Curitiba

Curitiba. City in Brazil, capital of the southern state of Paraná. Its population in 2020 was 1,948,626, including some 13,750 Ukrainians. Ukrainian cultural and social life in Curitiba dates back to 1902, when a Ukrainian Catholic church parish and Prosvita society were established. Today the Union for Agricultural Educational (est 1922) and the Society of Friends of Ukrainian Culture (est 1947) are still active. In 1972 Curitiba became the seat of the Saint John Ukrainian Catholic eparchy. There are two Ukrainian Catholic parishes and eight churches as well as a major seminary in the city. The Ukrainian Orthodox church was organized there in 1930 and has two parishes and two churches. A Ukrainian Baptist congregation was organized in 1950 and has its own church. The first Ukrainian newspaper in Brazil, Zoria (Curitiba), was published in the city in 1907–9 and irregularly in 1910. Later a weekly newspaper of a nationalist orientation, Khliborob (Curitiba), was published in the city from 1938 to 1941 and from 1948 to 1974, when it was replaced by a monthly bulletin. In 1985 the Ukrainian Brazilian Central Representation was established in Curitiba as an umbrella body for community interests.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]