In the vast, arid interior of Minas Gerais State rises a tidy, thriving city that residents call "Brazil's best American town. Lacking any visible source of income other than ranching, Governador Valadares is sprouting high-rise apartment buildings.
Around the central square, teen-age girls shop for outfits at Benetton. Boys sit on park benches, reading Mad magazine in Portuguese. When money exchange shops started to outnumber tractor dealerships, locals knew a fundamental change had taken place. The sound of hammering emerged from the shell of a building next door. A two-story house for her son, Carlos Alberto, was being built with weekly remittances from his job washing dishes in a Boston restaurant.
Unbroken Flow of Emigrants. The lure of working illegally in the United States, traditionally associated with Mexico and the Caribbean, has reached down to Brazil, with million people South America's most populous nation.
Disillusioned after a decade of economic stagnation, inflation and politicians' unfulfilled promises, Brazilians are migrating north in a flow unbroken by the inauguration this year of Fernando Collor de Mello, a President who promises a "new Brazil.
Although no reliable figures are available, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians are thought to be working in the United States. Historically, those most prone to emigration are residents of this city of , people. The United States connection dates from World War II, when American planes took off regularly from here carrying mica, then an essential material for making radios. In return, the American Government helped to combat malaria and to build the town's water and sewage system.
