Choluteca, Choluteca
Encyclopedia
Choluteca is a municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 and the capital city of the Honduran
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

 department of the same name
Choluteca (department)
Choluteca is one of the 18 departments into which the Central American nation of Honduras is divided. It is the southernmost department of Honduras, bordering the Gulf of Fonseca to the west and the Republic of Nicaragua to the east and south.The departmental capital is city of Choluteca...

. Situated in southern Honduras between El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

 and Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

, the city is generally considered the regional center of southern Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

 and is a major transit point on the Pan-American Highway. It boasts a major bus station and is home to the regional light (ENEE) and water (SANAA) utilities. The city is located on the Choluteca River
Choluteca River
The Choluteca River is a river in southern Honduras. Its source is in the department of Francisco Morazán, near Lepaterique , and from there it flows North through the city of Tegucigalpa, then South through the department of El Paraíso, and the department and city of Choluteca...

, near the center of the department. An arching silver bridge crosses the river into the city. The bridge, built in the 1930s
1930s
File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...

 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...

, survived the servere Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch was the most powerful hurricane and the most destructive of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph . The storm was the thirteenth tropical storm, ninth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the season. Along with Hurricane Georges, Mitch...

 of 1998, although the road it was connected to did not.

Choluteca's population of around 100,000 makes either the fourth or fifth largest city in the country, depending on the source. It is also the only major Honduran city on the Pan-American Highway
Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway is a network of roads measuring about in total length. Except for an rainforest break, called the Darién Gap, the road links the mainland nations of the Americas in a connected highway system. According to Guinness World Records, the Pan-American Highway is the world's...

. It is considered to be the second hottest city in Honduras after Nacaome
Nacaome
Nacaome is the capital city of the Valle department of Honduras. It is a manufacturing and commercial center located on the Nacaome River.Nacaome is an old city founded when aboriginal Cholulas and Chaparrastiques, tired of fighting each other, thought it best to join together to build new houses...

.

The city was originally founded in colonial Honduras in 1522 as Villa de Jerez de Choluteca. It received city status in 1845.
Choluteca was heavily damaged by flooding from Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch was the most powerful hurricane and the most destructive of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph . The storm was the thirteenth tropical storm, ninth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the season. Along with Hurricane Georges, Mitch...

 in 1998. It received more rainfall than any other place affected by the storm - 36 inches in only a few days. This is the amount of rain the city normally receives in 212 days. In addition, the Choluteca River swelled to six times its normal width, putting entire neighborhoods under water temporarily. Many villages and suburbs, like San Ramón, were badly hit and suffered immense damage and many deaths.

Choluteca is one of the most productive areas of Honduras. In the department they produce and export sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, cantaloupe
Cantaloupe
"Rockmelon" redirects here, for the band see Rockmelons. See also Cantaloupe .Cantaloupe refers to a variety of Cucumis melo, a species in the family Cucurbitaceae which includes nearly all melons and squashes. Cantaloupes range in size from...

, watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...

, okra
Okra
Okra is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It is valued for its edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with supporters of South Asian, Ethiopian and West African origins...

, shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...

, sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...

, salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, and a few precious metals.

José Cecilio del Valle
José Cecilio del Valle
José Cecilio Diaz del Valle was a philosopher, politician, lawyer, and journalist and one of the most important figures in Central America during the transition from colonial government to independence, displaying a wide-ranging expertise in public administration management.Valle nicknmed 'The...

, the first President of Central America, was born in Choluteca in 1780. His house (Casa Valle - located on the main square) is now a cultural center housing the local library and a tourist center. The house is featured on the back of the 100 Lempira
Honduran lempira
The lempiras is the currency of Honduras. It is subdivided into 100 centavos. The lempira was named after the 16th-century cacique Lempira, a ruler of the indigenous Lenca people, who is renowned in Honduran folklore for leading the local native resistance against the Spanish conquistador forces...

 note.

Dania Prince
Dania Prince
Dania Patricia Prince Méndez, who comes from Choluteca, the regional center of Southern Honduras, is an international beauty queen who has held the title of Miss Earth 2003.-Pageantry and biography:...

, the Miss Earth 2003
Miss Earth 2003
Miss Earth 2003, the 3rd edition of Miss Earth beauty pageant, was held on November 9, 2003 at the UP Theater, in Quezon City, Philippines. Fifty-seven delegates from all over the globe participated in the event. The pageant was broadcast live via ABS-CBN in the Philippines and to many countries...

and the only Honduran to win a grandslam beauty pageant, came from Choluteca.
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