Jinotega (city)

Jinotega
Coordinates: 13 ° 6 ′ N , 86 ° 0 ′ W Jinotega on the map of Nicaragua	Jinotega
	Jinotega
Basic data
Country	Nicaragua
Department	Jinotega
City foundation	17th century
Residents	53,000 (range 2006)
	City insignia
Detailed data
height	1007 m
Post Code	65000
Time zone	UTC −6
	Parque Central in Jinotega

Jinotega is the capital of the Jinotega Department in northern Nicaragua . The city has a population of around 53,000 (2006 calculation) and is located at around 1078 m above sea level. Jinotega is the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Jinotega, which was elevated to a diocese on April 30, 1991 .

etymology

It is believed that the name Jinotega comes from the Nahuatl language from the word Xinotencatl . Linguists disagree on the meaning of this word. It is interpreted as the "city of eternal men" or "neighbors of the Jiñocoabos", whereby Jiñocoabos is a balsam tree (Bursera simaruba, (L) coffin). In the Nahuatl language, Jiñocuabo seems to mean "mangy tree". According to the principle of homeopathy similia similibus curentur , this would confirm its healing effect on the skin and much more. An equivalent for the meaning "neighbors" would be the German ending "hausen" in place of residence names, for example in "Dornholzhausen", "Recklinghausen" etc.

“Neighbor of the Jiñocuabos” seems to be the correct interpretation for two decisive reasons: Even if Jinotega is a small town today, it is highly unlikely that the natives would have regarded their place of residence as a city or even designated it as such, especially since it is proven that When the Spanish arrived in this region of Nicaragua in the 17th century, Jinotega was merely a meaningless hamlet.

fauna and Flora

The above-mentioned Jiñocoabo tree ( Bursera simaruba (L.) Coffin. ) Grows in Jinotega , a balsam tree that the indigenous people of Jinotega revered and ascribed great medicinal properties. The Jiñocoabo tree is still very common in the Jinotega area, where it grows as ever on the slopes of the city of Jinotega.

Romantic poets gave the city of Jinotega the melodious name "Ciudad de las Brumas" (City of Fog), reflecting the climatic conditions. Due to the merciless deforestation of the area, the climate has changed drastically for the worse since the last three decades of the last century, so that the fog that you could see every morning as a natural cover over the city is now almost just a bygone natural phenomenon .

economy

As the capital of the Department de Jinotega, the city of Jinotega developed as its commercial center. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Jinotega was bustling with trade: the national government passed a law in the 19th century with the aim of encouraging foreign investors to grow coffee in Nicaragua. English, German, Danish and North American entrepreneurs then settled in Jinotega. Some opened trading houses where coffee producers could exchange their crops for imported goods. There was also a small industrial life, such as the fizzy drinks factory, which was popularly known as “Chibolas” (marble), as the glass bottle cap was hermetically sealed by a glass ball that you then had to press in to open the bottle. This type of bottle was known in Germany as the "click bottle" , or as a knicker bottle, spherical bottle, marble bottle. In southern Germany they were called "Kracherl".

The German entrepreneur Heinrich (Enrique) Gülke founded a Viennese-style casino. Furniture, velvet curtains, billiard tables, bowling alleys, wheels of fortune, etc. came directly from Germany. At the end of the 1920s, Mr. Gülke also brought the very first motor vehicle to Jinotega, which was driven by Mr. Rafael Hernandez. The reception was pompous. The highest local authorities were present. Of course, the village pastor celebrated a main mass to drive away the evil spirits from that black, loud, smelly, tinny “devil's stuff”. The first women's bicycle came in 1933 - a scandal at the time in a small Catholic village. The bicycle was a present from the German businessman Ludwig (Luis) Frenzel for the 15th birthday of his daughter Hulda. The village bigotry rushed to church, disoriented, and prayed for the salvation of the soul of this young stray blond sheep. After a while you got used to it. The bicycle (from the Miele brand ) still exists today and is roadworthy. The second women's bicycle was imported by Mr. Gülke for his daughter Ilse, but it was no longer a taboo. More women's bikes came only after the 1979 revolution.

At the end of the 1920s, Jinotega became the scene of armed conflicts between the people of Sandino (popularly known as "los Bandoleros") and the North American occupation forces (popularly known as "los marinos yankis"). These events seriously affected the economies of the department and the city of Jinotega. When Nicaragua declared war on Germany on December 8, 1941, all Germans and many of their relatives were brought to Managua in so-called “concentration camps” . Their shops and coffee haciendas were occupied by government personnel by order of Somoza and most of them were confiscated after the war. Many Germans died shortly afterwards. Others left Jinotega and settled in Managua and other cities, or left Nicaragua entirely. Jinotega's economy suffered a severe blow as a result.

In the mid-1960s, the entrepreneur Asunción (Chón) Molina Rodríguez set up a coffee and corn processing factory. His products included ground coffee as well as corn chips and tortillas , all of which were exported to all of Central America , expertly vacuum packed . The factory employed over 200 people. After the Sandinista came to power in 1979, the factory was expropriated, decayed and disappeared. A brother from Asunción named Porfirio Molina Rodriguez founded a small canning factory "Conservas La Cabaña", which still exists today.

Jinotega's economic development is now concentrated on coffee growing and cattle breeding. Jinotega's electrical energy production is vital for the entire country of Nicaragua. Trade in the city of Jinotega itself, but also in other more important cities in the department, has grown rapidly over the past 10 years. The export of precious woods and construction timber also plays an important role.

Between 1962 and 1964, the Lago de Apanás reservoir was built with French and Italian cooperation . For this purpose, three important rivers of the department were dammed: Río Tuma, Río Mancotal and Río Jigüina.

The road connecting Jinotega City to Matagalpa City was completed in the early 1950s. At “Santahabenia” it reaches the highest point of all roads in Nicaragua.

tourism

It was only at the beginning of the 21st century that Jinotega began to discover and stimulate tourism as a potential economic sector. There are now two hotels and several restaurants in Jinotega. In 2002, a piece of land in the immediate vicinity of the city was recognized as a private nature reserve. A botanical garden is now being built there with the aim of stimulating ecotourism and serving science.

There are only a few attractions in the city itself. The Catholic Church (Iglesia San Juan) in the city center was built in 1805 and rebuilt in 1882. The construction of today's church was carried out as a cathedral in the neoclassical style with baroque set pieces and was started in 1952 and completed in 1958. The architect came from Jinotega and was called Raúl Castellón Rivera. Originally the church had an altar entirely carved out of wood by Don Luis Lezama, but because of the wood worm it was replaced by a new one imported from Germany. The tower clock of the church also comes from Germany ( Friedrich E. Korfhage from Buer, District Osnabrück).

Town twinning

Solingen , Germany, since 1985

Ulm , Germany, since 1986

Zoetermeer , the Netherlands, since 1982

Outstanding personalities

Benjamín Zeledón (1879–1912), politician and general
Patricio Centeno , general
Alfredo Alegría Rosales , poet
Bartolomé Martínez (1860–1936), President of Nicaragua
Harvey A. Wells Möller (1932-2009), lecturer

literature

Julián N. Guerrero y Lolita Soriano: Monografía de Jinotega (1966) in Spanish. Available in German (2006) and in Spanish in the Bio-Nica virtual library ( bio-nica.info ). German translation: Edgard Arturo Castro-Frenzel (Berlin)
Simeón Jarquín Blandón: Jinotega-Recopilación Histórica (1991) in Spanish. Available in German (2006) and in Spanish in the Bio-Nica virtual library ( bio-nica.info ). German translation: Edgard Arturo Castro-Frenzel (Berlin)
Simeón Rizo Gadea: Nicaragua en mis recuerdos . In spanish language
Thomas Belt: The Naturalist in Nicaragua ; in English (1873) and Spanish (1973) language. Spanish translation: Dr. Jaime Incer Barquero (Managua)
René Moser: Nicaragua . 1974, ISBN 2-85518-008-2 ; in French, English, German and Spanish
Götz Freiherr von Houwald : German life in Nicaragua. Fates of emigrants . Nicaragua-Gesellschaft, Bonn 1986, ISBN 3-925290-60-5 , digitized original available in Bio-Nica's virtual library ( bio-nica.info ) .; Spanish as: Los alemanes en Nicaragua . Banco de America, Managua 1975, 2nd edition 1993
Götz Freiherr von Houwald: Mayangna = we. On the history of the Sumu Indians in Central America . Renner, Hohenschäftlarn near Munich 1990, ISBN 3-87673-134-8 ; Spanish as: Mayangna - Apuntes sobre la historia de los indígenas Sumu en Centroamérica . Fundación Vida, Managua 2003, ISBN 99924-53-15-X . Spanish translation: Edgard Arturo Castro-Frenzel (1995, Berlin)