Franca

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For the football player, see França.

Coordinates: 20°32′19″S, 47°24′03″W

Franca, SP, Brazil (2007) A view of the central area of Franca - photo copyright Francasite
Area	607.33 km²
Altitude	1040 m
Distance to capital	400 km
Demographic density	559.68 inhab/km²
Population (total)	319,578
Average longevity (years)	74
Infant mortality	1,5 %
Illiteracy rate	5.63 %
Schooling rate (7-14)	95 %
Average annual income	US$ 3.600
Water supply	99 %
Sewage treatment	99 %
Poverty (2000)	8.28 %
Human Development Index	0.82 (high)

Franca (official website:*Francasite) is a large town in the Northeastern part (also known as Alta Mogiana) of the State of São Paulo in Brazil. Alta Mogiana means The Highlands of Difficult Access. The State it's in is the richest, most populated, most developed, and most industrial one of the 27 States in Brazil. The population of Franca in 2006 was more than 320,000 and the municipal area (urban and rural) is 609.93 km². The altitude is 1040 metres at its highest point but the city is built on three rolling hills which average 990 metres at their tops.

Franca is the men's footwear capital of Brazil, with more than 400 small, medium and large shoe factories. Besides this industry there are more than 30 leather tanneries, 40 rubber sole factories, 2 shoe machine factories, as well as countless other components factories and workshops. With a strong infrastructure for exportation which includes many export offices, freight forwarders like the traditional and renowned Intercargo Franca (http://www.intercargofranca.com.br/site/ingles1.php?lang=us), a Dry Port with an efficient customs office in the town (http://www.embrate.com.br/index_ingles.asp), as well as comfortable hotels, Franca is an excellent location to do international business in products like leather skins eg. (Couroquimica: http://couroquimica.com.br), (Padrao Couros: http://www.padraocouros.com.br), rubber products eg.(Evasola: http://www.evasola.com.br), (Amazonas: http:www.amazonas.com.br) footwear eg. (Democrata: http://www.democrata.com.br), (FreewayShoes: http://www.freewayshoes.com.br/#),(Orcade: http://orcade.com.br). or even leather apparel, bags and belts.

Check out more through the official website of Franca: Francasite http://www.francasite.com/guia_calcados.asp and http://www.francasite.com/welcome-foreign-visitors.asp (an English Page) contacts: franca@francasite.com (English spoken)

Besides the shoe and related industries, this town boasts a high quality coffee production. A special very high quality brand called Mogiana is produced in this region. Coffee plantations near Franca have won national and international awards for excellence in coffee beans.

Franca also is what you could call the Basketball City of South America! More than 40 years ago basketball started here at a very simple but determined level and today the fame of Francabasquete (Franca basketball) is known worldwide. (http://www.francabasquetebol.com.br/) Nine-time State champions, eleven-time National champions, six-time South American champions, four-time Panamerican champions, two-time runner-ups in World Basketball Club Championships. At present the team is leading both in the State and National championships (2007).

Franca also was one of the diamond centres of South America. It is still rich in diamonds however environmental controls, government incompetence and corruption, clandestine business dealings, and international manoeuvring has taken the shine out of this business activity. There are still experts in the area trying to bring back this industry and make Franca a Diamond Centre once again. Several serious diamond-cutters, diamond-dealers, goldsmiths as well as others dealing with other kinds of gems try to keep up what use to be a thriving industry in this town.

Franca was originally settled by the Portuguese, and then much later immigrants principally from Italy and the Middle East made this town their home. Slavery wasn't so abundant in this area but it did add a small percentage of Afro-origin people who intermixed with both the European, Arab and even Indian population. Franca has quite a mixture of races and ethnic origins. Brazil is a melting pot of races and ethnic origins that have intermixed freely and widely. It is very hard to find absolutely pure Brazilian families who have been here for generations. With the misguided intention of trying to help the blacks many ignorant people even at the University level are trying to bring back an overt racism making efforts to catalogue the population into different colours as if they were specimens in a laboratory, thereby claiming racial classification which is practically impossible considering the mixture of the races. Brazil's problems lie mostly in social prejudice and not racial prejudice and historically of course because of the the past slavery and white European colonization the poorer classes are mostly darker and the richer classes are mostly lighter. But the solutions are in comprehensive and high quality educational projects which all governments at all levels refuse to invest in because it would jeopardize their so-called democracy which actually boils down to a manipulative,populist,demagogical, electoral scam. Franca is unfortunately no different though it enjoys a much higher standard of living than many other Brazilian cities and seems to enjoy much more tolerance as to the differences of both races and social classes.

Though the most prevalent language is of course Portuguese, many Francanos (as they are called) speak English due to a strong tradition of almost 50 years of private English teaching. One of the first schools and the only one still existing from the beginnings of Anglo-education in Franca, is the very traditional and highly-regarded Cultura Inglesa de Franca (http://www.culturainglesafranca.com.br). The last twenty-five years has seen a rapid and extensive growth of private English-language schools. In 1980 there were 5 and today there are 28. This is largely due to the long and intensive exportation activities of the town, and the flux of many Francanos visiting North America and Europe. Besides the private schools, private classes can be obtained through Brazilian as well as foreign teachers. (Reference: John's English http://www.john.com.br)

Besides Portuguese and English, other languages widely spoken are Spanish and Italian, with a smattering of Japanese, French, German and also Esperanto.

Franca is also a becoming a very large sugar cane producer. The region has many plantations that have changed from coffee to sugar cane and this crop is destined to alcohol production. This ethanol production is specifically for automobile fuel which is becoming more and more prevalent all over the country. More and more Brazilians are using cars that run on alcohol.

Information offered by John Bolissian (John's English http://www.john.com.br E-mail: john@john.com.br) Canadian/British citizen living 26 years in the town of Franca

[edit] Government

The mayor, Mr. Sidnei Rocha (from the PSDB party), was elected in October 2004 and took office on January 1, 2005. His term is four years and he is serving office for the second time. check: http://www.franca.sp.gov.br The City Council is made up of 15 councillors or aldermen. check: http://www.camerafranca.sp.gov.br