{{Infobox islands | name = Mexiana | image_name = Amazon delta islands.svg | image_caption = Mexiana on a WorldWind satellite image from 1990 | image_size = | map = Brazil | map_caption = | native_name = | native_name_link = | nickname = | location = Pará State, Brazil | coordinates = {{Coord|0|2|S|49|35|W|scale:2500000_type:isle_region:BR-PA|display=inline,title}} | archipelago = Marajó Archipelago | total_islands = | major_islands = | area_km2 = 1543 <!-- | area = {{convert|1543|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} --> | rank = | length_km = 64 <!-- | length = {{convert|64|km|mi|abbr=on}} --> | width_km = 28 <!-- | width = {{convert|28|km|mi|abbr=on}} --> | highest_mount = | elevation_m = | country = Brazil | country_admin_divisions_title = State | country_admin_divisions = Pará | country_admin_divisions_title_1 = Municipality | country_admin_divisions_1 = Chaves | country_admin_divisions_title_2 = | country_admin_divisions_2 = | country_largest_city = | country_largest_city_population = | population = | population_as_of = | density_km2 = | ethnic_groups = | additional_info = }} '''Mexiana''' (Portuguese: ''Ilha Mexiana'' {{IPA|pt|ˈiʎɐ meʃiˈɐnɐ|}}) is a coastal island in the Brazilian state of Pará. The island is part of the municipality of Chaves. The Equator runs through the island.
Mexiana is located where the Amazon River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It is separated from the island Marajó by the ''Canal Sul'' (South Channel) of this river and from neighbouring island Caviana by the ''Canal Perigoso'' ("Dangerous Channel"). The latter is called such because sandbanks make navigation perilous during low tides.<ref name="lisboa">{{cite book | last = Lisboa | first = P.L.B. | title = A Terra dos Aruã: Uma história ecológica do arquipelágo do Marajó | year = 2012 | publisher = Museu Goeldi | location = Belém, Pará | language = pt}}</ref>
In the early 18th century, the leader of the indigenous groups living on Caviana was called Gaaimara. Between 1725 and 1728, they repeatedly attacked the Aruã on neighbouring Caviana together with the French.<ref name="lisboa"/>
In the 19th century, the island was in the possession of the Pombo family, which originated from the Kingdom of Galicia. Started from the middle of that century, they used it for the extraction of rubber.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cancela |first=C.D. |date=2009 |title=Famílias de elite: transformação da riqueza e alianças matrimoniais. Belém 1870-1920 |url=https://www.scielo.br/j/topoi/a/ych6nxHCZKNNvtwQyf8WYhf/ |trans-title= |journal=Topoi |volume=10 |issue=18 |pages= |language=pt |location= |publisher= }}</ref> Around the same time, Mexiana was visited by the English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. He wrote about the occurrence of slavery on the island, as well as about the abundance of large mammals. The native peccaries however were already extinct on Mexiana a century earlier.<ref name="lisboa"/>
Among the fauna present on the island are the scaled spinetail<ref>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2022 |title=''Cranioleuca muelleri'' |volume=2022 |article-number=e.T22702461A210888852 |url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22702461/210888852|access-date=22 July 2022}}</ref> and the maguari stork.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hancock |first=J.A. |date=1992 |title=Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World |url= |location= |publisher=Academic Press |page= |isbn= }}</ref> The island is contained in the {{convert|59,985|km2|adj=on}} Marajó Archipelago Environmental Protection Area, a sustainable-use conservation unit established in 1989 to protect the environment of the region.<ref>{{citation|ref={{harvid|APA Arquipélago do Marajó – ISA}}|language=pt |title=APA Arquipélago do Marajó|publisher=ISA: Instituto Socioambiental |url=https://uc.socioambiental.org/uc/951|access-date=2016-06-27}}</ref>
{{Wikisource|A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Islands of the Amazon Category:Landforms of Pará