Chimaltenango Department

Chimaltenango is one of the twenty-two departments that make up Guatemala, it is located in the Central region of Guatemala. It limits to the north with the departments of El Quiché and Baja Verapaz; to the east with Guatemala and Sacatepéquez; to the south with Escuintla and Suchitepéquez, and to the west with Sololá. The departmental head is Chimaltenango, it is at a distance of approximately 54 kilometers from the Capital City of Guatemala.

History

The name Chimaltenango can be broken down as follows: Chimal = shield, buckler or buckler, and tenango = walled place, which would give the wall of shields. This name was given to it because it was a fortified military square.

Pre-Columbian times

In 1462 the Cakchiquel group separated from the K'iché domain and founded their capital in a new region of the place called Iximché, where the Spanish also founded the first capital of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, on July 25 of 1524, and from this date the Castilian or Spanish language was introduced, which became known as the language of the colonizers.

Colonial period

Until February 12, 1546, the date on which the Archdiocese of Mexico was established by means of the bull Super universæ orbis ecclesiæ, the dioceses of Chiapas and Guatemala were suffragans of the Archdiocese of Seville. From that moment they remained suffragans of Mexico and then, Bishop Francisco Marroquín divided the administration of the central valley of Guatemala between the friars of the Order of Preachers and the Franciscans. El Barrio—modern departments of San Marcos and Huehuetenango— they were assigned to the Mercedarians.

The prior of the convent of the Order of Preachers was in charge of other neighborhoods and towns near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, for which he appointed vicars: the neighborhood of La Candelaria, the neighborhood of Santa Cruz —which included Milpas Altas— and that of the neighborhood of San Pedro de las Huertas. According to what was reported by Juarros in 1818, in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros, the regular orders administered only indigenous doctrines, especially in the parishes. Dominicans from Candelaria and Jocotenango, since the ladinos attended the secular parish of San Sebastián.

In 1638, the Dominicans separated their great doctrines —which represented considerable economic income— into groups centered on their six convents:

Pan-American Highway to Chimaltenango

It was known as Chimaltenango Province, which bordered Escuintla to the south and Sacatepéquez to the east. At that time, the head was Santa Ana Chimaltenango. On January 17, 1752, José Vásquez Priego Montaos y Sotomayor—a member of the Order of Santiago and lieutenant general of the royal armies—was appointed Captain General of Guatemala and immediately began construction of the San Fernando Fortress in Omoa, Honduras., but when he went to visit the works he fell ill and died shortly after in 1753. During his short government he created the mayoralties of Chimaltenango and Sacatepéquez.

The historian Domingo Juarros wrote that in 1754, by virtue of a Royal Decree part of the Bourbon Reforms, all the parishes of the regular orders were transferred to the secular clergy, and in 1766 they tried to unite the mayoralties of Chimaltenango and Sacatepéquez, but that the union could not be maintained, so both remained separate until after the independence of Central America.

Creation of the State of Guatemala

The State of Guatemala was defined as follows by the Constituent Assembly of said state that issued its constitution on October 11, 1825: «the state will retain the name of State of Guatemala and they are formed by the peoples of Guatemala, reunited in a single body. The state of Guatemala is sovereign, independent and free in its government and internal administration."

Chimaltenango and Sacatepéquez formed at that time a single department, which was established as follows:

For their part, the towns of the department were distributed as follows for the administration of justice:

Creation of the department of Chimaltenango

On December 25, 1838, the Congress of the Federal Republic of Central America authorized the creation of the State of Los Altos; before this, the State of Guatemala was reorganized into seven departments and two independent districts on September 12, 1839:

• Departments: Chimaltenango, Chiquimula, Escuintla, Guatemala, Mita, Sacatepéquez, and Verapaz
• Districts: Izabal and Petén

The western region of present-day Guatemala had shown intentions of obtaining greater autonomy with respect to the authorities of Guatemala City since colonial times, since the creoles of the town considered that the creoles of the capital had the commercial monopoly with Spain they did not treat them fairly. But this secession attempt was crushed by General Rafael Carrera, who reintegrated the State of Los Altos into the State of Guatemala in 1840 and then overwhelmingly defeated the President of the Federal Republic of Central America, the Honduran liberal General Francisco Morazán in Guatemala City a few months later.

Liberal Reform

In this department, the signing of the Patzicia Act on June 3, 1871 was relevant, which consolidated the triumph of General Justo Rufino Barrios and the Liberal Reformists, giving rise to various policies of the time and the cultivation of coffee, which it required large amounts of labor that was obtained from the indigenous population.

1976 earthquake

The department of Chimaltenango was the most affected by the 1976 earthquake; for example, the municipality of San Martín Jilotepeque was left completely in ruins and only the colonial fountain in the town's central square survived.

The most affected area covered around 30,000 km², with a population of 2.5 million people. About twenty-three thousand people died and seventy-seven thousand were seriously injured. Approximately 258,000 houses were destroyed, leaving about 1.2 million people homeless. 40% of the national hospital infrastructure was destroyed, while other health centers also suffered substantial damage. Cracks appeared in the ground in many parts of the country, some measuring up to a meter wide; also the tops of some hills cracked and then the hills crumbled, burying entire towns and highways.

As the bodies were recovered the scale of the disaster was revealed; the authorities organized the excavation of collective graves, the number of dead was so great that they had no alternative. Many bridges, pylons, electricity and telephone poles, and roads collapsed or were destroyed. Several departments of the country were destroyed by the earthquake: apart from Chimaltenango, Chiquimula, El Petén, Guatemala, Izabal and Sacatepéquez were affected, as were many towns and cities.

Political division

The department of Chimaltenango is made up of sixteen municipalities, which are:

Municipalities of the department of Chimaltenango

Chimaltenango San José Poaquíl San Martín Jilotepeque San Juan Comalapa Holy Apolonia Tecpán Guatemala Patzún Pochuta Patzicia Santa Cruz Balanyá Acatenango San Pedro Yepocapa San Andrés Itzapa Let's stop. Zaragoza The Tejar

Population of Chimaltenango according to municipality

N.	Municipality	Population Census 2018
1	Chimaltenango	96.985
2	Tecpán Guatemala	91.927
3	San Martín Jilotepeque	73,469
4	Patzún	58.240
5	San Juan Comalapa	48,597
6	San Pedro Yepocapa	34.948
7	Patzicia	33,207
8	San Andrés Itzapa	32,083
9	San José Poaquil	26.845
10	Zaragoza	24,022
11	Acatenango	23.228
12	The Tejar	19,492
13	Holy Apolonia	18.540
14	Let's stop.	15.924
15	Santa Cruz Balanyá	9,479
16	Pochuta	8.790
-	Chimaltenango	615.776

Development

The human development report published in 2022 The speed of change, a territorial view of human development 2002 – 2019 where the change and progress that has taken place in the country between 2002 and 2019. The Department of Chimaltenango ranked eleventh out of the 22 departments in Human Development Chimaltenango fell five places compared to 2002 from sixth to eleventh. Going from having an IDH of 0.551 to 0.646. Chimaltenango has 2 municipalities in High IDH and 14 in Medium IDH. Being El Tejar the most developed municipality with an HDI of 0.718 while Santa Apolonia has the lowest with 0.590.

Human Development Map by Municipality of Chimaltenango 0.750 0.690-0.7490.620-0.689 0.551-0.6190,550

N.o	Municipality	IDH 2018	IDH 2002
1	The Tejar	0.718	0,643
2	Chimaltenango	0.708	0.628
3	Zaragoza	0.684	0,602
4	Santa Cruz Balanyá	0.678	0.606
5	Let's stop.	0.674	0.575
6	San Juan Comalapa	0.655	0.568
7	San Andrés Itzapa	0.646	0.56
8	Pochuta	0.638	0,494
9	Patzicia	0.631	0.541
10	Patzún	0.630	0.536
11	Acatenango	0.628	0.519
12	San José Poaquil	0.625	0.5522
13	San Pedro Yepocapa	0.619	0.518
14	San Martín Jilotepeque	0.609	0.50
15	Tecpán Guatemala	0.608	0.5522
16	Holy Apolonia	0.590	0.486
-	Chimaltenango	0.646	0.551

N.o	Municipality	IDH According to Indicators
		Health	Education	Level of Life
1	The Tejar	0.912	0.588	0.690
2	Chimaltenango	0.895	0.580	0.684
3	Zaragoza	0,884	0.548	0.660
4	Santa Cruz Balanyá	0.836	0.5577	0.646
5	Let's stop.	0.860	0,543	0.655
6	San Juan Comalapa	0.848	0.518	0.641
7	San Andrés Itzapa	0.869	0.490	0.635
8	Pochuta	0.839	0,492	0.629
9	Patzicia	0.810	0,492	0.632
10	Patzún	0.809	0,502	0.615
11	Acatenango	0.856	0.468	0.619
12	San José Poaquil	0.853	0.478	0.598
13	San Pedro Yepocapa	0.848	0.460	0.608
14	San Martín Jilotepeque	0.837	0.463	0,584
15	Tecpán Guatemala	0.827	0.455	0.599
16	Holy Apolonia	0.810	0.435	0,584
-	Chimaltenango	0.849	0.50	0.629

Population living in the department according to IDH

N.	Municipality	IDH 2018	Population Census 2018	According to Development
1	The Tejar	0.718	19,492	116,477
2	Chimaltenango	0.708	96.985
3	Zaragoza	0.684	24,022	499.299
4	Santa Cruz Balanyá	0.678	9,479
5	Let's stop.	0.674	15.924
6	San Juan Comalapa	0.655	48,597
7	San Andrés Itzapa	0.646	32,083
8	Pochuta	0.638	8.790
9	Patzicia	0.631	33,207
10	Patzún	0.630	58.240
11	Acatenango	0.628	23.228
12	San José Poaquil	0.625	26.845
13	San Pedro Yepocapa	0.619	34.948
14	San Martín Jilotepeque	0.609	73,469
15	Tecpán Guatemala	0.608	91.927
16	Holy Apolonia	0.590	18.540
-	Chimaltenango	0.646

Geography

Hydrography

The department of Chimaltenango los Encuentros, Nicán and Guexá.

Orography

Chimaltenango is located on the Sierra Madre that makes up the central highlands, which passes to the north of the department, whose branches form high mountains and prominent hills, which gives it a very special orographic conformation with deep ravines, beautiful valleys and great fertile plains.

In its territory is the Fuego volcano, which reaches a height of 3,763 m above sea level. no. m., which also covers part of the departments of Sacatepéquez and Escuintla. There is also the Acatenango volcano that has two peaks: one of 3975 m s. no. m. and the other of 3,880. Its terrain is quite irregular, since the heights of its departmental heads vary between 2310 m a.s.l. no. m. in Santa Apolonia and the 926 in Pochuta.

Plant life zones

Despite being a completely mountainous department, three topographic zones can be appreciated:

The first formed by northern lowlands in the valley of the Motagua river, joined to the Pixcayá river. Its heights oscillate between 650 meters and it presents a contrast with the other communities, since here vegetation of thorny chaparral, cacti and other sharp plants predominate.

The intermediate and most extensive zone is found at an average height of 2000 meters above sea level, here the pines, cypresses and poplars that are characteristic of the place predominate.

Finally, there is the area where the exuberant vegetation of the humid subtropical forest develops that corresponds to the southern end, towards the east of the Madre Vieja river and to the south of the municipalities of Yepocapa and Pochuta. Within the same territory is the hot humid tropical savannah.

In general, in the department of Chimaltenango there are five plant life zones, according to the classification proposed by Holdridge in 1978 and these are:

• bs-S Subtropical Dry Forest
• bh-S(t) Tempered Subtropical Forest
• bmh-S(c) Very Subtropical Wood Climate.
• bh-MB Mountainous Forest Under Subtropical
• bmh-MB Forest Very Húmedo Montano Bajo Subtropical

Methods of communication

Its main means of communication is the Inter-American highway CA-1 that enters through El Tejar and crosses its territory, and then exits west through Tecpán towards the department of El Quiché and Sololá. At the height of Patzicia, the national route no. 1 separates and goes directly to Panajachel, Sololá, on the shores of Lake Atitlán.

According to data from the General Directorate of Roads, up to 1997, this department had 98 km of asphalt and 58 km of dirt roads.

Current land use

In the department of Chimaltenango due to its varied climates, types of soil and topography of the land, we have that apart from the use that is given to the land for urbanization and construction, its inhabitants plant a great diversity of annual and permanent crops or semi-permanent, being among these cereals, vegetables, fruit trees, coffee, sugar cane, etc. In addition, due to the qualities that the department has, some of its inhabitants have the rearing of various kinds of cattle, standing out among these cattle, sheep, goats, etc., dedicating part of these lands for the cultivation of various pastures that serve as food for the the same. The existence of forests, whether natural, integrated management, mixed, etc., made up of various tree, shrub and/or creeping species, give the department a special touch in its ecosystem and environment, making it with that natural grace one of the typical places to be inhabited by not only national visitors, but also foreigners. It is in this way that an idea of land use in this department and its use can be formed.

Customs and traditions

The department of Chimaltenango has several typical culinary traditions, such as the preparation of fair bread, typical sweets which are made in a great variety and forms, white atol, enchiladas, hobbies, rosquitas, rosario, etc

In the indigenous tradition, religion is based on nature and ancestors, who establish the balance between the sacred and the profane. There is a mediator between these two worlds who is the Ajch'ab'äl, a wise old man who prays, who is also a witch doctor or Aq'omanel.

Their customs and traditions include "El encuentro de la candela", a popular religious celebration that takes place in the departmental capital every July 25, on the eve of the patronal fair. These are religious processions that result in the meeting of the image of the patron saint Santa Ana and her husband San Joaquín with the Apostle Santiago, in which the Mayordomos Mayors of the 5 brotherhoods carry the candles, accompanied by the other brothers, authorities and guests, going on horseback to the junction of Los Aposentos, point at which the Texeles and the population await the horsemen at the foot of the images to carry out the ceremonial act of meeting the candles with the Miraculous images so that they pour out their blessing and that the candles be the light of God in the population, to have good harvests, health, abundance, protection from natural disasters and drive away evil spirits, and then go in procession accompanied by the dance of the conquest, torritos, giants that dance to the beat of the sounds interpreted by the marimba, drum, chirimilla, without missing the aroma of pon and incense, and the burning of gunpowder, towards the house of the patronal brotherhood, where the general is a part of the celebration. One of the most deeply-rooted religious celebrations is Corpus Christi de Patzún, characterized by the making of carpets and triumphal arches of leaves and fruits from the region, burning of incense, dances, fireworks and ceremonial costumes, as well as the veneration of San Simón in San Andrés Itzapa, who is a ladino deity who can do good or evil, administered by an indigenous brotherhood, closely linked to magic and the popular religion of Guatemala with unique and unrepeatable significance in Mesoamerica. It has its private chapel which is highly visited by the Mayan and Ladino population of the region. They give them liquor to drink, they burn candles of different colors, they offer them incense and they give them cigars and cigarettes to smoke, they also give them money, animals, plants and jewels. Being considered a miraculous being and one of those who can , he has a very large radius of influence that goes beyond the country's borders.

Another highly original religious ceremony are weddings, which range from falling in love, the request of the bride by the wise old man, to culminating in the marriage ceremony performed under Mayan and Catholic rituals.

Another religious festivity of great importance is the Mayan New Year (Waqxaqi'B'atz), which is calculated based on the tzolkin or indigenous agricultural calendar of 260 days, which governs all the religiosity of the Cakchiquel area from Chimaltenango.

Chimaltenango has a great deal of culture and ethnicity in terms of religious customs.

Religion

The predominant religion of Chimaltenango is Catholicism with 66.7% followed by Protestantism with 23.3% None 6.7% and Others 3.3%.

Economy

Chimaltenango, due to its topographic constitution, develops a varied and abundant agricultural production that provides surpluses that are marketed in other departments. Among its main agricultural products are: Pochuta coffee, Acatenango and Parramos beans, as well as superior quality sugar cane, corn, wheat, vegetables and all-weather fruits. Among its livestock production, it has cattle, sheep, horse and pig livestock, from which dairy products and sausages can be obtained, as well as poultry. Among its industrial production it has spinning, weaving and maquiladora industries, equal to the deforestation of trees. The people there are dedicated to agriculture, it is more farm work than other types of work, they are dedicated to the elaboration of handicrafts and textiles.

In the department of Chimaltenango (100% of its population) there is 66.1% in poverty or 23.4% in extreme poverty according to data from UNDP 2014. [1]

Tourist attractions and archaeological sites

Iximché archaeological site.

The department has several tourist attractions, including the Los Aposentos spa, the baths of Pixcayá, Las Delicias and Río Pequeño in Comalapa, the Ojo de Agua spa in San Martín Jilotepeque, the Venetian and Devil's caves, the waterfalls de la Torre and the Nicán River, the latter in San Miguel Pochuta.

Other tourist attractions are the twin volcanoes of Acatenango and Fuego, in the municipalities of Acatenango and Yepocapa respectively. The first, namesake of its municipality, is the third in height, in addition to containing a forest. In the months of November and December it is not uncommon for a certain amount of snow to cover the summit of the volcano in the morning. The Fuego volcano is currently active.

The best-known archaeological sites in the department are Iximché and Mixco Viejo. Iximché was the great ceremonial center of the Cakchiquel manor, where the Spanish conquistadors established the first capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala in 1524. The archaeological site of Mixco Viejo (Jilotepeque Viejo) was the center of the Chajomas and its architecture is similar to that of Iximche.

Festivities

The showiness and traditions of the patron saint festivities of the departmental capitals and municipalities of Guatemala, are noted every year in the month and dates that are celebrated and honor their Patron or Saint. In the case of the department of Chimaltenango, the dates and Patron of the patron fairs are the following:

Geographic location

Chimaltenango is surrounded by departments of Guatemala:

	North: The Quiché	Northeast: Baja Verapaz
West: I just...		This: Department of Guatemala and Sacatepéquez
Southwest: Suchitepéquez	South: Escuintla