Oruro
| Oruro | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 View of Oruro |
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| Basic data | |||
| Residents (state) | 264,683 pop. (2012 census) | ||
| rank | Rank 5 | ||
| height | 3710 m | ||
| Post Code | 04-0101-0100-1001 | ||
| Telephone code | (+591) | ||
| Coordinates | 17 ° 58 ′ S , 67 ° 7 ′ W | ||
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| politics | |||
| Department | Oruro | ||
| province | Province of Cercado | ||
| climate | |||
 Oruro climate diagram |
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Oruro is a city in the highlands of the Bolivian Andean massif and is the capital of the Oruro department of the same name . Oruro was economically important mainly because of its tin mining . The city is located at about 3710 m , about three bus hours south of La Paz, and is the fifth largest city in Bolivia with about 264,683 inhabitants (2012 census).
geography
Oruro has a typical time of day climate in which the daily temperature fluctuations are more pronounced than the average temperature fluctuations between winter and summer. The extreme temperatures are around 23 ° C in summer and −17 ° C in winter. The wet season is between December and March, while there is a pronounced dry season from April to November . The sky is mostly clear and of an intense blue color. Although the climate is very cold, it is said to be very healthy and to extend life considerably.
The vegetation in and around Oruro is sparse, because lush growth is no longer possible at this altitude. In addition to vicuñas , alpacas and llamas, there are also the quirquincho , a small armadillo . Therefore, the inhabitants of Oruros are popularly called the Quirquinchos .
population
The city's population has more than doubled over the past few decades:
| year | Residents | source |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 124 091 | census |
| 1992 | 183 422 | census |
| 2001 | 201 230 | census |
| 2012 | 264 683 | census |
The population of Oruro consists of Quechua , Aymara , Uru-Chipaya , Europeans and their mixed descendants.
Cityscape
Oruro corresponds to the image of a typical industrial city . The entire cityscape is shaped by the influence of the mining industry . Although mining has long since ceased to have the status of bygone days, there is still a fine dust everywhere in the air that creeps into the smallest crack.
economy
Until the mines were closed between 1990 and 1992, Oruro was the most important center of mining ( tin , silver , gold , tungsten , antimony , sulfur , borax and copper ) in Bolivia.
The collapse of the tin market in 1985 put an end to mining in Oruro. At first the ore mining could still be maintained. Today, however, very few, mostly privatized, mines are still in operation. Some miners have formed cooperatives and are operating the mining themselves . Most of the privatized mines are mainly gold mined, while the state mines are tungsten, antimony, borax and sulfur. The most important mines of Bolivia are still in the Oruro department and are located in Huanuni , Colquiri and Avicaya .
Due to the decline in the mining industry, the Orureños had to look for other economic branches. Today, agriculture ( potatoes , quinoa , oca , beans and barley ) and cattle breeding ( horses , cows , pigs , llamas and alpacas ) are increasingly practiced . In addition, the shoe industry, soap factories , mills , industrial ceramics, metal processing industry and pasta factories have settled here .
Transport network
It is thanks to mining that Oruro is still an important transport hub today. The country's first railway line was built here, with connections to all major cities in Bolivia, as well as to Chile and Argentina. A good road network was also provided. All of the country's major roads led through Oruro, which greatly favors its development as an industrial city.
Today the highway Ruta 1 runs through Oruro in a north-south direction, which leads from the Peruvian border on Lake Titicaca via the twin metropolis La Paz / El Alto to Oruro and on via Potosí and Tarija to Bermejo on the Argentine border. In east-west direction, Oruro is crossed by the highway Ruta 12 , which begins in the west at the Chilean border and east of Oruro meets Ruta 4 , which is connected to the lowland metropolis of Santa Cruz de la Sierra via Cochabamba and continues to Puerto Bush on the Brazilian border.
In 1942 an airport was created 5 km east of the city (IATA airport code: ORU). In February 2013 the then President Evo Morales had the airport named after himself ( Aeropuerto Evo Morales ), but had to withdraw it after demonstrations and a strike. Since then Oruro Airport has had its ancestral name again: Aeropuerto Juan Mendoza .
Festivals
Oruro is a well-known center of the Bolivian Carnival , which was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001 and in 2008 in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and which is here u. a. is celebrated with special, artistically carved huge colorful wooden masks in the form of devil's grimaces and persiflage on the blacks and indigenous people exploited by slavery and sophisticated dances (including Diablada and Morenada). In the carnival of Oruro elements life of the pre-Columbian religion of the indigenous peoples continues the highlands.
Getting to and from Oruro is 100% more expensive than usual at this time of year, and seats on the buses sell out well in advance. The city is filling up and seems to be bursting at the seams. Even hotels and guesthouses are completely booked months in advance.
On Maundy Thursday there is always the autochthonous carnival, the Anata , in which only indigenous people are allowed to participate. Here one thanks the Pachamama and the Achachilas ( deities who are responsible for wind, rain, ice etc. and who live in the mountains) for the harvest of last year and again asks for a good harvest.
The Oruro Carnival begins on the Saturday before Rose Monday and lasts for three days. On the Saturday of the Carnival, there is explicitly dancing for the Virgen del Socavón (Virgin of the mine tunnels ). Only those who are a member of a conjunto (dance group or brotherhood) are allowed to take part in the parade through the city. Some participants swear to her that they would take part in the carnival for three years. Some participants have participated in the carnival every year for their entire life.
On the Sunday of the Carnival, at four in the morning, all the music bands (bandas) of the participating dance groups meet in the square in front of the church for the Saludo al Sol , the el Alba . With the rising sun, all music groups start playing the melody of their dance group at the same time. Since each group has a different melody, it is almost impossible to hear a melody.
On this day you dance for Dios Momo , the god of fun. The Monday of the Carnival (in our Rose Monday ) is only the Diablada and morenada dedicated. The conjuntos meet on this day in front of the square at the church. They dance to enter the church and say goodbye to the Virgin. Here they ask for strength and success for the coming year and thank you for your support. In the evening, each group celebrates a party for itself, which is organized by a selected member (pasante) of the group (a different one every year). There an image of the virgin is given to the new pasante , who "looks after" it until the next year.
See also main article: Oruro Carnival
Oruros founded
With the appearance of the Spaniards in 1535 on present-day Bolivian soil and the founding of Parías , a beautiful, colonial- era village that is now 23 kilometers from Oruro, the history of mining in the area began.
In Paría, founded by Diego de Almagro in 1535 and thus the oldest Spanish settlement in ancient Peru, gold was already mined during the times of the Incas.
Paría never achieved the status of a city, while Oruro, founded on November 1, 1606 under the name Villa San Felipe de Austria (in honor of Philip III , who was King of Spain at the time) by Manuel de Castro del Castillo y Padilla was founded, rose to the center of mining in Bolivia. As early as 1557 it was known that there were silver deposits in the area around Paría. However, due to the very bloody civil wars that the Spaniards waged among themselves from 1538 to 1548, it was initially very difficult to get to this region.
The act of founding Villa San Felipe de Austria was only a mere formality. Even before the document was confirmed, the place was heavily populated. According to Salamanca Trujillo there are said to have already been 30,000 residents and 6,000 miners in the year before the official establishment. But before the city was given this name, Francisco de Medrano baptized it San Miguel de Oruro in 1585 and documents from this period only mention the name Oruro. According to Mesa and Gisbert, the region was only known by the population as Uru -Uru in this epoch , due to the Urus who lived in this area and to whom the name of the city can be traced back.
However, the name Oruro was only put on record on September 5, 1826 by Mariscal Antonio J. de Sucre , the then President of Bolivia.
Due to rich deposits of precious metals, which the Spaniards did not hide, Oruro was one of the most densely populated cities in Hispanic America just one year after it was founded. Administratively, Villa San Felipe de Austria was subordinate to the Audiencia de Charcas , an administrative district of the viceroyalty of Peru , which had its seat in La Plata , today Sucre .
However, the problems only began with the foundation. The founding fathers and mine owners of Potosí feared that Oruro might overtake them. They feared that the indigenous people who were supposed to come to Potosí for mita (periodic rotation work) could stay in Oruro, which the majority of them did.
The president of the Audiencia de Charkas , Maldonado de Torres , then wanted to consult with the king whether it would not be better to revoke Oruro’s town charter and leave it to Asiento (here: miners' settlement), as the competition was too great for Potosí . It was decided to abolish the mita in Oruro so that the Indians who were assigned to work in Potosí could also fulfill their work duties. So it happened that the indigenous people, after they had fulfilled their compulsory labor obligation in Potosí, came to Oruro to continue working there, but as "free" workers.
Diego de Portugal , appointed bailiff especially for this purpose , was sent from Peru to Oruro in 1607 to get an idea of the situation in the mining center and to check whether the city could keep its title. He noted that the city was already so developed both structurally and administratively that it could no longer be deprived of its city charter. The foundation remained and was no longer discussed.
Characteristic of all mining centers was the rapid growth after the discovery of the deposits , an era of splendor and prosperity. Slow decline followed and many residents left the city as the natural riches that were once crucial for its founding dried up.
Benefiting from its location, Oruro quickly developed into a flourishing city; Rise and fall, however, were related to the output of the mines. Until the main silver gears ( Vetas principales ) dried up, Oruro was heavily populated and Potosí a constant thorn in the side.
Attractions
- Santuario del Socavón (Church of the Miraculous Virgin and patron saint of the city, in whose honor the Carnival is held)
- Museo Minero del Socavón (Mining Museum under the church, entrance in the church)
- Museo Simón I. Patiño (House of the Tin Baron)
- Museo Taller Cardozo Velásquez (private museum of a resident artist)
- La Casa de la Cultura (House of Culture)
- Museo Antropológico (Folklore Museum)
- Museo de Arte Sacro (Museum of Religious Art)
- Talleres Artesanales (workshops of the artists who make the splendid costumes (Diablada, Morenada) for the Carnival)
- Museo Mineralógico (Mineral Museum)
Town twinning
- Salt Lake City , Utah, USA
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Brinkhoff: City Population
- ^ Instituto Nacional de Estadística Bolivia (INE) 1992
- ^ INE - Instituto Nacional de Estadística Bolivia 2001
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ No “Evo Morales” airport . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from March 23, 2013.
literature
- Alberto Crespo Rodas: La Fundación de San Felipe de Austrie y Asiento de Minas de Oruro. In: Revista Histórica. Organo de la Academia Nacional (Instituto del Peru) Tomo XXIX, Lima, 1966.
- José Mesa, Teresa Gisbert: Oruro. Origen de a Villa Minera. In: La minería Hispana e Iberoamericaca. Contribución a su investigación histórica. Vol.1, Leon, 1970.
- Hugo Salamanca Trujillo: La Proclama Patriotica de Oruro. Valoración histórico-social del manifesto de agravios. In: Revista Universidad Segunda Epoca, No.1, Oruro 1975.
Web links
- MiOruro.com , website of the city of Oruro
- Relief map of the Oruro-Cochabamba region 1: 250,000 (PDF; 10.6 MB)
- Municipio Oruro - General Maps No. 40101
- Municipio Oruro - detailed map and population data (PDF; 535 kB) ( Spanish )
- Departamento Oruro - Social data of the municipalities (PDF; 5.86 MB) ( Spanish )
- Photos from the area around Oruro , accessed December 3, 2015.
- The Tramways of Oruro and Huanchaca