Mixco
| Mixco | ||
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Coordinates: 14 ° 38 ′ N , 90 ° 36 ′ W Mixco on the map of Guatemala
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| Basic data | ||
| Country | Guatemala | |
| Department | Guatemala | |
| City foundation | 1526 | |
| Residents | 473,080 (2006) | |
| City insignia | ||
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| Detailed data | ||
| surface | 132 km 2 | |
| Population density | 3,584 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| height | 1600 m | |
| City structure | 11 zonas | |
| City patron | Dominic | |
| Website | ||
Mixco is a city in Guatemala . It is the administrative seat of the large municipality of the same name in the Department of Guatemala . Mixco is part of the agglomeration of Guatemala City .
geography
With 132 km² and more than half a million inhabitants, the municipality, together with Villa Nueva, is the second largest of the 17 municipalities in the department. It is located in the southern highlands of the Sierra Madre , on the western edge of the high valley Valle de La Ermita (also Valle de La Virgen or Valle de las Vacas ) at an altitude of about 1600 meters. Almost half of the municipality is in the area of the valley, the rest extends in the mountain ranges in the north, west and south. The formerly extensive forest areas of the municipality had to gradually retreat in favor of urban and industrial development. The climate is moderate, the temperatures are usually between 12 and 28 ° C, the rainy season lasts from May to October.
The original center of Mixco is 17 km west of the center of Guatemala City. The area in between was almost completely settled in the past five decades and is now part of the metropolitan area of the capital.
Neighboring municipalities are San Pedro Sacatepéquez in the north, San Raimundo and Chinautla in the northeast, Guatemala City in the east and Villa Nueva in the south. In the west, Mixco borders on the municipalities of San Lucas Sacatepéquez and Santiago Sacatepéquez of the neighboring department of Sacatepéquez .
population
In the public perception, Mixco has been seen as an integral part of Guatemala City for a long time. When it comes to the population of Guatemala City, the officially around 500,000 inhabitants of Mixco are often added, although both are administratively independent. Mixco is one of the fastest growing communities in Guatemala and is estimated by some to have a population of close to one million. This also includes weekend commuters who stay with relatives or friends on working days, and people who are officially registered in other departments or not at all but still live in Mixco.
Large housing projects have been implemented in Mixco since the 1970s . This includes the Ciudad San Cristóbal district in the south of the municipality, which today forms a city within the city with around 150,000 inhabitants. Lately the construction industry on the outskirts of Mixco has built numerous row house settlements for the small, aspiring middle class on former fincas . Some older settlements and individual districts, however, have become socially disadvantaged areas with a high crime rate .
history
Mixco's origins are unclear. In 1525, Pedro de Alvarado, with his Spanish troops and indigenous mercenaries , conquered the former Pocomam town and later Cakchiquel - fortress Mixco Viejo ( Old Mixco ), which is around 50 km north of Mixco in what is now Chimaltenango Department . According to legend, he settled the remaining inhabitants of the destroyed city in today's Mixco. Mixco Viejo was excavated by French researchers in the 1950s and eventually reconstructed. It is doubtful whether this is the old Mixco. It was probably at Chinautla (Chinautla Viejo), about 25 km northeast of today's Mixco, where Alvarado subjugated rebellious Pocomam. Mixco was founded by Alvarado as Santo Domingo Mixco on August 4, 1526 in an area that was easy to control militarily. The Pocomam already resident there and the resettled Pocomam were assigned to Spanish encomenderos . During the colonial period, the place belonged to the administrative district of Santiago de los Caballeros de Goathemala or to the local Alcaldía Mayor de Sacatepéquez . Even after independence from Spain (1821), Mixco remained a small, insignificant municipality in the west of Guatemala City until the 1950s. In 1950 it had 11,784 inhabitants, 4,181 of them in the village at that time. Gradually, however, other larger settlements emerged, including the Colonia La Florida , which was almost completely surrounded by forest at the time and was added to the municipality of Guatemala City as an exclave due to the inadequate performance of the Mixco municipal administration in 1958 . Although La Florida is now in the middle of Mixco and the circumstances have changed completely, the district is still part of the capital. After the severe earthquake of 1976, countless homeless people from all over the country moved towards the capital and settled in the surrounding area, including in the Municipio of Mixco. The general population explosion and the settlement of numerous industrial companies led to the merging of the urban areas of Mixco and Guatemala City in the following decades.
The Nahuatl name Mixco comes from the Mexican mercenaries Alvarados and means something like "cloud-covered place".
Economy and Transport
The expansion of Mixco essentially took place along two major inward and outward streets of the capital: the Calzada Roosevelt , which runs in a west-east direction and which later becomes the CA 1 Interamericana ( Panamericana ), and the one that branches off from the Roosevelt to the northwest Calzada San Juan , which then leads as National Road 5 via San Juan Sacatepéquez to northern Guatemala. Numerous larger industrial and service companies are concentrated on the Roosevelt , including a number of branches of international corporations, while smaller commercial and service companies predominate on the San Juan and along the numerous side streets. Other urban areas such as San Cristóbal or Bosques de San Nicolás were connected to the existing traffic routes with bridges and new roads because of the gorges that separate them from Guatemala City, which has also improved the traffic situation on the two aforementioned traffic axes. The public transport is by taxi apart, ensured by a dense network of bus lines. The public buses are overcrowded during rush hour and are often attacked, which is why private transport is constantly increasing. An expansion of the busway network ( Transmetro ) that is currently being set up from Guatemala City to Mixco is planned.
Others
Mixco is known for its chicharones and for its cocoa . Important festivals are held in January in honor of the Virgin of Morenos and in August in honor of the city patron, Santo Domingo de Guzmán .
sons and daughters of the town
- Doroteo Flores (1922–2011), long-distance runner
- Amílcar Rivera (* 1974), politician; from 2004 to 2012 mayor of the city of Mixco
- Neto Bran (* 1980), politician; Mayor of Mixco since 2016
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Historia de Mixco , guatehistoria.com
- ↑ Historia de Mixco , guatehistoria.com
