[3][4][5] With a surface area of 450,38 km² (or about 170 sq mi), Sorocaba is integrated with Greater São Paulo and the Metropolitan Regions of Campinas, Jundiaí, Paraíba Valley and North Coast and Baixada Santista, forming the São Paulo macrometropolis, which is home to over 30 million people, about three quarters of the state's population and the first such urban agglomeration in the Southern Hemisphere.

It was also Fernandes who brought the first Benedictine monks to teach, assist the poor and the ill, and convert the Native Americans of the region.

In the year of 1661, Baltasar Fernandes went to São Paulo to request that Sorocaba be named a village from the governor, Correia de Sá e Benevides.

The organization of the Municipal Council followed shortly, with the main nominees being: Baltasar Fernandes and André de Zunega (judges), Cláudio Furquim and Pascoal Leite Pais (city councillors), Domingos Garcia (procurator) and Francisco Sanches (clerk).

With the arrival of colonel Cristóvão Pereira de Abreu and his troops in 1773, begins the main chapter of the history of Sorocaba: the Tropeirismo.

Soon Sorocaba had its own Feira de Muares (mule/horse fair), where troops from all states came to feed and rest their cavalry on the way to the mineral and forest expeditions, and buy and sell goods, horses and enslaved Africans.

[9] During the American Civil War, English textile industries ran out of cotton, which was imported from the Southern United States.

Soon, manufactures from England started to search around the world for alternative places to cultivate cotton - one of them was the then-Province of São Paulo, which included Sorocaba.

Several textile industries from England built branches in the city, changing the landscape with chimneys, saw-styled roofs, large, orange brick-built buildings and smoke.

During this time, Sorocaba received the title of Manchester Paulista--"São Paulo native" in Portuguese, given the resemblance with its laboring twin city.

With the opening of the Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana on June 20, 1872 and its transport of cotton products, animals and passengers to São Paulo, Sorocaba had a major leap in development.

The municipality of Sorocaba is located on the Tropic of Capricorn, at latitude 23° 26 '16 " for the season of 2011, passes along the neighborhoods of Aparecidinha and Parque São Bento districts.

The terrain is classified as a wavy strands and characterized by local ridges, with an average altitude of 632 meters above the sea level.

Sorocaba is located on the edge of the Peripheral Depression of São Paulo state, in the Appalachian Fall Line, as defined by Professor Aziz Ab'Saber.

Metamorphic low grade rocks as phyllites, metacalcareous, metarenites, are marine metassediments are included in Sao Roque Group (Neoproterozoic) with structural trend northeast-southwest.

The Ipanema Hill or Araçoiaba Ridge is a prominent and isolated topographic elevation, it comprises ultrabasic-alkaline intrusion age (Mesozoic, Early Cretaceous), remnant of ancient volcano.

Main economic activities are: industrial machinery, heavy metallurgy, ironmaking and steelmaking, automotive parts, industrial textiles, agricultural equipment, chemical and petrochemical, cement production, solar module manufacturing, eolic energy, pharmaceutics, paper and cellulose, electronics, telecommunications, tools, commerce and services.

It was honored at the Distinction Award in Organ Donation of the Secretariat of Health of Brazil and has succeeded in eliminating the waiting list for transplants in the region of Sorocaba and the entire city of São Paulo.

[16] The Sorocaba Hospital Complex is responsible for servicing the tertiary level of 48 municipalities in southwest São Paulo with a population of over 3 million inhabitants.

[18] The scientific work in the area of burns in the year 2009 awarded by the Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery and was coordinated by Dr. Hamilton Aleardo Gonella and held at CHS.

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

Railway - Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana Sorocaba Airport is used by small aircraft and it is served by almost no commercial flights.

Azul Brazilian Airlines[24] offers free bus transfers for its passengers between Sorocaba and Campinas-Viracopos International Airport at regular times.

The planning of the municipality provides for the construction of the largest cycling network in Latin America in coming years and implement a public bike system, similar to European cities as Barcelona and Paris.