[1]The name comes from the Tupi language, and means "Eaters", "big-bellied people"; a reference to the original indigenous inhabitants of the area.

[5] Guarulhos was founded on December 8, 1560, by the Jesuit priest Manuel de Paiva and entitled Nossa Senhora da Conceição.

[6] In the sixteenth century, Guarulhos was a strategic location: it bordered the future São Paulo's Capital and was surrounded by the Tietê (south), and Cabuçu de Cima (west) rivers.

), by numerous requests for the implantation of a telephone system, industrial building permits, by commercial activities, and public transportation.

During the 1930s, the city witnessed the actions of the Federal Intervention and the Constitutional Movement (Reflections of the Revolution that marked the end of the "Old Republic" during the 1930s in Brazil).

In 1940 the Monteiro Lobato Municipal Library was founded, in 1941, the first Health Center of the city, and ten years after that, the Holy House of Mercy of Guarulhos was established.

On that decade arrive in the municipality Industries from different sectors: electricity; metallurgy; plastics; food; rubber; footwear; vehicles; clocks, and leather.

In 2018, the Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos commuter rail system's Line 13–Jade[13] was opened, connecting São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport with Engenheiro Goulart.

The company is currently an operator of cell phones, fixed lines, internet (fiber optics/4G) and television (satellite and cable).