In the second decade of the 21st Century, we find on a plateau in Brazil's Serra do Mar mountains São Paulo; a city of 12 million people and the nucleus of a metropolitan region of over 20 million people in a macro-metropolitan region of over 30 million people. 

We begin our time here exploring the conditions that led to permanent settlement in this location and the multiple drivers for the super-charged transformation that followed as São Paulo became an enormously energetic, globally fluent and magnetic metropolis.

We are very grateful to our esteemed local experts Mariana Barros, Claudio Bernardes, Professor Miguel Bucalem, Professor Felipe Correa and Professor Regina Meyer for helping us to decode what makes São Paulo, São Paulo. 

To continue exploring São Paulo, check out these resources:

• Felipe Correa – São Paulo: A Graphic Biography
• Regina Meyer – São Paulo Metrópole
• Edison Veiga – 'O que foi o Cerco de Piratininga, o 9 de julho há 462 anos que permitiu São Paulo existir' [BBC News Brazil]

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To learn more about The DNA of Cities and sign up for our latest updates visit www.thednaofcities.com.

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Bass Vibes - Rollin at 5 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100462

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Sound design by Dainius Kacinskas.