El Alto
| El Alto | |||
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 El Alto |
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| Basic data | |||
| Residents (state) | 842,378 pop. (2012 census) | ||
| rank | Rank 2 | ||
| height | 4100 m | ||
| Post Code | 02-0105-0100-1001 | ||
| Telephone code | (+591) | ||
| Coordinates | 16 ° 31 ′ S , 68 ° 10 ′ W | ||
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| politics | |||
| Department | La Paz | ||
| province | Murillo Province | ||
El Alto (Spanish for "the height") is a city in Bolivia and is located immediately west of La Paz , to which it belonged as a district until 1985.
El Alto has 842,378 inhabitants (2012 census), making it the second largest city in Bolivia, after Santa Cruz (1,453,549) and ahead of La Paz (764,617) and Cochabamba (630,587). Together with La Paz, it forms the most populous metropolitan area in Bolivia. Numerous industrial companies and the highest international airport in the world are located in El Alto.
location
El Alto lies between 3,850 and 4,150 m on the dry plateau of the Altiplano . The total area of the urban area is 1,042 km². Administratively, El Alto is the central place of the district ( Bolivian Municipio ) El Alto in the province of Murillo in the department of La Paz .
climate
The climate on the barren plateau is much more exposed (especially strong winds) and cooler than in La Paz, which is about 400 m lower protected in the deeply cut valley of the Río Chokeyapu . The city's annual average temperature is 9.3 ° C on a long-term average, with long-term average daily minima of −4.7 ° C in July (winter) and average daily maxima of +17 ° C in December (summer). The long-term mean annual precipitation is 601.5 mm.
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Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for El Alto
Source: wetter.com ; wetterkontor.de
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Cityscape
El Alto does not have a historic city center due to its short history and origins as a suburb. The road network is characterized by long, straight streets with right-angled cross streets.
Many industrial companies have settled along the national main roads that would not have enough space in the cramped basin of La Paz. In the central quarter of El Alto on the edge of the valley basin ( "la Ceja" ) there are numerous shops and street markets. The airport, which used to be in the open, is now completely enclosed by the growing city. On the outskirts of the city and around the airport there are extensive slums of rural refugees who hope for a better life in the city.
Overall, the city seems rather poor, as a disproportionately large number of low-income indigenous populations with a rural background settle there, who cannot afford living space in the climatically much more pleasant La Paz.
El Alto stands in stark contrast to the much more affluent La Paz, which has a partly colonial, partly modern cityscape and a majority of the population of European descent.
Among the new indigenous middle class of El Alto, a new architectural style has prevailed since the 2000s, the "Neo-Andine architecture", "Andean postmodern" or "Cholet". The latter is an artificial word made up of chalet (architectural style in the Alpine region) and Cholo (a term used in Bolivia for indigenous people). Many of the houses were designed by the artist Freddy Mamani . Shapes and colors from patterns of fabrics, ceramics and buildings from various Andean cultures are taken up. These colorful houses stand out clearly in the cityscape of El Alto, as other buildings are mostly made of exposed bricks.
traffic
El Alto is home to the La Paz International Airport ( Aeropuerto Internacional El Alto-La Paz "John F. Kennedy" ), one of the highest commercial airports in the world. Compared to other airports, aircraft in El Alto have to take off and land at significantly higher speeds in order to achieve sufficient lift in the thin mountain air. For this they need specially reinforced tires and the payload is limited despite the 4,000 m long runway (due to these restrictions, international air traffic, especially air freight, is concentrated at Viru Viru Airport near Santa Cruz in the lowlands).
El Alto is the starting point for paved highways to Lake Titicaca , Desaguadero (border crossing to Peru ), Arica ( Chile ), Oruro and Cochabamba . Between La Paz and El Alto there is a four-lane (toll) expressway ( “Autopista” ) and several steep and narrow streets through residential areas. In April 2013, work began on three cable cars between El Alto and La Paz, which should enable better connections for the many commuters. The first line of the Mi Teleférico cable car network was opened in May 2014.
The railway lines to Lake Titicaca, Arica and Oruro also converge in El Alto, from where there is a branch line to La Paz. At the moment only the railway line to Oruro is in operation, since May 2006 there has been again passenger traffic with a rail bus ( Ferrobus ). In addition, politicians are considering reactivating the disused routes to Arica (possibly only for freight traffic) and to La Paz (for passenger traffic).
El Alto does not have its own bus station; most intercity buses have agencies in El Alto and stop in the city on their trips to and from La Paz. Local urban transport and the connection to La Paz are served by minibuses and shared taxis (“Trufis”).
Since, with the exception of the connection to the Yungas, all traffic connections to and from La Paz run through El Alto (and important utilities such as refineries and gas filling plants are located in El Alto), the blockade means that La Paz can actually access fewer points at the edge of the heights in El Alto Outside world cut off and besieged. This happened several times during the social unrest between 2003 and 2005, so that in the meantime it was even considered to move the seat of government to another city due to its strategic vulnerability.
History and political structure
The barren and inhospitable plateau northwest of La Paz was only inhabited by a few Aymara groups before and during the Spanish colonial era .
The railway lines to Lake Titicaca and Arica, opened in 1903, had their terminus and workshops on the edge of the hill above La Paz. The first settlements of railway workers arose in the immediate vicinity. It was not until 1905 that a steep branch line from El Alto to La Paz went into operation.
In 1925, the airfield and a military base for the newly founded air force were laid out on the plateau, which resulted in further settlements. In 1939 the settlement was so large that an elementary school was opened, initially with a dozen students. The settlement was still hesitant, however, as the drinking water had to be delivered in tanks from La Paz.
Only when El Alto was connected to the La Paz water supply at the beginning of the 1950s and at the same time the building land in the narrow valley of La Paz became scarce did El Alto begin to expand strongly.
During the revolution of 1952, insurgent miners occupied El Alto and captured the air force base. They prevented the planned bombing of La Paz, which was controlled by insurgents.
From 1957, the residents of the rapidly growing district organized themselves and sought to break away from La Paz. In the same year the first secondary school was opened in El Alto. In 1970 El Alto received its own district administration ( Sub Alcaldía ), and in 1976 the first polyclinic was opened.
With the law of March 6, 1985, El Alto was politically separated from La Paz as an independent administrative unit ("sección municipal"). In 1988 the independent El Alto was raised to the status of a city. March 6, 1985 is now celebrated as the city's official "founding date".
Until 2002 the city was divided into five districts ("Municipios Vecinos"): Achocalla, Laja, La Paz (Canton Zongo), Pucarani and Viacha. By decree of May 29, 2002, the city now consists of eight urban districts and one rural district (“Distritos Municipales”).
In addition to the official city government, El Alto is organized by a system of around 600 neighborhood committees (“Juntas Vecinales”), in which the local population has come together and which are an important factor of power.
population
El Alto is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, around 50 percent of the population is 19 years old and younger, only 18 percent of the population is older than 39 years. The reasons for the population growth are both the high reproduction rate of the resident population and the undiminished influx of rural refugees, while the population of La Paz, which cannot expand further due to topographical restrictions, has stagnated for years.
The city's population has doubled over the past two decades:
| year | Residents | source |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 424 528 | census |
| 2001 | 647 350 | census |
| 2012 | 842 378 | census |
74 percent of the population of El Alto belong to the Aymara group, 6 percent are Quechua .
El Alto is also one of the poorest cities in the world, as the slums of the city of La Paz have relocated here: more than 70 percent of the population live below the poverty line , 88 percent of the people are illiterate or have poor writing and reading skills . Most residential areas still have neither water nor electricity.
economy
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Many residents work in local industrial and commercial enterprises , in the catering trade or commute to La Paz. About 70% of the almost exclusively indigenous population works in the informal economy . In addition to the transport industry , internet cafés , mobile phone shops and small craft businesses with an average of 5 to 10, often semi-skilled workers without formal professional qualifications, there is above all trading in larger markets with agricultural, self-made, but also in some cases smuggled or stolen goods as well as counterfeit goods , European and US branded goods from Asia .
In the meantime, El Alto has developed its own urban middle class, mainly driven by trade. These include members of the liberal professions, such as lawyers, doctors and architects, who have settled in El Alto due to the slightly lower cost of living compared to La Paz.
In the center of El Alto there are branches of national and international banks as well as privately operated grocery stores.
Various private and religiously oriented non - governmental organizations also work in El Alto with their own offices, employees largely paid from foreign donations and contacts to Europe , Australia , New Zealand and the USA .
media
There is only one daily newspaper , a thin sheet called El Alteño . It has only a small edition; many people use the radio and the Internet for information .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Morales-construccion-teleferico-Paz-El-Alto_0_1807619308.html
- ↑ INE - Instituto Nacional de Estadística Bolivia 1992 ( Memento of the original from April 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ INE - Instituto Nacional de Estadística Bolivia 2001 ( Memento of the original dated December 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ INE - Instituto Nacional de Estadística Bolivia 2012 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Sebastian Erb: Who, if not us , taz.de, 28./29. May 2011
literature
- Sian Lazar: El Alto, Rebel City: Self and Citizenship in Andean Bolivia (Latin America Otherwise: Languages, Empires, Nations) (paperback), Duke UP 2008, ISBN 0-8223-4154-9 - based on fieldwork 1997-2004
- Mario Rodriguez Ibánez: Globalized and traditional at the same time. The multicolored fabric of the El Alto economy. In: ila. Journal of the Information Center Latin America , 395, Bonn May 2016, 18–19.
Web links
- Alix Arnold: Successful without the avant-garde - El Alto: self-organization in the city of the Aymara
- Relief map of the La Paz region 1: 250,000 (PDF; 11.07 MB)
- Cultura en las Alturas (Spanish)
- Municipio El Alto - General Maps No. 20105
- Municipio El Alto - detailed map and population data (PDF; 366 kB) (Spanish)
- Department of La Paz - social data of the municipalities (PDF 11.63 MB) (Spanish)