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Chuquisaca Department

Chuquisaca Department

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Encyclopedia
Chuquisaca is a department
Departments of Bolivia
||Bolivia is divided into 9 departments . These are :*Beni *Chuquisaca *Cochabamba *La Paz *Oruro *Pando *Potosí...

 of Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, and Chile and Peru to the west....

 located in the center south. It borders on the departments of Cochabamba
Cochabamba Department
Cochabamba is one of the nine component departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the "granary" of the country because of its variety of agricultural products due to Cochabamba's geographical position...

, Tarija
Tarija Department
Tarija is a department in Bolivia. It is located in south eastern Bolivia bordering Argentina to the south and Paraguay to the east. According to the 2001 census, it has a population of 391,226 inhabitants. It has an area of 37.623 km²...

, Potosí
Potosí Department
The department of Potosí is in southwestern Bolivia. It comprises 118,218 km² with 709,013 inhabitants . The capital is the city of Potosí....

, and Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Department
Santa Cruz, with an area of 370,621 km², is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia. In the 2001 census, it reported a population of 2,029,471. The capital is the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The state is one of the wealthiest states in Bolivia with huge reserves of natural gas...

. The departmental capital is Sucre, which is also the constitutional capital of Bolivia.

Geography


The department is traversed by the main cordillera
Cordillera
A cordillera is an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges, that runs along a coastline . It comes from the Spanish word cordilla, which is a diminutive of cuerda, or "cord".-Notable cordilleras:...

 of the Andes
Andes
The Andes are the world's longest exposed mountain range. They lie as a continuous chain of highland along the western coast of South America...

 mountain range and lesser cordilleras. Parts of it lie within the basin of the Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon River of South America is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next eight largest rivers combined. The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world's total river flow. During...

, and other parts within the basin of the Río de La Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —always rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries— is the river formed by the combination of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River...

.

Government


The departments of Bolivia are governed by prefects. June 29, 2008, Savina Cuéllar
Savina Cuéllar
Savina Cuéllar is a Bolivian politician, currently serving as governor of the Department of Chuquisaca. She is of Quechua ancestry and one of the leading oppositionists to president Evo Morales....

 of the Alianza Comité Interinstitucional (ACI) was elected Prefect of Chuquisaca.

Provinces


The department is divided into 10 province
Province
A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Roman provinces:The word is attested in English since c.1330, deriving from Old French province , which comes from the Latin word provincia, which referred to the sphere of activity which a...

s.
Name Population Area km² Capital
Oropeza
Oropeza Province
- Subdivision :The province is divided into three municipalities which are further subdivided into cantons....

 
275.765 3.943 Yotala
Azurduy
Juana Azurduy de Padilla Province
Juana Azurduy de Padilla was the wife of a hero named Manuel Asencio Padilla and, together they fought against the Spaniards in the 1800s. There is currently a small capital city named after Padilla in the Bolivian province of Tomina, Chuquisaca Department, Bolivia.Juana lost all of her children...

 
27.973 4.185 Sopachuy
Jaime Zudáñez  34.640 3.738 Presto
Presto, Bolivia
Presto is a Bolivian town located in Jaime Zudáñez Province, Chuquisaca Department, 95 km east of Sucre....

Tomina  38.359 3.947 Padilla
Hernando Siles
Hernando Siles Province
Hernando Siles is a province of the department of Chuquisaca, Bolivia. It has a population of 36.511 and covers an area of 5,473 km², giving a population density of 6.67/km². Its capital is Monteagudo.- Subdivision :...

37.035 5.473 Monteagudo
Monteagudo, Bolivia
Monteagudo is a small town in South Eastern Bolivia. Its name is dedicated to Bernardo de Monteagudo Cáceres who took part in the Chuquisaca revolution of 25 May 1809.- Location :...

Yamparaez  28.797 1.472 Tarabuco
Tarabuco
Tarabuco is a Bolivian town in the department of Chuquisaca, capital of the Yamparáez Province and its first section, Tarabuco Municipality.It is best known as the home of the Yampara culture. Its people host the Pujllay festival in March each year...

Nor Cinti  71.084 7.983 Camargo
Camargo, Chuquisaca
Camargo is a small town in the Chuquisaca Department of Bolivia in the the South American Andes.-Location:Camargo is the capital of Nor Cinti Province and is situated in Camargo Municipio, embedded between north-southerly mountain ridges, at an elevation of 2,414 m, on the banks of Río Chico which...

Sud Cinti 24.010 5.484 Villa Abecia
Belisario Boeto 12.237 2.000 Serrano
Luis Calvo 22.275 13.299 Villa Vaca Guzmán (Tarvita)

History


The native inhabitants were the Charcas, who were dispersed along riverbanks and lowlands. Their leaders, jampiris, sorcerers, and priests resided in the capital, Choque-Chaca, which according to 17th century chronicles had a population of several thousand.

The capital city of Sucre


Sucre
Sucre
Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an altitude of 2750m . Its lower altitude gives the city a warm temperate climate year-round....

 (elev. 2750 m) is called the city of the four names, each name corresponding to a different period of its history. It was founded by the Spaniard Pedro de Anzures in 1538. It thrived due to its regional proximity to the famous silver mines of Potosi, and as Charcas served as capital of the Real Audiencia de Charcas, encompassing all of current Bolivia's territory and more. Reverting to its native name of Chuquisaca, it was the Upper Peru's chief administrative center and largest city. It was there that the first public call for independence from Spain took place, on May 25, 1809, and where the Act of Independence from Spanish rule was signed on August 6, 1825. It was immediately designated the capital of independent Bolivia, under the auspices of Simon Bolivar and Antonio Jose de Sucre. Years later, the city of Chuquisaca was renamed Sucre in honor of the Venezuelan-born hero of South America's independence, who had served as the first effective administrator of the country (and second President).

When the center of political and economic power shifted north, to the tin-producing regions of Oruro and La Paz, Sucre's importance waned, leading to the displacement of the legislative and executive powers to La Paz. However, in honor of Sucre's historical preponderance, the judicial branch (Supreme Court) continues to operate there, and the city's official status as capital of the country was never revoked.

Languages


The languages spoken in the department are mainly Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...

 and Quechua
Quechua
Quechua is a Native American language family spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably some 6 to 8 million speakers...

. The following table shows the number of those belonging to the recognized group of speakers.
Language Department Bolivia
Quechua
Quechua
Quechua is a Native American language family spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably some 6 to 8 million speakers...

298,050 2,281,198
Aymara
Aymara language
Aymara is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over a million speakers. Aymara, along with Quechua and Spanish, is an official language of Peru and Bolivia...

4,308 1,525,321
Guaraní
Guaraní language
Guaraní, specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guaraní , is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupí-Guaraní subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay , where it is spoken by 88% of the population, with half of the...

8,330 62,575
Another native 145 49,432
Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...

376,071 6,821,626
Foreign 8,840 250,754
Only native 122,401 960,491
Native and Spanish 185,598 2,739,407
Spanish and foreign 190,599 4,115,751

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