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Extrema is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Minas Gerais. According to the 2024 estimate by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), its population was 57,913 inhabitants.[1] It is located 492 km from the state capital. extremense The territory that belongs to the municipality of Extrema was constituted from the dismemberment, in 1901, of lands belonging to Camanducaia, one of the oldest parishes instituted by the colonial administration in the region that currently corresponds to the south of the State of Minas Gerais. In 1764, the then governor of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais, Luís Diogo Lobo da Silva, ordered the implementation of a tax registry on the banks of the Jaguari River. This initiative aimed to impose the jurisdiction of Minas Gerais north of Morro do Lopo, (a region coveted by authorities of the captaincies of Minas Gerais and São Paulo at the time) and to try to prevent gold smuggling. It was only in the 1930s that the issue of the border between Minas Gerais and São Paulo was resolved. As for the existence of a population center in the Extrema region, the first reference found to date dates back to December 26, 1788, when the baptism of a boy whose parents lived in the “Extrema Neighborhood” was recorded at the Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Camanducaia church. In August 1832, the diocesan authority of the Bishopric of São Paulo granted a petition in which the farmer José Alves requested permission to build a chapel on this site. This temple was consecrated to Saint Rita of Cassia. Separatist movements were observed in the area corresponding to the south of the state of Minas Gerais throughout the imperial period and also involved residents of the district of Santa Rita da Extrema. In the last decades of the 19th century, the arrival of European immigrants, mainly Italians and Portuguese, to Extrema was recorded. These people gradually became involved in local political and social life. Later, Japanese immigrants settled in the municipality. The city's name comes from its geographical location: its urban area is the southernmost city in Minas Gerais, although the southernmost geographical point in the state is in the rural area of the neighboring municipality of Camanducaia. In other words, Extrema has the southernmost latitude in the entire state and is also on the extreme western edge of the Serra da Mantiqueira massif. It is the last municipality in Minas Gerais for those leaving the state towards São Paulo via the Fernão Dias highway (BR-381), which connects the capitals of São Paulo and Belo Horizonte.