A Brazilian town empties as migration to U.S. accelerates

FILE PHOTO: A statue in Immigrant's Square, which honors the traveller, is seen in Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, November 5, 2021. Picture taken November 5, 2021. REUTERS/Washington Alves

ALPERCATA, Brazil (Reuters) - Amid tearful goodbyes, Ana Paula Souza, her husband and their infant son set off for the United States, one of hundreds of families to depart the small Brazilian town of Alpercata in recent months.

Nestled in the hills of southeastern Minas Gerais state, Alpercata has been sending its townspeople north for decades. But as locals grapple with a pandemic that has killed jobs, battered Brazil's currency and sparked double-digit inflation, a piecemeal migration from this poor, okra-farming area has become an exodus.