paulo from northeastern brazil. ( alaide speaking portuguese ) translator: from there my father came first to work. came i as a ma,my motwas amstres narrator:alaide mara northeastern mignt keerse. they coun't afford even mar, the cheapestenn thcity, so thee on unclaimed land on the outskirts of sao paulo. they began building this house when their first daughtewas. 11 years ago, translator: whenhe was eightons old,) we movedo this house. firsto help things a bit.thent we theilfo rooms on top, and that's where we are now. we wilcoue build on but it's not clearf or migrants lalaide josbuild. will ever be part of the wealthy city that seems so far away. tokyo in east asia, along with los angeles in the u.s. and mexico city, are defined by geographers as mega-cities tountryf azil, the ga-city ofaoaumous size. arhas joined the ranks of these world-famousetpolises,s wi a population of 1milliopeople at the startof t 21st century. sao paulo is a city of immigrants, who built it neighborhood by neighborhood. the first immigrants to arrive were portuguese explorers and jesuit missionaries, who settled here in 1554 and oughwithhem azil's language a religion. bur