Why the name "São Pedro" (pronnounced "San-Oh Pay-Dro, which literally translates to "Saint Peter")?

In 1968, in the brazilian state of Paraíba, one amongst eight children was born. A member of the Silva Santos family. Pedro (Peter) was the name suggested to the child by religious belief in honor of one of Jesus' twelve apostles: St. Peter. However, by family influence, they registered the boy with another name. About eighteen months after his birth, during a June festivity, the boy fell in a bonfire dedicated to St. Peter. His parents understood that event as a divine response to the family's disobedience. Over the years several coincidences kept occuring, which made everyone realize that there was a strong connection between the family and St. Peter.

It was then that, 35 years later, the family had the opportunity to name the family's long-awaited pulp processing industry "SÃO PEDRO", as to fulfill St. Peter's divine guidance.

Why the name Bela Iaçá?

Following the family's historical relationship with St. Peter, the family payed homage to the legend of the beautiful naive brazilian woman, Iaçá, by naming a business branch operated by the family after her. Through her death came the discovery of a new source of food and one of the largest treasures of the Amazon: the acai berry. With this new tribute, São Pedro became a product line processed by Bela Iaçá.

The Legend of the Weeping Palm Tree - Iaçá, the native brazilian woman

There was an Amazon tribe that, due to food shortages, always lived in great difficulties. As the tribe increased with each passing day, Chief Itaki decided to sacrifice all newborns. The measure took effect: many moons passed without any natives conceiving. But one day, Iaçá, the daughter of chief Itaki himself, gave birth to a beautiful child. It was not long before the Tribal Council met and asked for the sacrifice of the daughter of Iaçá.

Her father, a warrior of his word, did not hesitate to comply with the order. Upon learning of the fate of her offspring, Iaçá begged her father to spare her daughter's life. Chief Itaki kept his word and the child was sacrificed.

Iaçá cloistered herself in her tent, staying there for almost two days on her knees, begging Tupã (brazilian god of Thunder. Pronnounced "Too-Pahn") to show her father a way in which the sacrifice of innocents would not have to be repeated. Late at night, however, Iaçá heard a child's cry.

She approached the tent door and then saw her smiling daughter standing by a slender palm tree. After the initial impact, she launched herself towards her daughter, hugging her. But instead, found herself before the palm tree because, mysteriously, the child had disappeared.

Iaçá, feeling inconsolable, wept until she died. The next day, her body was found still hugging the palm tree. She was dead, but her smiling face radiated satisfaction. At the same time her large, inert black eyes stared at the top of the palm tree. Chief Itaki noticed that the palm tree, once nonexistent, but suddenly found abundantly in the forest, had a cluster of black berries. He ordered for the fruits to fetched and crushed in a large wooden bowl, thus obtaining a reddish wine. He thanked Tupã and, reversing the name of his daughter Iaçá, baptized the strange wine of Acai (meaning weeping palm), then suspending the limitation of its people.