San Juan de Oriente
Encyclopedia
San Juan de Oriente 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...

 in the Masaya
Masaya (department)
Masaya is a department in Nicaragua. It is the country's smallest department by area and has a population of 317,500 . The capital is the city of Masaya.-Municipalities:# Catarina# La Concepción# Masatepe# Masaya# Nandasmo...

 department
Departments of Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a unitary republic, and for administrative purposes, it is divided into 15 departments and two self-governing regions based on the Spanish model:-Zelaya Department:...

 of 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...

. It one of the "Pueblos Blancos" because of the white colonial style churches that it and the other municipalities have in Masaya.

History

The municipality of San Juan de Oriente was founded in 1585. It was called San Juan de los Platos because they made clay dishes to be used during religious festivals in the region. The Nicoya
Nicoya
Nicoya is a town in Costa Rica's Guanacaste province, and one of its most important tourist zones. It serves as a transport hub to Guanacaste's beaches and national parks. According to the 2000 census, the city's population was 13,334—second only to Liberia in the province...

 and Potosme tribes lived here and spoke the language Náhuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...

.

The colonial style church was constructed in 1612 by Gervasio Gallegos de Galacia and Juan de Bracamonte y Peñaranda.

Geography

San Juan de Oriente is 45 km south of the Nicaraguan capital Managua
Managua
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...

. It possesses shoreline along Laguna de Apoyo a saltwater volcanic lagoon.

Education

There are no universities in this small town. It is home to one preschool, three primary schools, and two secondary schools.

Economy

Like most of the department of Masaya, the economy in San Juan de Oriente is heavily based around artisans. The specialty in San Juan de Oriente is ceramics. Many ceramic makers have studied advanced methods in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and there are several with international accolades for their work. Styles range from Precolumbian to flora and fauna to geometric.

Entertainment

San Juan de Oriente is a rather small town with limited entertainment options. There is a bar at the entrance that is popular with the locals as well as a pool hall at the center of town.

Transportation

All of the bus routes to and from San Juan de Oriente can be found at Mercado Roberto Huembes in Managua. Sa Juan de Oriente is approximately one and a half hours by bus in an ordinary route and one hour in an express bus.

Fiestas Patronales

The patron saint festival in San Juan de Oriente celebrates the birth of John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

 on the week of June 24. The celebration consists of many processions with statues of John the Baptist, fireworks, and most famous of all "chilillo" a dance/sport where two "chinegros" use dried bovine penises fashioned in the form of a saber complete with leather handguard to whip their opponent. After a few seconds somebody in the costume of a yegüita (mare) enters between the two people ending the bout. While no winners or losers are declared, the hard whipping does leave marks or scars.

Infastructure & Communication

Electricity is supplied from the Managuan power grid and is therefore subject to same blackout problems that Managua has.

Water service is supplied by a plant across the carretera in the municipality of Catarina
Catarina, Masaya
Catarina is a municipality in the Masaya department of Nicaragua.-References:...

. They take turns with water access, thus each town has water every other day.

Conventional landline telephone is provided by Enitel, the national telephone company. The two cellphone companies in Nicaragua, Claro and Movistar
Movistar
Movistar is a major Spanish mobile phone operator owned by Telefónica Móviles. It operates in Spain and in many Latin American countries. It is the largest carrier in Spain with 22 million customers and 41.58% of market share. Its principal competitor in Latin America is America Movil...

, have extensive coverage in San Juan de Oriente.

A new health clinic was completed in August 2006.

Other communities ("comarcas" or "valles") in the Municipality of San Juan de Oriente

  • El Castillo
    El Castillo
    El Castillo may refer to:in Guatemala*El Castillo , a pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Cotzumalhuapa region of the Guatemalan Pacific plainin Mexico...

     (not to be confused with El Castillo (village)
    El Castillo (village)
    El Castillo is a village of about 1500 people situated on the southern bank of the Río San Juan in southern Nicaragua. It is one of 27 comarcas of the municipality of El Castillo, a subdivision of the Río San Juan Department. The village is situated approximately 6 kilometers from the border with...

    , a comarca
    Comarca
    A comarca is a traditional region or local administrative division found in parts of Spain, Portugal, Panama, Nicaragua, and Brazil. The term is derived from the term marca, meaning a "march, mark", plus the prefix co- meaning "together, jointly".The comarca is known in Aragonese as redolada and...

     of the municipality of El Castillo, a subdivision of the Río San Juan Department)
  • El Tempisque
  • Buena Vista
    Buena Vista
    Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to:*Buena Vista , a Walt Disney trademark*Buena Vista Social Club , a Cuban music club plus an album and film inspired by the club...

  • La Laguna de Apoyo
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