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Prudentópolis, Paraná (Brazil)

image by Ivan Sache, 7 February 2022

About the Flag

About the Flag

The municipality of Prudentópolis (51,961 inhabitants in 2018; 223,658 ha) is located 200 km west of Curitiba.

Prudentópolis was established at the end of the 19th century by Ukrainian immigrants, who were subsequently joined by Poles, Germans and Italians.
The municipality's namesake is Prudente de Morais (1841-1902), 3rd President of Brazil (1894-1898). Prudente de Morais was Brazil first civil president and first directly elected president. During his term, he transferred effective power from the army to the coffee oligarchs.
Prudente de Morais signed peace with the leaders of the Federalist Revolution (1893-1895) in Rio Grande do Sul, who were pardoned, and won the bloody War of Canudos in Bahia (1895-1898).
Prudentópolis has earned several nicknames, such as Capital of Honey, Brazilian Ukraine and Capital of Prayer, due to the more than 100 churches erected on the municipal territory.

Prudentópolis is the major center of the Ukrainian community in Brazil with 75% of the 52,000 local population being of Ukrainian descent.
In 1891, the first organized group of Ukrainians arrived in Brazil from Zolochiv district (now Lviv Oblast), settling in Paraná. Some 1,500 Ukrainian families of about 8,000 people settled in Prudentópolis in 1895. Most of the newcomers arrived from the area of the Ukrainian town of Ternopil, which became a sister town of Prudentópolis in 2019. The Ukrainian immigration to the region continued until the 1920s.
The second wave of Ukrainian immigration in the Ukrainian enclave of Brazil occurred in 1946 as after World War II thousands of Ukrainians arrived in Paraná, among which were "Ostarbeiters" - Nazi Germany's foreign slave workers, prisoners of war, political refugees, and Ukrainians who fought on the German side against the USSR.
In Prudentópolis, formerly also known by its Ukrainian name Prudentopil, the Ukrainian language is taught in many local schools as a mandatory or an optional foreign language course, and Ukrainian is a liturgical language.
However, the diffusion of the Ukrainian language was not always smooth in the region. In the 1930s and 1940s, President Getúlio Vargas banned the public use and teaching of foreign languages. As a result, many foreign communities fully assimilated into modern Brazilian culture, yet local Ukrainians of Prudentópolis and Paraná have managed to maintain their culture and language.

https://euromaidanpress.com/2021/10/08/ukrainian-language-became-official-in-brazilian-municipality-prudentopolis/
Euromaidan Press, 8 October 2021

Ukrainian gained the status of co-official language - with Portuguese - by Municipal Law No. 2,479 promulgated on 13 October 2021

https://leismunicipais.com.br/a/pr/p/prudentopolis/lei-ordinaria/2021/248/2479/lei-ordinaria-n-2479-2021-dispoe-sobre-a-co-oficilializacao-da-lingua-ucraniana-a-lingua-portuguesa-no-municipio-de-prudentopolis-e-da-outras-providencias
Leis Municipais database

The flag of Prudentópolis is prescribed by Municipal Law No. 104 promulgated on 11 August 1956.

Article 1.
The flag of the town and municipality of Prudentópolis was designed by teachers from Curso Normal Regional "D. Bosco", located in Prudentópolis.

Article 2.
The flag of Prudentópolis shall have the following characteristics.
Three horizontal stripes representing the municipality's districts and productions. The upper, yellow stripe represents the seat district and wheat production. The central, chestnut brown stripe represents the district of Patos Velhes and pine timber industry. The lower, green stripe represents the district of Jaciaba and yerba mate.
In the center, three stars placed on a blue sphere, representing a peaceful sky with three stars shining, which stands for the three components of Prudentópolis' people: Brazilians, Poles, and Ukrainians. The stars are white.

https://leismunicipais.com.br/a/pr/p/prudentopolis/lei-ordinaria/1956/11/104/lei-ordinaria-n-104-1956-cria-a-bandeira-do-municipio-de-prudentopolis
Leis Municipais database

Photo
https://www.facebook.com/prefeituraprudentopolis/photos/2683365465209645

Ivan Sache, 7 February 2022