Map - Vinhedo

Vinhedo is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. The population in 2020 was 80,111 and its area is 81.60 km2. It has a population density of 777 inhabitants per square kilometer. The elevation is 777 m. Vinhedo is 96% urbanized and It was founded in 1949.

Vinhedo is ranked 13th of the 5,565 municipalities in the 2010 Brazilian Municipal Development Index (FMDI), and 6th among the municipalities in the state of São Paulo. It had a per capita income of $638.17 in 2010 and an extreme poverty rate (defined as under $30 per year) of 0.13%. The municipality has made significant progress in the implementation of the digital city concept (11th in the state of São Paulo, which is defined as the level of digital infrastructure and services available to residents.

The region of the São Paulo plateau was inhabited by several indigenous groups, some from the coast, who sought refuge from the wars and slavery of the Iberian settlers. Others, such as Tupi-Guaranys and Jés (like the Kaigang and the southern Kayapó), had lived in the region since before colonization.

With the arrival of Europeans to the South American continent, the region was crossed by the "Bandeiras", who occupied lands considered unexplored and hunted Indians for slave labor, as well as looking for natural resources like noble woods, gold and precious stones, during century XVII. For this, the indigenous tribes were decimated or expelled from the region. African slaves were introduced to forcefully aid the Flags or to work on the newly created subsistence crops that were forming on the way to Goyaz.

At the end of the 19th century coffee farms settled in the northern region of Jundiaí county - many of them taking advantage of former farms that had been producing sugar and brandy since the 18th century. All the work was done by black slaves. White laborers, mainly European immigrants sponsored by the government and by farmers, occupied the slots left by the slaves after the abolition.

Intense commerce between the coffee-growing region and the capital of São Paulo moved troops of mules by the Old Road of Campinas. Departing from São Paulo towards the interior of Brazil, great cities were created every 50 kilometers, and between one and another, sometimes, a temporary stopping point.

Between Jundiaí and Campinas, a landing of tropeiros was created naturally in the middle of 1620 and, for usufruct of these, a small subsistence plantation, a "rocinha". One of the first properties installed in the place would later become the well known Waterfall Farm, which would eventually transform a senzala in Quilombo decades after slavery.

Just in the valley between Fazenda Cachoeira and Estrada Velha de Campinas, already popularly called Estrada da Boiada, Rocinha became, from 1840, a small village where black slaves benefited coffee, which soon would be sold to cities and later, the capital of São Paulo. With the abolition, the former black slaves were released and, without educational instruction or free labor offers, migrated to Minas Gerais and the capital of São Paulo. Few remained in the small town that already had in its population the presence of Portuguese, Spanish, German, French, Arab, some Americans and mainly Italian immigrants. Rocinha passed to the condition of Vila and District of Peace belonging to Jundiaí on October 31, 1908, by law promulgated by the then President of the State of São Paulo, Dr. Albuquerque Lins.

Already at this time, with the arrival of more Italian immigrants to supply the lack of manpower, the culture of the grape was introduced in the then town of Rocinha like main agricultural product, since the price of the coffee of the region suffered a sensible decrease with the expansion of the production in the cities of the center-west of the state of São Paulo and the construction of the Companhia Mogiana railroad, which made easy connection between the north of the state and the port of Santos, rendering obsolete coffee production of the small rock.

The grape then becomes the basis of the local economy. Throughout the district are spread the grape plantations for the production of wines, vinegars, sweets, and what more could be explored of the vines that fill the landscape of the place. Rocinha then stops being known only as a "stop" post and enters a frank economic and political rise.