was greatly formed by descendants of enslaved Africans, the government began attracting Europeans such as Italians, Spanish, and Germans, in Western Europe, and in the East Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and Russians by offering them lands. After those, came the Japanese, Catholic Syrian and Lebanese. Thus, the majority of the Chavantes's population is formed by Portuguese and/or African-Native Brazilians, Spanish-, Italian-, Japanese-, and Syrian-Lebanese- Brazilians. The coffee and other crops then produced in the region, including in Northern Parana' state were shipped via the Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana railway to the Port of Santos, Brazil's largest, and from there to Europe and Asia. The railway also transported individuals to towns in the interior, to the state capital, São Paulo and had connections with other systems in and outside the state. It was later named FEPASA and today it is basically extinct, due to a more efficient road and freight transport system. The small Chavantes historic train station is today one of the most conserved railway buildings in the state with its neo-baroque style facade, but the tracks have been invaded by weeds and there were plans to transform the station into a museum and educational center in the 1990s. The town has grown considerably, comparing to the original size of the village closer to Paranapanema river. In the 1970s, during the military dictatorship, Chavantes advanced, becoming a more industrial setting, but its farmers still had great influence in various municipal matters. Francisco Faria, then the mayor, tried to modernize it, by razing the beautiful church square and building a Brasília-style one on its place, asphalt-paving streets and avenues and the modern prefeitura or city hall. Two new state elementary, middle/high schools were also built and the São Paulo Central Electric Co. built the Xavantes dam or "usina" in the Paranapema river, which would send power to states as far as Mato Grosso. In the 1980s and 1990s with the Cruzeiro and Cruzado currencies devaluation, the Chavantes's industrial park almost disappeared and the town may have grown in number of houses only, due to state or city housing programs. Its students who had better opportunities than their parents, moved to bigger cities with electronic technical courses or engineering and liberal arts universities. Those who chose to stay ended up working as clerks, shop owners, in farming or in the electrical or alcohol "usinas." Most of its inhabitants claim that the town has