Santa Maria is a municipality (município) in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil.

[citation needed] With the arrival of Spanish and Portuguese colonizers this border region was witness to innumerable battles between rival groups.

[citation needed] The camp was known as Acampamento de Santa Maria, later adding Boca do Monte to the name.

1828 saw the arrival of the 28th Battalion of Foreigners, made up of hired Germans to fight against the inhabitants of present-day Uruguay in the Cisplatine War.

After the war many of the soldiers decided to stay in Santa Maria, beginning the cycle of German colonization.

In 2011, the German defence company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG (KMW) closed a deal to renovate old tanks and produce new ones for the Brazilian Army, opening a factory in Santa Maria.

On 27 January 2013, a fire broke out in the ''Kiss" nightclub during a band performance, due to misuse of pyrotechnics, which got in direct contact with the acoustic foam used in the club.

In total, 242 people died due to suffocation or trampling while trying to escape, or of complication in days and months following the event.

The city of Santa Maria itself is located in the urban Seat District (Distrito Sede), which is divided into 8 regiões administrativas (administrative regions), and further subdivided into 40 bairros (neighbourhoods).

It has capacity for large airplanes and offers daily flights to Porto Alegre, Santo Ângelo and Uruguaiana.

[citation needed] According to data from 2006, from Fundação de Economia e Estatística – FEE, life expectancy at birth is of 74.01 years and the demographic density of the municipality is 145.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (377/sq mi).

The book will be delivered to institutions, schools and libraries in Santa Maria, in order to spread the teaching of this subject in the region.

Already published two comic books with titles Xiru Lautério e Os Dinossauros I and II, in order to disclose the paleontology and gaucho culture among children of city and region.