southeast brazil is home to the oldest portuguese village in the americas, são vicente, são paulo, established in 1532. the region, since the beginning of its colonization, is a melting pot of europeans, indians and africans. the amerindians of the region were enslaved by the portuguese. the race mixing between the indian females and their european masters produced the bandeirante, the colonial inhabitant of são paulo, who formed expeditions that crossed the interior of brazil and greatly increased the portuguese colonial territory. the main language spoken by these people of mixed indian/portuguese heritage was língua geral, a language that mixed tupi and portuguese words.