Cacique Niquía

Cacique Niquía was the name of a pre-Hispanic indigenous community that settled on the lands now occupied by the municipality of Bello in the department of Antioquia, Colombia.

Little remains of this community, but Cerro Quitasol hides one of the stone paths they built. This vestige shows that the Niquía had advanced engineering knowledge, which allowed them to devise and build a route that is wrapped in mystery: the stone path of the Niquía aburráes.

History

Prehistory

“In prehistoric times, the wise men Humboldt and Bondpland tell us, the Aburrá Valley was the seat of three large lakes”. Apparently, the lands we inhabit today were under the deep waters of the third lake, which closed in what we know today as the Ancón de Copacabana.

"Finally, violent and powerful, those waters broke the lands interposed between the Central and Western mountain ranges of the Antioquian Andes, until they reached the "Dos Bocas" turbulent and run over, between what is now Zaragoza and Zea"

First Settlers

According to archaeological remains, around 10,000 years ago our territory was possibly inhabited by nomadic human groups, hunters and gatherers, with no knowledge of agriculture.

Already in the year 500 after Christ, there existed in what is now Bello (according to vestiges recently found in the village of Primavera), human settlements characterized by living in “dispersed houses on the tops of the hills and in adequate terraces in hillsides, near watercourses and wetlands... and near fertile soils for crops, or exploitable mineral resources such as gold and salt water sources.”

These human groups (of which very little is known due to the lack of written evidence), made their funerary burials in the dwelling sites and, apparently (according to the ceramic remains), they had deep cultural, economic and political relations with dispersed, distant groups in the Andean geography of Antioquia.

The fertile forest where our Municipality is located today was then inhabited for centuries by indigenous peoples, known in their last years as the Niquía, belonging to the Aburráes family, who were part of the Nutave nation (which was made up of all the towns that inhabited the Aburrá Valley and in general those established between the Cauca and Porce rivers).

In general terms, historians describe the first settlers as people of short but slender stature, copper-brown color, straight and black hair, small slanted black eyes, a regular nose, prominent cheekbones, and a slightly flattened forehead. With an agile body, more thin than obese, "and of great arrogance, hardness and severity in expression." Apparently they were brave for the fight, good fighters and used to cannibalism.

The Niquía, although not very religious, worshiped the Sun, the Moon and the stars. They were polygamous, they believed in witchcraft (jaibanism), in the afterlife and in the joint resurrection of soul and body, so they buried their dead with their weapons, furniture, treasures and food. They consumed agricultural products (such as corn, beans, and curies), in addition to fishing and hunting, for which they used dogs (which, according to Spanish chronicles, were mute). Their rooms were huts built on the ground or the flakes of the largest trees. They built ditches and wide paths of cut stones. They painted their body with achiote, used some gold ornaments and crowned themselves with feathers. They lived grouped in tribes, with strong hierarchical structures and celebrated festivals with music and dance.

Their main technological advance was the use of yarn, which is why they used cotton blankets and clothing, upon the arrival of the Spanish.

The Spanish Invasion

In July 1541 (XVI century), a Spanish advance commanded by Jerónimo Luis Tejelo (lieutenant of Marshal Jorge Robledo), sighted the immense Valley of the Aburráes for the first time, being so pleasantly surprised that, after giving the report, the marshal ordered the exploration of the territory, effective on August 24 of the same year when they established their tents on the lands of Cacique Niquía, to inspect the valley and declare it part of the Spanish Empire.

The foundation of Hato-viejo.

On January 5, 1574, the Spanish citizen Don Gaspar de Rodas (“whose task was to pacify the rebellious Indians and erect populations in their domains”), requested the town hall of Santa Fe de Antioquia (depending on the Royal Government of Popayán) the permission to populate the valley inhabited by the Niquía Indians in an extension of four leagues, and establish in it "Hats of cattle and food ranches", to provide food for the conquering campaign. Once this request was approved by the Spanish government, "Rodas, then, prepared to travel with 80 soldiers, some cows and horses, and some pigs and agricultural tools, as well as a good quantity of pottery brought from Castile, with which he hoped to earn the favor of the natives; He entered the valley through the Alto de Medina and, descending to the lands of the Niquías, ordered his people to treat them humanely, and forbade them to take their possessions by force. Then a great exchange of gold for needles, axes, salt and other elements needed by them began.

"Notwithstanding the foregoing, the historian Heriberto Zapata Cuéncar affirms that the Spanish faced the Indians of Cacique Niquía, who put up a tough resistance, dominated them and forced those who still remained to emigrate to other places, thus being dispossessed. of their territories, of which they were legitimate possessors. (Heriberto Zapata Cuéncar, Monographs of Antioquia, title Bello).

“This is how in the year 1576 the aforementioned captain of Rodas plants the labarum of their Catholic Majesties on the plains of Niquía, founds a town and on the ashes, still smoking, of that defeated race, nails the cross for first time..."

That was how this Spanish soldier changed his life as a warrior for that of a settler, establishing a house on the lands of the Niquía people (“which came to acquire renown among existing Spanish mansions”), known as Hato de Rodas. Later, the site would be known as Hato Viejo, for being the first cattle herd established in the region.

De Rodas (who was appointed governor for life of the province of Antioquia), became intimate with an Indian woman named Pequesa, with whom he had two children: Ana María and Alonso de Rodas Carvajal, thus beginning the cultural miscegenation in our territory. Ana María inherited the land in 1585 and married Don Bartolomé de Alarcón, who succeeded his mother-in-law as governor of Antioquia and owner of the Hato Viejo, which is also why the place was known as Hato de Alarcón. Alonso de Rodas (the son of the founder) later sold the land inherited from him at a low price, passing Hato Viejo into the hands of other families, with whom it continued to be divided over time.

After the foundation of Hatoviejo, the sites of: San Juan de Tasajera (today Copacabana), Hatogrande (today Girardota), and El Hatillo (which still retains its name in the jurisdiction of Barbosa) were established. Likewise, this colonization facilitated the subsequent foundation of Medellín, almost a century later.

Poblamiento (Spanish Colonization)

In 1615, the Niquías were transferred to the Poblado de San Lorenzo reservation (southern area of Medellín).

During the XVII century the lands of Hatoviejo gradually became populated (along with some surviving indigenous bohíos) with small hamlets Hispanics, with their chapels, subjected to the empire of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and governed by the "Laws of the Indies" and the Gospel.

According to historical records, at first there was a low population in these lands, since in 1674 only three thousand people were registered in the entire Aburrá Valley, in approximately 68 families.

Then the chapel of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá (in 1653), Our Lady of Rosario (1720), Our Lady of Sopetrán (in La Madera, in 1775), Our Lady of Guadalupe (in Guasimalito, in 1761) were built., chapels that were later transferred or demolished and depended on the Diocese of Popayán.

In the middle of the XVIII century (in 1746) the community of Nuestra Señora del Rosario is named vice-parish (depending on Our Señora de la Candelaria de Medellín), and then it is elevated to the dignity of parish on July 13, 1773, having its jurisdiction of Hatoviejo, from eight hundred to one thousand inhabitants.

On December 2, 1788, Hatoviejo was elevated to the category of Party, with mayors dependent on the Medellín Cabildo.

In 1808, the population had (according to a report sent to Viceroy Amar y Borbón) seventeen houses made of tiles and walls (only one with two floors) and thirty-two thatched houses. It has 247 resident families, 313 slaves (of African origin) and an approximate population of 1,476 people (data questioned by historians).

Although there were no independence struggles in our territory, it is worth mentioning the hero from Hatovejeño Manuel Tamayo, who fought the royalists and, after the dissolution of Gran Colombia, became a general of the Republic of Ecuador.

The Age of the Republic

Around 1836, this “small and extremely poor neighborhood, (where) its inhabitants live widely dispersed over the mountains…” (as its then district mayor described it), opened its first school under the direction of Don Félix Barrientos and an enrollment of 33 children (the school where Marco Fidel Suárez would study 27 years later and would later be its director, in 1877).

In the year 1835, Hatoviejo had 1,679 inhabitants, and in 1857 it lost its status as a district and was divided between the districts of San Pedro and Medellín.

On April 23, 1855, Mr. Marco Fidel Suárez was born, the most influential person in the history of the city, for having achieved, after having been poor in his childhood, the title of President of the Republic of Colombia (between 1918 and 1921), also standing out with his literary works "The dreams of Luciano Pulgar" and "Grammatical studies Introduction to the philological works of Don Andrés Bello", among others.

On December 28, 1883, at the request of a group of residents, the presidency of the State of Antioquia (before Colombia was a Unitary Republic) changed the name of the fraction from Hatoviejo to Bello, considering it the first insulting name (because the herd is a place for animals) and in homage to the Venezuelan academic, humanist and pedagogue Don Andrés Bello, teacher of the liberator Simón Bolívar and of whom Marco Fidel Suárez carried out a famous study, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth.

In the name change request, it is worth highlighting, among other things, the following sections for their anthropological and semiological meaning, seeking an impact on the collective imagination:

“...We want to change the name of our town to a more cultured, proper and dignified name:... and that, we have no doubt, will have a powerful and beneficial influence on our future destinies... perhaps Later, some of our children and descendants, when asking why we bear this name, want to feed their spirit with the healthy and wise doctrines of that genius and will be inspired by them, like Suárez, to become great, and to be joy and joy. honor of his people..."

At the dawn of the 20th century

Bello enters the XX century without substantial changes: it remains the same small and poor peasant town, only five streets and a square, monotonous, with Spanish customs and slow growth. Due to its landscape, it is described as a paradisiacal valley with a clean, healthy sky, rich in water sources and trees.

Among the many authors who describe it as an “eglogical valley”, “dream place for rest and meditation”, “paradise delighting the eye, the most beautiful that has been desired”, the written portrait stands out by the Antioquian writer Don Tomás Carrasquilla about our land:

“... Everything invites in you, oh Beautiful!... Bucolic meadows, where the giant ceiba tree projects its domes; groves of avocado and orange trees, of guava and palm trees, orchards, where the upright strawberry tree and the mournful cypress stand among the foliage of coffee and sugarcane, cornfields and yucca; banana trees, chased by birds and shaken by the winds;..."

“The bridges invite with their seats on musical lymphs, under kind and perfumed fronds; the stones that cover the lichen invite; tie the chagualo with its roots and wedge, through its cracks, the provident moss and the resigned viravira; the idyllic lawns where pennyroyal makes a carpet,... the stormy touches that sing to the butterflies, those mysterious flowers that fly more than them; the nun swallows, who try to imitate them, enjoying the good weather congregated in the eaves and on the telegraph wires; they invite some paradisiacal fruits; Some bathrooms like mirrors invite, some showers like scalps, some plumage, some ideal kindnesses of water; invites a peasant air, mountaineer, that smells of health; invite everything, because you, oh Beautiful, are the gift with which God endowed these people who live on the shores of Medellín..."

“In the midst of all this you spread yourself; you, the Arcadian village, with white walls, dark roofs and red locks; the dream place for rest and meditation. Your green square, with avenues of mangoes, say the high school for a sweet and simple philosophy; On the south side, your church rises, graceful as well as serious, calling the spirit to calm down in its mystery. How many will have prayed so that you will never be a great people!..." [13]

Industrialization and Urban Growth

The location of Bello was not only conducive to agricultural and livestock work, or as a recreational site, but it was also presented to the Medellín elite as an excellent alternative to set up their companies there.

Its pleasant climate, its topography, its proximity to the urban center of Medellín, its strategic location on the nascent railway line and the main roads of the department of Antioquia, and its abundant sources of water suitable for consumption and power generation, Complementing all this with global political and socio-economic factors, they made industries flourish in their territory in a very short time.

The first company was the brickyard (installed in Fontidueño by the then State of Antioquia in 1873 and closed at the end of the century), and then the textile workshop of Don Indalecio Uribe (from 1877 to 1879).

Subsequently, the Medellín bourgeoisie founded in 1902 (with large capital investment and imported machinery) the “Compañía Antioqueña de Tejidos”, choosing the Bellavista sector for its construction, due to its proximity to the Quebrada la García. With the capital exhausted before the building was finished, the nascent company had to be liquidated.

After the goods of the failed industry were purchased and after the injection of new capital, the "Compañía de Tejidos de Medellín" was founded on August 8, 1905, giving birth to the Colombian textile industry, and thus beginning an unstoppable migratory process towards what was then the village of Bello. [fifteen]

The town of Bellanita radically changed from a subsistence agricultural economy (with some foreign currency from mining), to an industrial economy that, when it flourished, generated a new local elite (commercial and landowners) that would soon lead the campaign of municipalization.

With the demographic and economic growth, the requirements to access the title of Municipality were soon met, a category that was obtained through ordinance 48 of April 29, 1913.

From a population of less than 3,000 inhabitants in 1905, the new Municipality of Bello exceeded 5,000 people on the date of its creation, almost doubling its population in just 7 years.

As if the sudden changes unleashed in this village were few, on December 8 of the same year, 1913, the heavy locomotive number 21 with 5 wagons of the Antioquia Railroad made its first entrance to the city, inaugurating the then new railway line where the future settlers of Bello would enter for many years.

Similarly, the installation of the railroad workshops drew another wave of immigrants in search of work.

With the railroad, Bello suddenly went from being an isolated town, to having direct contact with the main productive centers of the country.

The Fabricato Foundation

The founding of the Hato Yarn and Weaving Factory (Fabricato) on August 7, 1923, is one of the most important historical events in the municipality of Bello.

Its founders[17] chose Bello because of the availability of good falling waters for the mechanical movement (with the Hato ravine), the passage of the railway line (which communicated with the Magdalena river and the coal mines of Amagá) and the presence of skilled labor from the already prosperous Medellín Textile Company, based in Bello since 1905.

When the company was created, the municipality had about 6,000 inhabitants, 7 rural schools and 47 canteens (one for every 125 inhabitants).

Since then, Bello has grown in a very close relationship with the development of this textile company.

Attracted by its siren, settlers from all regions of the department of Antioquia arrived, making their way to the modern and populous city of today.

In addition to its immense economic influence, Fabricato assumed from its foundation a clear social responsibility, not only towards the working population but also towards their families and the municipality in general, being for many years the main factor of socio-cultural development of Beautiful.

This is how, since 1924 (with only one year of operation), it opened its night school with 60 students, creating, years later, its training department.

In 1938 (at the request of Don Jorge Echavarría, its first administrator) the social club for workers (or Centro Fabricato) was created, with a movie theater, chapel, cafeteria, library, billiard tables, sports courts, and an infirmary.

Annexed to this was the patronage, administered by the Sisters of La Presentación, with a lodging capacity for 80 workers.

In 1940 he created his private clinic with all free health services for the workers, and in 1943 the Fabricato Social Secretariat emerged to coordinate programs for the families of its workers.

The workers' housing program began in 1948, with the construction of the Barrio Obrero (with 320 houses, a theater, a church, a soccer field, and parks), followed by the Santa Ana, Carmelo, Yanuba, and Manchester neighborhoods; in addition to agreements with the then I.C.T. (Institute of Territorial Credit) to provide housing for its workers.

Fabricato participated in the creation of the first aqueduct in Bello, lending the money for its construction (in 1948), as well as for paving the main roads of the city.

In 1951, the Fabricato dam was put into service, which, in addition to supplying energy to the company, provided its service to a large part of the Municipality.

The company, in commemoration of the centenary of Don Marco Fidel Suárez, raised an urn in 1955 to protect his hut.

In 1956 he founded the Proveeduría (or private market) open to the general public in 1958, with prices below commercial costs.

In 1957, he promoted the founding of the Fabricato Workers Cooperative (COTRAFA), today an important and prosperous social enterprise.

At this time (late 1959) it also opened its library to the public, with lending services for workers and their children, and consultation for the entire community, paving the way for an important cultural dynamic from the 1960s.

In 1965 it created its fire brigade (the only one in the municipality, until 1996) and, in the same year, it organized and financed the Medellín Music Festival.

In March 1970, he created the Fabricato Corporation for Social Development, where for more than ten years the community was trained in trades (such as cooking, joinery, plumbing, electricity, dressmaking, etc.), and in artistic disciplines (such as dance, music, visual arts and theater), with their respective projection groups (choir, student, dance, etc.) with which they successfully represented the Municipality in multiple national competitions, stimulating a great dynamic in the city ever since artistic, which still survives.

In this same sense, he formed multiple teams from different sports disciplines.

In 1973, he gave the Municipality the Cincuentenario municipal school (for basic primary education) located in the La Callecita sector.

In 1981 he created Microempresas de Antioquia (with the infrastructure of the Fabricato Corporation), to advise and support small entrepreneurs.

Fabricato has promoted the education and training of workers and their children at all school levels through scholarships and has provided sporadic support to different civic institutions in the city.

Currently (1997), Fabricato collaborates with the support of spaces such as the Argiro Ochoa primary school, the Barrio Santa Ana Health Center and Library, the “Homage to the Textile Worker” park, the Barrio soccer field Obrero, and the “Comfama-Fabricato” Public Library.

Although due to the economic crisis its social projection has decreased significantly, there is currently a Participation and Sports unit in the company that offers workers programs such as: training, cultural days, photographic club, farmer's club, walking club, sports programs etc.

Similarly, it participated in the joint creation with Cotrafa and Coopantex, of the Integrated Services Corporation, to channel socio-cultural development investments through it.

It is worth adding that Fabricato gave rise to many other companies in Colombia and even outside of it, such as Pantex, Col-chem, Riotex, Catsa, Divisa, Texmeralda, Prominsa, Fabritex (from Nicaragua), Cinsa, Comercia, Texpinal, among other.

In symbiosis with the city, the crises suffered by the company have affected the entire Municipality as occurred in the only strike in its history (from September 20 to October 10, 1983) and as has been happening with the current economic recession caused by smuggling and the neoliberal economic opening.

The Other Companies

The “Compañía de Tejidos de Medellín” (created in 1905 and known as the “factory above”), changed its name in 1933 to “Compañía de Tejidos de Bello”. Subsequently, in 1939, the company Fabricato would be bought by its young competition, liquidating its trade name in 1951 and thus becoming the "Fabri-2" section, until 1989 when Fabricato sold its land and buildings to the Mitsubishi industrial complex, through Melco de Colombia Ltda., to establish an electric elevator factory there.

With the purchase of the Compañía de Tejidos de Bello, Fabricato acquired the rights to the La García stream, with which it would build the dam for the company in 1947.

On October 27, 1944, the company Textiles Panamericanos (Pantex) was born in a partnership between the Burlington Mills Corporation of the USA (at that time the most powerful textile company in the world) and Fabricato, the latter with a percentage less than shares Located in front of Fabricato, Pantex gave great social contributions to the Municipality such as the Pan-American neighborhood workers' urbanization (in 1964), with 99 houses in the lower part of the Niquía sector, and support for the creation of the Pantex Workers Cooperative (Coopantex).

A subsidiary of this is the company COL-CHEM (Colombian Chemical) dedicated to providing chemical raw materials for textile production.

In 1974, Fabricato bought its shares from the North American company, with Pantex and Col-Chem becoming part of its industrial complex as subsidiaries.

Other companies formed in the Municipality in its recent history are: the Postobón bottling plant, Solla (1950), CIPA, Avícola Morocco, Silos de Almacafé (1969), FINCA Products, Canteras de Colombia, I.C.A. Laboratories (Colombian Institute of Agriculture) at the Tulio Ospina farm (in 1947), ROF Industries, Melco-Mitsubishi, URIMA, etc., and many other medium and small industries.

The Great Migration: The Urbanizing Invasion

In this town of only five streets, the first neighborhood in the sector of Andalusia slowly emerged since 1925.

In the 40's the Buenos Aires, López de Mesa, Pérez and Las Granjas neighborhoods were born, with generous wall houses, wide corridors and interior patios.

After the human flow attracted by the industries had partially stabilized, Bello began to be invaded again, the result of the peasant migrations of the so-called “Violence” era.

Since the 1950s, its extensive plains began to fill with working-class neighborhoods, new subdivision neighborhoods, urbanizations, closed units, low-income housing, and even invasions, inevitably sacrificing their environmental, tourist, and recreational heritage on these lands. Then the great migration was unleashed, substantially transforming the Bellanita culture.

In the year 1948 the San José Obrero neighborhood and Ciudad Niquía (lower part) were born, in 1950 the Congolo and the Milagrosa were urbanized, in 1955 the Gran Avenida neighborhood and the Suárez neighborhood and in 1959 the Duchy.

In the 1960s, El Carmelo, Bellavista, El Porvenir, Panamericano, Pacelli, and El Paraíso were born, and by the 1970s, the upper part of Niquía was populated in what was an extensive forest. From this same decade, new neighborhoods began to emerge in all corners of the Municipality, a process that still did not stop at the end of the 90's.

Urbanizations were built such as: Cabañas, Cabañitas, Salento, La Ciudadela del Norte, Niquía Camacol, San Andrés, El Mirador, Las Vegas, Navarra, El Trapiche, La Florida, Guayacanes, Quitasol, Valadares, Riachuelos, Hato Viejo, Hato Nuevo, Villa María, Villas del Sol, Villa de Occidente, Los Búcaros, Hermosa Provincia (neighborhood of the La Luz del Mundo religion); and invasions such as: Espíritu Santo, Las Granjas, La García, La Guayana and La Meseta, among many other neighborhoods. (See the list of neighborhoods in the appendix).

The most recent urbanizations are: Quintas del Ángel, Estación Primera and Cerramonte, started in 1996, as well as the entire sector of Niquía Terranova with a series of new urbanizations (energized by a large commercial area with the Éxito store and other centers commercial), started in 2004.

The indiscriminate and unplanned population of common spaces has generated urban overcrowding, accumulation of unsatisfied needs and a lack of identity and belonging in the new settlers.

The urban conflict

“From that industrialization (1905) and municipalization (1913), but above all with the arrival of Fabricato (1923), the other companies and the urban projects from the 50s onwards, all the socio-economic indices skyrocketed -Bello cheap. The cement layer spread and began to cover the natural landscape that characterized Bello. The countryside became a city and people from all over the department and the country sought refuge in its jurisdiction in the hope of finding a better life. The once conservative and peaceful corregimiento of Medellín has become a cosmopolitan, multi-party, multi-racial and multi-cultural city”.

“The peasants became workers by the work and grace of modernizing capitalism and since then Bello has been a refuge for dissimilar inhabitants from all over the country, who seek to live together despite their cultural differences.”

Since the 1980s, the criminal enterprise of drug trafficking found in these uprooted residents (especially among the youth population), the propitious breeding ground for strengthening organizations with the use of terror and death, generating the most serious social crisis in the history of the city, with the proliferation of multiple criminal gangs dedicated to drug trafficking, weapons, murders for hire, extortion, kidnappings, robberies, terrorism, rapes and other social ills, generating to date a long list of crimes that They have deeply marked our collective imagination, a situation that has been declining with the State's persecution of drug trafficking in recent years and the development of important socio-cultural projects of various government, private or community institutions in the Municipality.

Faced with this, the current city has generated hundreds of community organizational and participatory processes in the neighborhoods, saving its inhabitants from indignity and hopelessness. Part of this organizational process has been known as the Community Cultural Movement.

The most recent factor of conflict and which is also influencing population growth is the fact that from the first years of the century XXI, Bello became a receiving city for large migrations of displaced persons, a consequence of the growth of the armed conflict and the appearance of paramilitaries in the Colombian countryside.

At the moment, Bello has a population of more than 400,000 inhabitants (in 81 neighborhoods and 16 villages). It is part of the Metropolitan Area, around the city of Medellín, along with eight other municipalities, and is part of the Aburrá Valley megapolization projects, with which its population is expected to double in the next ten years, by work and grace of the new developments.

Beautiful to the Future

The most recent major event has been the inauguration of the Metro system (on November 30, 1995), directly connecting the north, center, and south of Valle de los Aburrá. Of the three stations that Bello has, the first pays homage (at the gates of the XXI century), to Cacique Niquía, On whose usurped lands, struggling between life and death, we have built the city through the centuries. Our city.

1. ↑ « New Page 0». www.semiosfera.org.co. Archived from the original on 14 March 2014. Consultation on 30 November 2019.