BIRTH OF THE DISTRICTS IN BRAZIL AND THE HISTORY OF DISTRICT 4610

Until 1927 the clubs in Brazil were under the direct supervision of the Rotary International Directory Council. With the creation of District 63, the Brazilian clubs were momentaneously under the administration of foreign Governors – Donato Gaminara, from Montevideo’s Rotary Club, from 1927 until 1928, and Cupertino del Campo, from Buenos Aires’ Rotary Club, from 1928 until 1929.

As from 1929, Brazil started to integrate an exclusive District. The number 72. Its administrators had a huge area to go through, but an exiguous number of clubs – at the beginning, only twelve (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Santos, Belo Horizonte, Juiz de Fora, Niterói, Petrópolis, Campos, Porto Alegre, Pelotas, Rio Grande and Ribeirão Preto).

Due to the fact that the District comprised the entire national territory, its Governors were picturesquely named Tomes de Souza, comparing them to the General-Governors from the first years of our history. Tomes de Souza were Edmundo de Carvalho (1929-1930) and Armando de Arruda Pereira (1935-1936), members of São Paulo, and another seven other Governors that managed the immense District up to its division in 1938.