba, Santa Catarina and São Paulo). One of the city hills, presently called Boa Vista, may have been called Jaraguá by pioneers who were homesick and gave it the same name of a hill in the city of São Paulo (Jaraguá Peak)
Dr. José Alberto Barbosa, who made a research on the possible Moorish origin of the toponym Jaraguá, due to the presence of similar Hispanic terms: Jaraguá, jaraguas, jaraguí, jaraguo (Considerations on the Word Jaraguá, Jaraguá do Sul, 1977), presently, defends the tupy-guarany native language origin with the meaning of “field master” or “field owner”. The local natives, influenced by their mystic culture, might have given the name of Field Master or Field Owner (Jaraguá) to the hill that truly dominates the topography of the region.

Translation: Maria Cecília Pastorelli.
Picture: Lysandro Lima
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