Portuguese colonization Brazil received more European settlers during its colonial era than any other country in the Americas. Between 1500 and 1760, about 700,000 Europeans immigrated to Brazil. In the first two centuries of colonization (16th and 17th centuries), it is estimated that no more than 100,000 Portuguese people migrated to Brazil. They were more affluent immigrants, who settled mainly in the captaincies of
Pernambuco and
Bahia, to explore sugar production, which was the most profitable activity in the colony at that time. At the end of the 16th century, the white population (the vast majority Portuguese) was of over 30,000 people, mainly concentrated in the captaincies of Pernambuco, Bahia and
São Vicente. The colonization process continued throughout the 17th century and by the end of the century, the white population was of nearly 100,000 people. , one of the main Portuguese settlements founded during
colonial Brazil, in
Minas Gerais state. The town has preserved its colonial appearance to this day. It is notable that most Portuguese settlers arrived in Brazil in the 18th century: 600,000 in a period of only sixty years. Initially unattractive during the first two centuries of colonization, as it concentrated sugar production, which required high investments, by the end of the 17th and in the beginning of the 18th centuries, due to the retreat of the
Portuguese Empire in
Asia and the discoveries of gold in the Brazilian region of
Minas Gerais, there were more favorable conditions for the arrival of Portuguese immigrants in Brazil. There was no need for major investments for mining activity. Mining in these regions was a crucial factor in the arrival of this contingent of Portuguese immigrants. Immigration to Brazil, by nationality, decenal periods from 1884–1893, 1924-1933 and 1945-1949Source: Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) Nationality Decade 1884-1893 1894-1903 1904-1913 1914-1923 1924-1933 1945-1949 1950-1954 1955-1959 Germans 22,778 6,698 33,859 29,339 61,723 5,188 12,204 4,633 Spaniards 113,116 102,142 224,672 94,779 52,405 4,092 53,357 38,819 Italians 510,533 537,784 196,521 86,320 70,177 15,312 59,785 31,263 Japanese - - 11,868 20,398 110,191 12 5,447 28,819 Portuguese 170,621 155,542 384,672 201,252 233,650 26,268 123,082 96,811 Middle Easterners 96 7,124 45,803 20,400 20,400 N/A N/A N/A Other 66,524 42,820 109,222 51,493 164,586 29,552 84,851 47,599
Total 883,668 852,110 1,006,617 503,981 717,223 80,424 338,726 247,944 Impact of mass immigration ,
Santa Catarina state, where the
German language is still spoken The immigration of millions of Europeans to Brazil, between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, contributed to bring greater diversity to the Brazilian population. It is estimated that about 20% of the Brazilian population is descended from people who immigrated to the country in that period, The influence of the environment cannot be underestimated: immigrants who went to coffee farms or urban centers assimilated more easily, as there was daily contact with Brazilians, generating common interests, friendships and mixed marriages. In these regions, the
Portuguese language quickly supplanted the languages of the immigrants, facilitating their process of acculturation. Even with the repression of Vargas
Estado Novo dictatorship, minority languages of European origin still survive in certain communities concentrated in southern Brazil, mainly of German, Italian and Slavic origin. However, their use has been decreasing in recent generations. The break with the isolation of these communities, with the improvement of highways and infrastructure, the need to learn Portuguese to enter the job market, as well as the diffusion of the media (press, radio, television, internet), has led to the growing use of the Portuguese language in these communities. File:Rainha e Princesas da Festa da Uva em 1934.jpg|
Italian Brazilian girls in
Caxias do Sul, 1934. File:Ukrainians in Brazil.jpg|
Ukrainian family in Brazil, 1891. File:Afot3602.jpg|
Portuguese immigrant in Rio de Janeiro, 1895. File:Familia-Oppelt-Costamilan-1.jpg|Italian family in
Southern Brazil, 1901. File:Passaporte português de 1927.jpg|Passport of a Portuguese immigrant, 1927. File:Imigrantes italianos na Hospedaria dos Imigrantes.jpg|Group of
Italians arriving in
São Paulo. File:Picking coffee in Brazil.jpg|European immigrants working in a coffee plantation in the
State of São Paulo.
Immigrants ,
Rio Grande do Sul state, in 1886 Most of the 4,431,000 immigrants that entered the country between 1821 and 1932 settled in São Paulo (state) and other Southeastern states: São Paulo received most of the Italians (
Veneto,
Lombardy,
Campania,
Tuscany,
Calabria,
Liguria,
Piedmont,
Umbria,
Emilia-Romagna,
Abruzzi e Molise and
Basilicata) and Spaniards (
Galicians, Castilians and
Catalans) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and from the 1910s on most of the Lithuanians, Dutch, French, Hungarians,
Baltic Finns, Ashkenazi Jews (from
diaspora communities in Poland, Romania, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Lithuania, Russia and
Czechoslovakia), Latvians,
Greeks,
Armenians,
Czech,
Croatians,
Slovenians,
Bulgarians,
Albanians and
Georgians; Rio de Janeiro (state) received most of the Portuguese immigrants followed by SP, as well as most of the
Swiss and
Belgians. Together with São Paulo and Santa Catarina, RJ was one of the main destinations for
Swedes,
Norwegians,
Danes but also French and received the second largest number of Jews after SP. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro followed by Paraná also received most of the English-Welsh and Scots; The countryside of Espírito Santo was mainly populated by people arriving from Germany, especially
Pomeranians (
Prussia), Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, France, Romania, Slovakia and Iberia, comprising chiefly Catalans but including
Basques and
Andorrans. Minas Gerais received generally Italians, looking for arable acreage in the 19th century, and Portugueses early in the 18th during the Gold and Diamond Rush. However, the impact of the White immigration was larger in Southern Brazil, because even though it got a lesser migration, since it had a very small population, the immigration's impact was greater to its demography when compared to other Brazilian regions. The main concentrations in Rio Grande do Sul were Venetian Italians where their dialect is still spoken and Germans from the
Hunsrück region of Germany (
Rhineland-Palatinate) who also kept their
Hunsrückisch dialect known as
Riograndensisch, followed by Poles. Their arriving numbers supplanted the previous Iberian population, founding cities like
Novo Hamburgo and
Garibaldi. German immigrants first arrived in 1824 settling in the
Sinos River Valley, where one of the first colonies to take an urbanized figure was Hamburger Berg, future Novo Hamburgo, dismembered from or spun out of
São Leopoldo, dubbed the cradle of German culture in Brazil. Its capital, Porto Alegre, has the third largest Jewish population in the nation. The vast majority of Slavs is concentrated in Paraná, mainly Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians, followed by German and Italian dwellers in the countryside who also arrived to populate the sparsely inhabited South. Some localities like
Mallet, a 19th-century settlement founded by Poles from Austrian
Galicia (Eastern Europe) and Ukrainians that grew up to be a town, still maintain both their languages and traditions in a Polish-Ukrainian
continuum. After 1909 Dutch settlers became accountable for the dairy farming development in the prairies region of the state, known as
Campos Gerais do Paraná, where today are the towns of
Castro and
Carambeí dubbed Little Holland. The Castro region also received many Lithuanians. The capital, Curitiba, is home to a large figure of
Volga Germans that outnumbered the initial and primary
Bandeirante descent population during the
Imperial period, Faroese people and other Scandinavians, as well as to Slavs, Italians, French, Swiss, Spaniards and one of the country's Jewish communities. . "The Brazilian nation to the immigrant" () is read at the bottom. Santa Catarina where over 50% of the population has German,
Austrian and Luxembourgish ancestry (the local
Hunsrückisch is known as
Katharinensisch,
East Pomeranian is still spoken in the town of
Pomerode and Southern Austro-Bavarian by the Tyrolean population in
Treze Tílias) was also the main destination for Danes and the state that was sparsely populated and had its shore mainly inhabited by
Azoreans in the 18th century (e.g.
Laguna born
Anita Garibaldi, wife and comrade-in-arms of Italian Unification revolutionary
Giuseppe Garibaldi), also received Italians, French, Swedes, Norwegians, Swiss, Lithuanians and Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Poles, Slovenians, Croatians, Belgians and Spaniards to populate its interior during the 19th century. The town of
Brusque founded by Austrian Baron von Schneeburg bringing German families from the
Grand Duchy of Baden to settle in the northeast of Santa Catarina, besides receiving additional waves of Italians from the
Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion, Poles and Swedes, was also one of the destinations in the South and Southeast for American Confederate settlers in 1867, differing from São Paulo and Paraná colonies, where the American Confederate presence gave birth to new towns such as Americana in São Paulo. Neighboring towns such as
Nova Trento founded in 1875, similarly received subjects from the
Austro-Hungarian Empire because Italian-speaking Tyroleans known as
trentinos and Germans from the
Kingdom of Prussia, historic
Swabia and
Baden faced an immense crisis in the agricultural sector caused by the conflicts of the
unification of Italy and
Germany respectively, that weakened local trade.
Istrian Italians under the
Austrian Empire rule also fled
Istria to settle in Brazil, and a few towns like
Nova Veneza, founded in 1891 still have an over 90% Venetian population of which many still speak the Talian dialect. Most Venetians settled after the
Third Italian War of Independence in 1866, when
Venice, along with the rest of the
Veneto, became part of the newly created
Kingdom of Italy. The
Europeanization was so longed that by 1895 the government of São Paulo spent about 15% of its annual budget on subsidies for immigrants.
Portuguese kids waiting for a ship to leave for Brazil (early 20th century) , São Paulo state, in 1887 Between 1500 and 1808, it is estimated that 500,000 Portuguese went to live in Brazil; Portuguese women appeared with some regularity among immigrants, with percentage variation in different decades and regions of the country. However, even among the influx of Portuguese immigrants at the turn of the 20th century, there were 319 men to each 100 women among them. The Portuguese were different from other immigrants in Brazil, like the Germans, or Italians who brought many women along with them (even though the proportion of men was higher in any immigrant community). Despite the smaller female proportion, Portuguese men married mainly Portuguese women. Female immigrants rarely married Brazilian men. In this context, the Portuguese had a rate of
endogamy which was higher than any other European immigrant community, and behind only the Japanese among all immigrants. Portuguese people are still the biggest group of foreigners living in the country, with 137,973 Portuguese-born people living in Brazil as of 2010. The first half of 2011 alone saw an increase of 52,000 Portuguese nationals applying for a permanent residence visa while another large group was granted Brazilian citizenship.
Italians About 1.64 million
Italians arrived in Brazil, starting in 1875. Later, their destination were mostly the
coffee plantations in the
Southeast, especially the states of
São Paulo and
Minas Gerais, where they initially worked for the local landowners, either for a wage or under a contract that allowed them to use a portion of land for subsistency, in exchange for labour in the plantation. In
São Paulo capital, which came to be labeled an "Italian city" in the early twentieth century, Italians engaged mainly in the incipient industry and urban services activities. They came to represent 90% of the 60,000 workers employed in São Paulo factories in 1901. Italians made up the main group of immigrants to Brazil in the late 19th century. Veneto was followed mainly by
Campania,
Lombardy,
Calabria,
Abruzzi e Molise,
Tuscany and
Emilia-Romagna.
Germans and Austrians , 1866 ) in front of the Blumenau city hall About 260,000
Germans settled in Brazil, starting in 1824. According to
Ethnologue,
Standard German is spoken by 1.5 million people and
Brazilian German encompass assorted dialects, including
Riograndenser Hunsrückisch spoken by over 3 million Brazilians. Today more speakers of the
East Pomeranian dialect can be found in Brazil than its original
Low German-speaking land, and the dialect is especially spoken in
Pomerode, Santa Catarina as well as in the states of Espírito Santo and Rio Grande do Sul where it enjoys
co-official status. Other dialects include
Luxembourgish (part of the
Moselle Franconian dialects group together with
Hunsrik),
Swiss Alemannic, Low Saxon–rooted
Plautdietsch, spoken by
Mennonites from the former Soviet Union (since the 1930s),
Southern Austro-Bavarian,
Tyrol dialect and
Vorarlberg High Alemannic German, especially in
Dreizehnlinden, Santa Catarina (since 1933), and
Danube Swabian in
Guarapuava, Paraná (since 1951). The vast majority of Germans settled in the states of
São Paulo,
Rio Grande do Sul,
Santa Catarina,
Paraná, and
Rio de Janeiro. Less than 5% of Germans settled in
Minas Gerais,
Pernambuco, and
Espírito Santo. Endogamy was the rule among the 19th-century German, Austrian and Luxembourgish colonies and young married women in the homogeneously isolated German colonies settled in the three Southern states had a high fertility rate of 8–9 children per woman; that was especially the case for those youths married between 20 and 24 years old.
Poles house in
Paraná Poles came in significant numbers to Brazil after 1870. Most of them settled in the State of
Paraná, working as small farmers. Polish can still be heard in small towns such as
Mallet, Paraná, where the vast majority of the population descends from Western and Northern
Slavic settlers who arrived in Brazil in the 1890s (mostly Poles who came from
Galicia which was under
Austrian rule then).
Luxembourgers An estimated 80,000 Brazilians are of
Luxembourgian descent due to a small immigration of Luxembourgers to Brazil, mostly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Ukrainians descent celebrating
Easter in
Curitiba More than 20,000
Ukrainians came to Brazil between 1895 and 1897, settling mostly in the countryside of
Paraná and working as farmers in the state, today a land of regnant Orthodox churches, where Slavic traditions can be witnessed all over the territory.
Dutch and Flemish . Dutch windmills are found in Paraná and São Paulo. Dutch people first settled in Brazil during the 17th century, with the region of
Pernambuco being a colony of the Dutch Republic from 1630 to 1654. The Dutch were then expelled as Portugal regained control of the region. During the 19th and 20th century, a few immigrants from the Netherlands came to the central and southern states of Brazil. The first Dutch immigrants to South America after its independence waves from their
metropoles went to the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo between 1858 and 1862, where they founded the settlement of Holanda, a colony of 500 mainly Reformed folk from West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in the Dutch province of Zeeland. and
Botucatu (
São Paulo – 1960). Many Belgians also preferred to establish their lives in urban centers such as Rio de Janeiro capital.
French and Walloons Between 1850 and 1965 around 100,000 French people immigrated to Brazil. The country received the second largest number of French immigrants to South America after Argentina (239,000). It is estimated that there are 1.2 million Brazilians of French and
Walloon descent today.
Scandinavian countries The relations between Brazil and Sweden are rooted in the family ties of the Brazilian and the Swedish Royal Families and in the Swedish emigration to Brazil in the end of the 19th century. The wife of King
Oscar I of
Sweden and Norway, Queen
Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, was sister to
Amélie of Leuchtenberg, wife of Emperor
Pedro I of Brazil. Diplomatic relations between Brazil and Sweden were established in 1826. During the mid to late 19th century many Scandinavians arrived in Brazil, particularly to the southern states as well as Rio de Janeiro, which features a Scandinavian Association, and São Paulo, where the Scandinavian church is based.
Russians Brazil was among the main destinations for Russian refugees during the 20th century. Some
Chinese immigrants to Brazil were of Russian descent, belonging to the country's
ethnic Russian community.
Balts (Lithuanians and Latvians) Lithuanian migration peaked in the 1920s and 1930s, when 35% of all emigrants from interwar Lithuania chosen Brazil as their destination, around 50,000 moved in. Besides Lithuanians, the Baltic diaspora also comprises one of the largest
Latvian populations. The first Lithuanians to set foot on Brazil in the 19th century had as their destination the newly established colony of
Ijuí, situated on the red and fertile soil of the northwestern part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, while most Lithuanians and Latvians would settle in São Paulo posteriorly. Besides São Paulo, other states that received Baltic people during the 20th century were Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and Espírito Santo. Latvian is still spoken in Santa Catarina and Paraná. Today, the state of São Paulo is home to the majority of the Lithuanian Brazilians, and its capital hosts the only true Lithuanian neighborhood in South America – Vila Zelina. Its construction was carried out ~1927 when Lithuanian immigration was peaking. The district is centered around Republic of Lithuania Plaza (
Praça República Lituânia), where 7 streets meet up (one of them named after a Lithuanian priest Pijus Ragažinskas (Pio Ragazinskas, 1907–1988) who started the only Lithuanian-Brazilian newspaper
"Mūsų Lietuva"). Liberty statue (1977) that crowns the Plaza center is modelled after the one in Kaunas, Lithuania (that original symbol of interwar Lithuanian freedom had been pulled down by Soviets in 1950, making its reconstruction in communism-free São Paulo even more symbolic). It bears the inscription
"Lietuviais esame gimę, lietuviais turime būt" ("Lithuanians we are born, Lithuanians we must be") – lyrics of a traditional patriotic song. They are joined by Columns of Gediminas, a symbol of the famous Gediminid dynasty (1315–1572) which brought the medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania to its glory as the Europe's largest state. There's also a Lithuanian church facing the square.
British, Scottish and Irish British immigration to Brazil can be divided into four main periods: colonial, monarchical, Old Republic and the 1960s/1970s. Most of the oldest capitals in Brazil possess colonial Anglican cemeteries or English cemeteries. And a group of Scottish religious dissidents established a settlement in the northeast of Brazil during the colonial period. After Brazil was promoted to kingdom, the 19th century witnessed a new wave of British citizens settling in the country, since England had special trading privileges with the nation. The Anglo-Scots-Brazilian
Charles William Miller is celebrated for making football popular in Brazil and deemed as the father of Brazilian football.
Oscar Cox and his sibling Edwin, both children of an English diplomat, are also praised for pioneering football in Brazil and introducing the sport especially to the city of Rio de Janeiro during the 1900s. Oscar organized the first football match in the history of the state of Rio de Janeiro in 1901 and then proceeded to
São Paulo, with his select team, to play against the squad led by Charles Miller, who had started the process of disseminating football in São Paulo back in 1894. Even though the sport had been played in an informal manner since the 1870s by British, Dutch and French sailors, as well as by European immigrants, Miller's merit lays in the fact that he arrived in Brazil with the necessary apparatus for the organized practice of football, being the first team manager, and consolidating it within sports clubs by captivating the public, considering that the then British-Brazilians and other citizens of the period were more accustomed to cricket.
Bertha Lutz was a Brazilian zoologist, politician and diplomat born in 1894. Lutz, whose mother was a British nurse and father a Swiss Brazilian pioneering physician and epidemiologist, became a leading figure in both the Pan American feminist movement fighting for women's suffrage and human rights movement. The 1960s and 1970s also saw new waves of English, Scottish and Welsh nationals, especially youths, immigrating to Brazil.
Americans At the end of the American Civil War in the 1860s, a migration of Confederates to Brazil began, with the total number of immigrants estimated in the thousands. They settled primarily in Southern and Southeastern Brazil founding many towns in the state of São Paulo:
Americana,
Campinas,
Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, Juquiá,
New Texas, Eldorado (former Xiririca) as well as moving to the capital
São Paulo. The bordering state of Paraná was the main destination in the South, followed by Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, where Americans arrived in 1867 settling in growing towns such as
Brusque. The city of Rio de Janeiro, the town of Rio Doce in Minas Gerais and the state of Espírito Santo were other destinations in the Southeast region. Later waves settled in Santarém, Pará—in the north of the Amazon River—as well as in the states of Bahia and Pernambuco, adding a significant number of immigrants to the region's population. Altogether, close to 25,000 American immigrants settled in Brazil during the 19th century. That is one of the main reasons why emperor
Dom Pedro II was the first foreign Chief of State and Head of Government to visit Washington, D.C. in 1876 and also attended the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The first Confederado recorded was Colonel
William H. Norris, a former senator of
Alabama who left the U.S. with 30 Confederate families and arrived in
Rio de Janeiro on 27 December 1865. The settlement at Santa Bárbara D'Oeste is sometimes called the
Norris Colony. The New Texas settlement leader, Frank McMullen, also left the U.S. in 1865 with former citizens of the Confederacy. Ethnically the
Confederados cultural sub-group, the way how the
Confederate colonies were named, were primally Scottish, English-Welsh, Irish, Scandinavian, Dutch and German, (ethnic Germans among Romanian, Czech, Russian and Polish immigrant descendants). Other famous Brazilians who descend from American immigrants are the former Chief Justice of Brazil
Ellen Gracie Northfleet, first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court;
Warwick Estevam Kerr, a geneticist, agricultural engineer, entomologist, professor and scientific leader, notable for his discoveries in the genetics and sex determination of bees and the singer
Rita Lee Jones, dubbed "the mother of Brazilian rock'n'roll".
Arabs Brazil has the largest
Lebanese and
Syrian population outside the
Levant region, Christians in the great majority. Lebanese and Syrians make up some of the largest
Asian communities in the country. There were many causes for Levantines to leave their homelands in the Ottoman Empire; overpopulation in Lebanon, conscription in Lebanon and Syria, and religious persecution by the Ottoman Turks.
Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews in the
Americas, Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, located in
Recife Brazil is also home to one of the top 10 largest
Jewish diasporas on Earth, most of them of
Ashkenazi background but also
Sephardi Jews included. Brazil figures on the diasporas list together with Argentina, and São Paulo has one of the largest
Jewish populations by urban area on the planet. Ashkenazi Jews first arrived during Imperial times, when the liberal second emperor of Brazil welcomed a few thousands of families facing persecution in Europe during the 1870s and 1880s. Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais, Belém, In August 2004, the mayor of São Paulo, a metropolis home to 77,000 Jews, declared her city a sister city with Tel Aviv. Mayor
Marta Smith Suplicy said the new status would strengthen ties between both Brazilians and Israelis. Suplicy, who had recently married a Jew, added that the new status would be a kickoff for urban, cultural, scientific, tourist and economic programs. And Jewish Brazilian personalities stated in a jocose form that the only threat they face is assimilation by marriage with Europeans, Levantine Arabs and East Asians. Intermarriage between Jews and non-Jewish descendants might have an even higher rate than in the US.
Notable people Whites constitute the majority of Brazil's population regarding the total numbers within a single racial group. Whites dominate Brazilian arts, business and science. Overall, whites constitute 86.3% of the 1% richest population of Brazil . The majority of representatives of the 20 largest companies in Brazil are white. These companies include
Petrobrás,
Oi telecommunications,
Ambev and
Gerdau and
Braskem groups, and according to the Valor 1000 ranking from 2014, 95% of these representatives declare themselves as white, 5% declare themselves as
brown and none declared as blacks or yellow (ethnic East Asian). The most successful Brazilian entrepreneurs have historically been white.
Jorge Paulo Lemann, an investor and the child of Swiss immigrants, is ranked as the 19th richest person in the world by Forbes, with an estimated net worth of US$38.7 billion.
Eduardo Saverin is the Co-founder of
Facebook, one of the world's wealthiest companies, and most powerful social media platforms, was born in
São Paulo, Brazil. Whites dominate Brazilian fashion.
Gisele Bündchen has been the highest paid model in the world for 10 years. With a reported net worth of $290 million, she is widely recognized as the poster child for Brazilian fashion models, being the first 'breakthrough' model from Brazil.
Alessandra Ambrosio is most famous for being a
Victoria's Secret and 'PINK' model. Earning an estimated $6.6 million per annum.
Alexandre Herchcovitch is a well-known fashion designer in the Paris, London, New York and Tokyo circuits.
Xuxa Meneghel, a television presenter, film actress, singer and successful businesswoman born in Rio Grande do Sul, has the highest net worth of any Brazilian female entertainer, estimated at US$350 million. Whites also dominate the sciences and academics. According to a Folha University Ranking, among the rectors and vice-chancellors of the 25 top universities, 89.8% are white; 8.2% are brown; 2% are black; none are yellow (East Asian). In the world of
Brazilian sports, some of the most successful Brazilian athletes have been white.
Ayrton Senna was among the most dominant and successful
Formula One drivers of the modern era and is considered by many as the greatest racing driver of all time.
Robert Scheidt is one of the most successful sailors at Olympic Games and one of the most successful Brazilian Olympic athletes.
Zico, the world's best football player of the late 1970s and early 80s. There is also
Kaká, a football star of AC Milan and later Real Madrid who won the
Ballon d'Or on 2007. Others include,
Gustavo Kuerten, the only Brazilians tennis player
to be ranked nr 1,
César Cielo the most successful Brazilian swimmer in history, having obtained three Olympic medals.
Oscar Schmidt, who was inducted into the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. The
Brazil men's national volleyball team is the most successful volleyball team in the world and is mostly white (
Gustavo Endres,
Giba,
André Heller,
Murilo Endres), and many others. Among women
Maria Esther Bueno is the most successful Brazilian tennis player at the Grand Slam tournaments. She won seven single titles (four wins at the
US Open and three at
Wimbledon) and twelve doubles titles (five at Wimbledon, four at the US Open, two in the
Roland Garros, including a mixed doubles, and once at the
Australian Open). ==Demography==