The composition of Mooca's economy today ranges from small businesses ran by locals, large industries, such as Lorenzetti and Groupe SEB, both important players locally and globally in the home appliances industry, and ultimately, large shopping malls offering a variety of services.

In 1567, Portuguese Bandeirantes, or pathfinders, based in the village of São Paulo de Piratininga moved eastwards in their expeditions and that was probably when the region was first explored.

Over the centuries, Mooca became an important rural area, containing a number of farms and cottages, dependent on the work of enslaved African-Brazilians.

Because labour at that time was in high demand, many immigrants from Italy, most of them coming from the city of Naples, fled to São Paulo to take up jobs at local industries.

These celebrations take place on the streets, where, aside from the true markets offering typical dishes, handicrafts and wine, stages for dance presentations and live traditional music are set up.

Some representative communities that have contributed to Mooca's ethnic diversity are the Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Croatian, Lithuanian, Syrian, Lebanese and more recently the Bolivian and Peruvian, besides Brazilians migrants from the Northeast.

As a result of this phenomenon, many warehouses and industries facilities were simply abandoned, creating perfect conditions for real estate speculation to turn Mooca into one of the fastest-growing districts in Brazil's largest city, consolidating its momentum as a powerhouse in East São Paulo.

The short surface segment of the Line 3-Red of the city's subway system was first built in the 1970s along Avenida Alcântara Machado (Radial Leste), an eight-lane highway which is one of the main gateways to eastern parts of São Paulo.

Additionally, the district offers three theatres, a public library (Biblioteca Affonso Taunay), and the state-ran museum Museu da Imigração.

Although there are no public universities, Mooca takes pride in its three private universities campuses: Universidade São Judas Tadeu[16] Universidade Anhembi Morumbi[17] Centro Universitário Capital[18] If Mooca lacks green spaces in one hand, it offers sport venues and nature in the 196.000sqm of its sports club, Clube da Mooca, and at the local athletics club, Clube Atlético Juventus, which has a namesake soccer team and a small stadium (Estádio Conde Rodolfo Crespi), as mentioned above.

Estádio Conde Rodolfo Crespi hosted in 1959 a match between Juventus and Santos F.C., in which Pelé scored the most beautiful goal in his career.

[19] SESC Belenzinho – is a cultural centre and sports venue and, although it is located just outside the district, it is site of interest in the area as provides Mooca's population with a variety of quality theatre plays, busy cultural agenda and sports training (e.g. tennis, soccer, volleyball, basketball, yoga, pilates, etc.)