History of Penedo - By Talitha Square (Nose India).

The Finnish immigration to Penedo, then district of Resende, differs essentially from the others that come to Brazil. Do not seek here the Nordic material wealth, nor do Brazil, as was common to the Iberian peoples; do not leave their land for political persecution or fleeing religious or racial neuroses. They are, at the time, position of persons defined in Finland: agricultural technicians, technicians in architectural design, builders, gymnasts, farmers, massage therapists, teachers and others. They live a life without major difficulties materials, among friends and family. Are Protestant-Lutheran roots. Merry, in groups, get together and sing their native songs and hymns. Sensitive, play musical instruments, piano, violin, organ, kantele (a kind of zither). Play and sing.

Leads this immigration a visionary - a poet - agricultural, soil scholar, plants, nature, highly mystical person, a faith as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. This man is Toivo Uuskallio. Sit by the spirit he sent to other lands, South, where we could live closer to nature and group work. Charismatic leader, he traces as walking the search for supporters to his cause of immigration and it has the support of the Lutheran pastor Pennanem. Meetings, debates, proposals, and part of a small group of five Finns, coming to Rio de Janeiro in 1927. With him comes his wife Liisa, strong personality, which will become mainstay in the colony, and more Frans Fagerlund, Enok Nyberg and Eino Kajander.

Marvel with the natural beauty of Rio, accommodate in a German pension the street from the Riachuelo, enroll in Berlitz school to learn Portuguese in intensive course. Already with a minimum basic vocabulary, traveling by train to Barra Mansa, where, by appointment of the manager of the pension, will all work in the Three Wells Farm, owned by the Monastery of St. Benedict. Barra Mansa is just making acquaintance with the earth, but the main objective is to search for the spot to buy, community establishment and putting into practice their ideals.

In 1929, after passing through Itatiaia and visit farms in Sao Paulo, Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro, tickling each of Finance Boulder, also owned by the Monastery of St. Benedict. Near Town, with 3 500 hectares, of which 2 000 forest, pure water, cut by streams, various altitudes, allowing cultivation of tropical and European plants, built its own headquarters and can accommodate those who came, this was the place.

Buy yourself Fazenda Penedo. The pastor encourages Penanem in Finland the coming of more fans. The newspapers report comes in 1929 and already a second group. Later disembark most Finns, received at the pier with songs and roses. Still others come later, with the colony already fixed. The Benedictines had explored the land with coffee, wood and coal exploration and, with the coffee fall, cattle. Hence the hills became grazing and there was no trace of the surrounding rainforest. (...)

The soil on the plain was drained, and the ants exterminated all. And there were mosquitoes, unexpected tropical flooding. Need to do redo the soil and persist. Against all fighting the Finns to find products possible to plant the land worked: corn, sweet potatoes, vegetables, banana and even flowers. Toivo Suni, already in the colony, built in 1930, the first house as a model to others. Suni will be highlighted later as a great artist, after the arrival in 1948, the Czech painter Ian Zach, who is established in the colony to resign from the post of cultural attaché of your country.