Brasília celebrates 50 years of president Kubitschek’s expansion to the mid-west
In the mid 1950’s, small planes glided above the savannah in the central plateau of Brazil: vast pastures, bare earth roads with difficult access, houses scattered sparsely. On board those small aeroplanes, geographers, architects and government officials mapped out the land that would host the new Brazilian capital. From high above, they picked out the farmhouses and dropped down a note which read: ‘we want to buy your land. This soil will be part of the new federal capital, Brasília.’ The episode is engraved upon the memory of pioneer Jofre Parada, who was one of those in charge of acquisition of the land that would become the Federal District.

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