Marabá is áParáa municipality in the state of Pará, Brazil. Its greatest geographic reference is the confluence of two large rivers near the historic city center, the Itacaiunas River and the Tocantins River, forming a "Y" if seen from space. It basically consists of six urban centers linked by five highways.
Marabá is the fourth-most-populous municipality in the state of Pará, approximately 283,542 inhabitants according to the IBGE/2020, and the fourth largest GDP in the state of Pará, with US$1.543.254,34 according to the IDESP/2010. It's the main center of political, social, and economic development in southern of Pará and one of the most dynamic municipalities in Brazil.
Marabá has a strategic position and is crossed by five highways. It also has a large logistics infrastructure, with a port, airport, and railway. The municipality has a growing industrial park. The steel industry is especially important to Marabá's vast agricultural frontier. Marabá also has a strong trade and services sector.
Marabá is characterized by its broad mix of peoples and cultures that do justice to the meaning of the town's nickname: "Son of Miscegenation."
Etymology
The word "Marabá" derives from the indigenous vocable "Mayr-Abá", which simply means "son of the indigenous woman with a white man."
A poem written by poet Gonçalves Dias inspired by the merchant Francisco Silva to its commercial name of "Casa Marabá" (Maraba House). This was located the banks of the Tocantins River, and served as a strategic business point for exchanging all kinds of products and services.
History
The settlement of the river basin Itacaiunas played an important factor in shaping the city, because even though this region was later colonized by the Portuguese Empire in the sixteenth century, remained without a permanent settler occupation for almost 300 years. Only in 1894 is, in fact, the space was occupied by settlers.
Colonization
The first to participate in the colonization of the territory of Marabá, in 1894, were the political leaders who had escaped from political guerrillas in the northern Province of Goiás, specifically the city of Boa Vista. One of those leaders was Carlos Leitao, who traveled with his group to the southeast of the province of Grão-Pará and established its first camp in downstream Itacaiunas River, in December 1894. A definitive village was established on the left bank of the Tocantins River, about 10 km downstream from the other camp, the place that Carlos Leitao called "Burgo do Itacayúna" (Burgo's Itacayúna). After a few months, the extraction of rubber latex began in the "Burgo's Itacayúna" region.
In 1895 Carlos Gomes Leitão asks the President of the Province of Grão-Pará, José Paes de Carvalho, funding for the extraction and commercialization of rubber in addition to getting drugs to be used specifically to combat tropical diseases. To get funding, Carlos Leitão disseminating information on the extraction of rubber in small colony of Burgo's Itacayúna and its surroundings. Immediately there is the first population explosion of the locality where the rubber tappers, fishermen and hunters settle in the village of Burgo.<ref name="Clipping Liberal">[http://sib.iesam-pa.edu.br/downloads/hemeroteca/ciencias_humanas/HST/HST1579.pdf Clipping de notícias do jornal "O Liberal" sobre o centenário de Marabá] - Instituto de Estudos Superiores da Amazônia</ref>
Foundation of Pontal do Itacayúna
The merchant Francisco Coelho da Silva would have been the first to settle in the area downstream of Rio Itacaiunas, crucial to the foundation of the village of "Pontal do Itacayúna" (Pontal of Itacayúna). The goal of Francisco Silva, while riding the village of Pontal of Itacayúna, was to negotiate with the rubber tappers who sought to sell the rubber collected in the region.
The official historiography Francisco Silva assigns the authorship of the current name of the city. He had installed in the village of Pontal of Itacayúna a commercial point called "Casa Marabá" (House Marabá), which years later would be used to name the until then village Pontal of Itacayúna.
With the death of Colonel Carlos Leitão in 1903, the village of Burgo's Itacayúna is disabled and Leitão family along with other residents move to the village of Pontal do Itacayúna. In 1904 the village of the Pontal shall be called "Marabá" and host the borough, with the installation of the police detachment.