Qualla: Jaú https://qualla.com/jau en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:25:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/u/j/3/jau-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Jaú https://qualla.com/jau Jaú: Introduction https://qualla.com/jau/ Photo credit José Reynaldo da Fonseca, CC BY 2.5. Jaú is named after a fish that ate too much. The bandeirantes working up the Tietê pulled a huge catfish from the stream that runs through this part of central São Paulo, and the Indigenous people of the river called it ya-hu, the glutton. The settlement that grew on the banks was called Barra do Juruí at first, then took the fish's name instead, and was formally founded on 15 August 1853. It is a good name for a town that has twice eaten a whole industry. By 1907 Jaú's railway station handled more coffee than any other on the Companhia Paulista network, and by the reckoning of the day more than any station on Earth. That trade is a century gone. What Jaú makes now is shoes: as many as 120,000 pairs a day, almost all of them women's, from roughly two hundred factories in a city of 133,000 people.

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Image: José Reynaldo da Fonseca | CC BY 2.5

]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/u/j/3/jau-wk/6uj3-ja-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Jaú: The Red Earth Years https://qualla.com/jau/ Photo credit José Reynaldo da Fonseca, CC BY 2.5. The soil did it. Terra roxa, the deep red basaltic earth of central São Paulo, is among the best coffee ground on the planet, and Jaú still calls itself the Capital da Terra Roxa. The railway arrived in 1887 and the boom followed immediately. Within two decades the town had built...

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Image: José Reynaldo da Fonseca | CC BY 2.5

]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/u/j/3/jau-wk/6uj3-ja-the-red-earth-years.mp3 0:06 2 full Jaú: One Hundred Twenty Thousand Pairs a Day https://qualla.com/jau/ Photo credit José Reynaldo da Fonseca, CC BY 2.5. When coffee faded, Jaú did something most old plantation towns never managed: it found a second act. The city built a footwear cluster and specialised hard, concentrating on women's shoes until it dominated the national market. About 200 companies operate in the sector here, empl...

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]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/u/j/3/jau-wk/6uj3-ja-one-hundred-twenty-thousand-pairs-a-day.mp3 0:06 3 full Jaú: A Sport Born in a Gym Class https://qualla.com/jau/ Photo credit José Reynaldo da Fonseca, CC BY 2.5. In 1980 a physical education teacher named Fernão de Toledo Castro had a class that could not agree on what to play. Rather than settle the argument, he let both sides win: one team would play handball, and the other, whenever it took possession, would play indoor football. What ...

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]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/u/j/3/jau-wk/6uj3-ja-a-sport-born-in-a-gym-class.mp3 0:06 4 full Jaú: The City on the Stream https://qualla.com/jau/ Photo credit José Reynaldo da Fonseca, CC BY 2.5. Jaú sits at about 541 metres in the geographic middle of central São Paulo state, covering 687 square kilometres with roughly 133,500 people counted at the 2022 census, a density near 194 per square kilometre. Beyond the seat, the municipality takes in three districts: Potunduva,...

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]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/u/j/3/jau-wk/6uj3-ja-the-city-on-the-stream.mp3 0:06 5 full Jaú: Getting There https://qualla.com/jau/ Photo credit José Reynaldo da Fonseca, CC BY 2.5. Jaú is a long drive from anywhere large. From the city of São Paulo the usual route runs the Bandeirantes or the Anhanguera to Limeira, the Washington Luís to Itirapina, then the Paulo Nilo Romano highway in, roughly 290 kilometres in total; the alternative by way of Botucatu and...

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Image: José Reynaldo da Fonseca | CC BY 2.5

]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/u/j/3/jau-wk/6uj3-ja-getting-there.mp3 0:06 6 full