Sipacapa

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sipacapa
Coordinates: 15 ° 13 ′  N , 91 ° 38 ′  W
Map: Guatemala
marker
Sipacapa​
Sipacapa on the map of Guatemala
Basic data
Country Guatemala
Department San Marcos
City foundation around 1710
Residents 17,549  (2010)
Detailed data
surface 152 km 2
Population density 115 people / km 2
height 1970  m
Post Code 12026
Time zone UTC −6
City patron Bartholomew's
Feast: August 24th
Photo-request.svg
Image wanted BW

Sipacapa (formerly also San Bartolomé Sipacapa ) is a village and a municipality in the department of San Marcos in Guatemala . The place is about 330 km northwest of Guatemala City and about 70 km north of the departmental capital San Marcos in the highlands of the Sierra Madre at an altitude of 1,970 meters.

Sipacapa can be reached from San Marcos via a country road that leads east of the Tajumulco volcano via La Grandeza, Serchil and Tejutla to the remote north of the department. Around 18,000 people live in the 152 km² municipality, the vast majority of them in rural areas. Almost half of the population belongs to a Mayan ethnic group that speaks Sipakapen . Subsistence farming is the rule. Mining operated by North American companies ( marlin mine , mining of gold and silver ) is also of importance. In addition to the main town, the municipality consists of the rural communities (Aldeas) Cancil, Chual, Escupija, Estancia, Pie de La Cuesta, Poj, Pueblo Viejo, Queca, Quequesiguan, San Isidro Setiva and Tres Cruces with a total of over 40 hamlets. The upper reaches of the Río Cuilco crosses the east of the municipality , which then flows into the Río Grijalva and thus feeds the large Mexican hydropower plant La Angostura .

Sipaca was founded around 1710 and was called San Bartolomé Sipacapa during the colonial period, which corresponds to the custom of prefixing the indigenous place name with a Spanish name with a religious reference. Sipacapa was destroyed by an earthquake in 1765, but then rebuilt. Between 1937 and 1945 Sipacapa belonged as a rural municipality (Aldea) to the municipality of Tejutla , since then it has been an independent municipality again.

Adjacent municipalities are San Miguel Ixtahuacán in the northwest and Comitancillo in the southwest as well as the Municipios Cabricán and San Carlos Sija in the south and east (both in the neighboring department Quetzaltenango ) and Malacantancito in the northeast ( Departamento Huehuetenango ).

See also

Web links