Province of Manabi

Manabí is one of the twenty-four provinces that make up the Republic of Ecuador, located in the west of the country, in the geographical area known as the coastal region or Coast. Its administrative capital is the city of Portoviejo. It occupies a territory of about 19,427.64 km², being the fourth province in the country by area, behind Pastaza, Morona Santiago and Orellana. In addition to the continental territory, the island of La Plata and Salango island belong to the province's jurisdiction. It borders to the north with Esmeraldas; to the east with Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and Los Ríos; to the south with Santa Elena; to the east and south with Guayas, and to the west with the Pacific Ocean, along a maritime strip of about 350 km.

In the Manabi territory, 1'592,840 people live, according to the last census (2022), being the third most populated province in the country after Guayas and Pichincha. The province of Manabí is made up of twenty-two cantons, with their respective urban and rural parishes.

It is one of the most important administrative, economic, financial and commercial centers of Ecuador. The main activities of the province are commerce; livestock; the industry; fishing, since the second most important port in the country and the largest tuna factories are located in Manta; the agricultural sector in rural life, and tourism, mainly in its extensive beaches.

It had different migratory periods coming from various areas such as the caras and the mantas. Spanish colonization occurred in 1534, when Pedro de Alvarado explored the area, and in 1535, the year in which Francisco Pacheco founded the city of Portoviejo, and before doing so he made a long exploration tour of its adjacent coasts. During that period, the maximum entity and precursor of the province would be the Government of Caráquez. After the independence war and the annexation of Ecuador to Greater Colombia, Manabí was created on June 25, 1824, making it one of the first 7 provinces of Ecuador.

Toponymy

According to the chronicler, the aborigines knew the Puerto Viejo District as Manapi or Manaphi, referring to a tribe that populated the central and eastern valley of the current Portoviejo River as well as its surroundings. of the south coast. During the colony it is said that the Spanish also changed the letter P for B and came to call it what the aboriginal Indians called it, "Manabí", although there is no clear evidence. of the aforementioned name having been adopted, nor of the change having occurred.

History

The southern part of Manabí was the seat of the Cancebí lordship, while the central and northern part was first an indigenous kingdom composed of confederations of tribes and these at the same time of hamlets, although the Pechance hamlets actually existed in addition to the lordship main one, which according to the Quito historian Juan de Velasco was the driving center of the eastern part (that is, Chone, Flavio Alfaro and El Carmen) of what was known as Kingdom of Los Caras, legal entity that had its headquarters and capital in the current Bahía de Caráquez.

The Manteño culture (Capital: Jocay), spread from the center, to the south of the territory, formed by the following tribes: Los Cancebíes, Apechiniques, Pichotas, Japotoes, Picoazaes, Jarahuas, Machalillas, Pichuncis and Xipaxapas.

During the Spanish colonization, in the first half of the XVIII century, the area of the former Government of Caráquez, and which Today they occupy the cantons of El Carmen, Chone, Sucre, Pedernales, Jama, San Vicente, Bolívar, Tosagua, Junín and Pichincha, which became the jurisdiction of the Government of Esmeraldas, governed by Pedro Vicente Maldonado. And the area of the also ancient kingdom of the Manta, which in the Colony was called 'Partido or Tenencia de Portoviejo', and which today is occupied by the cantons Portoviejo, Rocafuerte, Montecristi, Jaramijó, Manta, Santa Ana, Veinticuatro de Mayo, Olmedo, Jipijapa, Paján and Puerto López became part of the Government of Guayaquil.

Through Manabí, the wise men of the French Geodesic Mission, chaired by Carlos de la Condamine, arrived in the country when the current Ecuador was called the Royal Audience of Quito, and on March 1, 1736, they landed in Manta.

After the Independence of the Country from Spanish rule was sealed, on May 24, 1822, what is now Ecuador, with the name of the Department of the South, became part of Greater Colombia, founded by the Liberator Simón Bolívar. By virtue of this, when the main provinces of our Nation were created, Bolívar created what was called 'Province of Portoviejo', on August 2, 1822, but with this creation the Province, since it was governed by a political judge, who obeyed orders from the Governor of Guayaquil. It had 2 cantons: Portoviejo and Montecristi.

The true political-administrative creation of the Province took place two years later, when the Congress of Bogotá, chaired by General Francisco de Paula Santander, promulgated the First Law of Territorial Division on June 25, 1824, which granted it the long-awaited Legal Status of the Province, which was renamed Manabí. This Law, dismembering the territory of Portoviejo, increased a third canton, Jipijapa, and by appointing a Governor in charge of the public administration, placed Manabí on an equal footing with the Province of Guayas. The capital was established in the city of San Gregorio de Portoviejo.

When the formal creation of the Province of Manabí was carried out, its territorial area amounted to 25,620 square kilometers. But in 1825 it lost Atacames, and in 1878, in the Government of Veintimilla, it lost Muisne (former Mompiche), since both regions were annexed to Esmeraldas.

When the nation separated from Gran Colombia, on May 13, 1830, as an independent and sovereign people with the name of Ecuador, under the Presidency of the Venezuelan General Juan José Flores, former lieutenant of the Liberator, he was designated as first Governor of Manabí, under the Ecuadorian State, Colonel Juan Antonio Muñoz.

The Provincial Council of Manabí began its Institutional life on March 11, 1947, with its first President being the Manabi doctor Dr. Oswaldo Loor Moreira.

On April 16, 2016 at 6:58 p.m., an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 with an epicenter near the city of Pedernales, between Cojimíes and Pedernales, devastated the province, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and thousands of injuries. and considerable structural and economic damages valued at over 2 billion dollars; being considered the worst catastrophe in the country in 60 years and the worst in the province in its entire history. The earthquake destroyed its main cities (Portoviejo, Manta, Bahía and Pedernales), as well as other very tourist towns such as Jama, Jipijapa, Montecristi, Calceta, El Carmen, Jaramijó, Rocafuerte, Tosagua, Chone and Flavio Alfaro. However, the two towns most affected by the earthquake were Pedernales and Canoa, located very close to the epicenter, where the damage and losses amount to more than 70% of the total.

Currently the province is experiencing a health emergency caused by the disease called COVID-19. The first case in this place was in fact imported from Spain. It is in second place in infections with more than 1,800 cases, and in Ecuador there are more of 22,000 cases until April 26, with Guayas being the one with the most infections nationwide.

Geography

The province of Manabí borders to the north with the province of Esmeraldas, to the south with the provinces of Santa Elena and Guayas, to the east with the provinces of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Los Ríos and Guayas, and to the west with the Ocean Pacific and its capital is Portoviejo. In addition to the continental territory, Isla de la Plata and Isla Salango, which are located in front of the Machalilla National Park, belong to the jurisdiction of the province.

With a surface area of 18,939 km², the largest on the coast, it can be seen that the province is smaller than the South American dependency of French Guyana (83,534 km²), but Manabí contains more than three times the population of that country. territory (259,377 inhabitants).

Relief

Its territory occupies extensive coastal plains. From the province of Guayas comes the Chongón-Colonche coastal mountain range that gives rise to the Paján and Puca mountains. The elevations do not exceed 1200 meters above sea level.

In the canton of Montecristi there are isolated ranges of the hills of this name and the hills of Hojas-Jaboncillo. Towards the north goes the Balzar Mountain Range, which includes the hills of Los Liberales and Canoa; From there follows a branch that joins the hills of Jama and continues to the north with the hills of Coaque, Cerro Pata de Pájaro, one of the highest in the Province of Manabí with 845 m s. n. m., the Cojimíes Mountains and the Mache-Chindul mountains continue to the north.

Coastal profile

It extends 350 km from the Pacific Coast. The most important geographical features are from north to south: the peninsulas of Cojimíes and Caráquez; the Pasado, San Mateo and San Lorenzo capes, the Cojimíes, Surrones, Brava, Charapotó, Jaramijó, Cayo and Ayampe points; the bays: Cojimíes, Caráquez and Manta; the inlets: Jama, Crucita, Cayo or Machalilla.

15 km off the coast of Puerto Cayo is Isla de la Plata, which has an area of 14 km². Another smaller island than the previous one is the Isla del Amor, in front of Cojimíes in the Pedernales canton.

Hydrography

The crossing of the Chongón-Colonche mountain range and the Balzar Mountain range hinders the existence of high-flowing rivers that flow into the Pacific Ocean, with the exception of those that are important such as the Chone River and the Portoviejo River, which are the only ones with channels. deep; This determines that certain areas of the province are predisposed to flooding in the winter seasons with the highest rainfall.

The Chone River is the most important due to its flow. It originates on the western slopes of the Balzar mountain range and flows into Bahía de Caráquez. Its main tributaries are: on the right bank the Mosquito, Garrapata, and San Lorenzo rivers and on the left bank: the Tosagua, with its tributaries: Canuto and Calceta. The basin irrigated by these rivers is one of the most important and fertile in the province. The Portoviejo River rises in the mountains of Paján and Puca and flows into the bay of Charapotó in a tourist site known as "La Boca".

The Canoa River is born in the mountains of that name and receives the waters of the Tabuchilla and the Muchacho. The Cojimíes River is important due to its flow and also divides the Provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas; Between Canoa and San Vicente the Briceño River flows, which has little flow. Finally, the Jama River, which is born in the hills of its name and its main tributary, the Mariano River.

Climate

It oscillates between dry subtropical to humid tropical and extremely humid tropical and is determined by marine currents; During the winter, which begins at the beginning of December and ends in May, the climate is hot and is influenced by the warm El Niño current. On the contrary, the summer that runs from June to December is less hot thanks to the cold Humboldt current., although the temperature is not uniform throughout the province, the average temperature in Portoviejo, the capital, is 25 °C and in the city of Manta, 23.8 °C.

Government and politics

Politics

The political structure of the province, although it is led at the executive level by the Government of Manabí, also has levels of sectional governments, called Decentralized Autonomous Governments (GAD), such as the Municipalities (Mayorships), the Parish Councils Rural and the provincial GAD, commonly known as "Prefecture", which is a legal entity under public law that enjoys political, administrative and financial autonomy, and exercises certain powers such as rural roads, agro-productive development and irrigation, in accordance with Article No. 263 of the Constitution of the Republic in force since 2008. Such powers are exercised by the Prefecture subject to the Constitution and the Laws within the territorial constituency of the province. The headquarters of this sectional government is in the city of Portoviejo, as the provincial capital.

The provincial government is made up of a prefect, a vice-prefect and the provincial council. The prefect is the highest authority of the Decentralized Autonomous Government of the Province (Prefecture of Manabí) and its institutional legal representative and is elected in tandem with the vice prefect by popular vote at the polls. The provincial council is the legislative and oversight body of the provincial government, and is made up of the prefect - who presides over it with a casting vote -, the vice-prefect, the mayors of the twenty-two Manabi cantons, and representatives of the governments of the rural parishes. Currently the position of prefect is held by Leonardo Orlando exercises, re-elected for the period 2023 - 2027. The highest representation of the Executive Branch in the province is exercised by the governor, who represents the President of the Republic and is a position of free appointment and removal. Currently the governor of the province is Hernán Barreiro.

Administrative division

Manabí is divided into 22 cantons, which in turn are made up of urban and rural parishes. It is the second Ecuadorian province in number of cantons. Each of the cantons are administered through a municipality and a cantonal council, which are elected by the population of their respective cantons. The responsibility of these cantons is to maintain roads, manage state government budgets for social and economic assistance programs, and manage infrastructure such as parks and basic sanitation systems.

#	Canton	cantonal head	Hab. (2020)	Area (km2)	Density
1	Bolívar	Calceta	45.493	537	75.85
2	Chone	Chone	131.002	3017	41,92
3	El Carmen	El Carmen	135.344	1732	78.14
4	Flavio Alfaro	Flavio Alfaro	23.822	1343	18,61
5	Jama	Jama	26.116	575	40,44
6	Jaramijo	Jaramijo	28.439	97	190.57
7	Jipijapa	Jipijapa	74.645	1420	50.08
8	Junín	Junín	18.820	246	77
9	Manta	Manta	264.281	309	1027.34
10	Montecristi	Montecristi	107.785	734	95.76
11	Olmedo	Olmedo	10.194	253	38.9
12	Paján	Paján	37.093	1079	34,35
13	Pedernales	Pedernales	63.441	1932	28,53
14	Pichincha	Pichincha	29.599	1067	28,34
15	Portoviejo	Portoviejo	321.800	968	289,28
16	Puerto López	Puerto López	24.688	420	48,69
17	Rockfuerte	Rockfuerte	37.312	280	119.53
18	Saint Vincent	Saint Vincent	24,799	718	51,63
19	Santa Ana	Santa Ana de Vuelta Larga	48.152	1022	46,36
20	Sucre	Bay of Caráquez	62.443	764	77,43
21	Tosagua	Tosagua	42.297	377	101.7
22	Twenty-four May	Sucre	28.512	524	55.04

Tourism

The province of Manabí has 320 kilometers of beach, from Ayampe (in the south) to Cojimíes (in the north). Geography characterized by cliffs, mouths, estuaries, islets, islands, slabs and rocks. From the north to the south it has maritime spas and freshwater spas.

• In the north: Bahía de Caráquez, San Vicente, Chirije, Cojimíes, Pedernales, Punta Palmar, Jama, El Matal, Canoa, Don Juan, Briceño and others.
• In the centre and south zone: Puerto Cayo, San Jacinto, San Clemente, Crucita, El Murciélago, Santa Marianita, San Lorenzo, Machalilla, Los Frailes, Puerto López, Salango, Ayampe.

Demography

Its population is 1,395,249 inhabitants.

• annual growth rate: 1.65 per cent
• average age of population: 28.2 years
• illiteracy.
• digital illiteracy oriented=10 years: 34.3%

Composition (According to the 2010 census)

• Mestizos: 69.7%
• Amounts: 19.2%
• Afro-Ecuadorians: 6.0%
• White: 4.7%
• Other: 0.3 per cent
• Indigenous: 0.2 per cent

The province also has the 3rd most populated metropolitan area in the country. The Portoviejo Conurbation is the most populated metropolitan region of Manabí and 3rd in the national ranking with 686,140 inhabitants. Portoviejo is considered the head of this conurbation and Manta the main port of the urban network. The other 4 cantons that are within this conurbation are considered suburban cantons of Portoviejo and Manta. It is said that with more than 685,000 inhabitants, almost half of the Manabi population lives within this conurbation.

Gastronomic culture

The existence of the characteristic 'paradores', roadside restaurants, identify the province. What determines it is the frequent use of unripe bananas and the strong Chonera seasoning due to migration. Manabi gastronomy is recognized nationally and internationally, as well as its traditional expressions that are reflected in its festivities.

Dialects and linguistic structure

In the case of the province of Manabí, originally one of the first territories approached in the initial years of the conquest of the Kingdom of Quito, since 1526, when the first Euro-American contact occurred, the mixture of a language became possible. whose constant and variant filtering in the accent was perpetuated so as not to define a dejo, deje or accented speech; originating this dialect with historical indications found in the creation of the old Tenencia of Puerto Viejo, since from verification it is deduced that during the duration of the Corregimiento of Guayaquil the so-called naturals of the Coast due to the humid warmth had a different tone of speech to those of the Sierra. These historical roots resulted in the linguistic consistency of a fragile and destructible neutrality perceived mainly in current times, due to the interference of markedly close and foreign accents, since it is considered today the most neutral dialect of the equatorial linguistic area (categorized as having a sweet phonetic aspect and certainly a crude or frank emotional tonality in relation to the other equatorial variants). Even the scheme and/or phonetic structure in pronunciation is not very distinguishable with the presence of accents and fixed accents in the syllables; In addition, the use of referential words whose primitive Arabic-Andalusian origin was barely appropriated by the Montubian cultural identity is generally identified, being definitely linked to the bucolic and rural life of the plain. This makes possible the personified characterization of a dialect with particular ramifications typical of the mestizo racial situation, with the indigenous contribution of the Manteña Culture with a diversity of surnames, place names and native idioms that have not been well studied in their origin and original context, because the documentation of the ravages of the conquest in Manabí disappeared.

Among the main characteristics of the Manabita dialect we have the following:

• Some consonants are shortened or reduced as if seals are aminor in a time of greater differentiation. Example: It occurs exclusively with the M or N terminals and intermediates, whose phonetic structures are repetitive in a a half time (1/2) less before the time of the initial fonema pronounced. So eme or Ene they repeat half time less of the sound produced at the beginning in a consequent manner. This perhaps explains the presence of these seedlings in the Aboriginal cultures of Manabí, which is not yet verifiable, but mainly verifiable in the coastal strip and the peripheral plain of the countryside.
• Curiously the treatment of communication is precipitated with greater confidence to emphasize frequenting the use of diminutive in the form of speech and unwritten, or on the other hand, such phonetic morphology is diminished as it occurs with adjectives. Example: BlackLike, bold. From coloredas coloradita. This phonetic conjugation extends to the verb that causes it to lose the meaning of the tilds with the words scruples compared to the serious ones, giving as a product the listening of a neutral sense that forms the dialect; almost tending to lose the full accent of the word in this way.
• The montubia culture has used over time the linguistic adulteration of certain nouns as verbs and vice versa. This idiomatic resource has its origin in the practice of Castilian culteran poetry, but adapted to the reality of the locality; lastly there is no official compilation of terms that cite the variety of this differential discourse between the chronological line of manabiticism and the cultural constructions tied to us in the montube. Example of this can be words like viravol, capiro or other Neutral complaints linked to nominations of plants, fruits and animals. The orthographic metastases adopted imprecisely since the centuryXVI originated the conjugation of confusing linguistic morphologies substantive, verbal and adjective, in a mezcolanza of pronunciation that impresses. At the time the measures of the Royal Spanish Academy replicated in the equatorial plane during the reforming reign of Carlos III and other governments of the republic that were openly hispanophilus as the one of Juan José Flores made these forms of writing of their own go into derogatory or to a plane considered unfairly vulgarIn this way, without at least a list of these terms absent today and others lost without any sign of archived collection that must have them and guard them the colonial lobby based in Portoviejo and that the Writers learned it from the natural Indians and mestizos, on the occasion of having disappeared until today almost in its entirety would have produced the entire documentary of the province related to the colonial period Joanplella
• As in many dialects, there is no deaf interdental fonema and therefore it is pronounced as /s/ words with ce, ci or z.

• The current contemporaneity tends to reduce called public treatment or quietly private which is made or directed towards a person (the person) in singular with the Hey. delicately acute; which is equivalent to the similar oche that has tended to relate to shave toneand reduce it this way to the friend oe is perceived a much more serious and related fonema in masculinizing pronunciation tonality, but with a bold, grotesque and anachronistic emphasis for those who do not accept the abbreviations interpreted as vulgarism. This last dialectical use is common among young people and people of strong referenceal bond of friendship or family.
• Tangible conservation in the diversity of vocabulary as a personal treatment with the Ancient Spanish of the end of the centuryXVIwhich mainly relate to common objects of use. Example: Aljibe, illustrious, Doña, Donetc. This type of colloquial vocabulary focuses on providing names or qualifying treatment to adult people or unknown people. The greater the relationship with the bucolic environment exists, the greater the wealth of the accumulated vocabulary.
• The recognized treatment called which resides exclusively around the word Mande –possibly derived from Montubias. or mandates and orders given by Lords Made Patterns to their servants and workers – it is very common to make known the fixed attention one person has to another. Historically the depreciation of the Mongolian culture has stereotyped the use of this word that is often interpreted in urban spaces as inadequate or insulting. But in the privacy of the family communication, their use is higher when the parents call or ask their children to arrange for any order to be obeyed, giving the tonality effusive the signifier of treatment or facial expression in a way of affection and when it is serious, it demonstrates unsafeness or radical request in curiously ambivalent conditions.
• The ♪ Call Tuteo deal and the you, called Sireo deal, of lording or Done (referential deduction of Don male and male Doña female). The first treatment is associated with family or friendly trust, while the second marks a distance of respect, age, experience, hierarchy and even rulership of obedience (tone of feudal submission). It also depends who associates it with the individual behavior of each person, finding another secondary difference that is usually addressed ♪ for the known and the you on the contrary for the unknown.
• Them augmentative substantive whose completions are usually in - Very much., - very/With the ismosor in exaggerating endings on/one, they are contrary to the custom of placing orthographic modisms and abbreviations proper to the communication of the current Castilian language, with tendency to exaggerate the living situation of the Something. or Someone referencel. Thus for example it is very typical in this language to hear the pronunciation of words that sound halagos or interpersonal sublimations, which is taken as excess confidence or way of boldness and linguistic imprudence, to understand the attainment of extremely redundant courtesy, although contemporary simplicity tends to miss these ways of qualifying the use of words during the conversation. Example: beautiful, Beautiful. and Beautiful. From strong, Strong., That's very good., That's right. (this is very linked to the Mongolian speaking). From toasted, drift in Tues and arise I'm sorry., Tues or You're, Yours., Yours. and even in verb as tostar. It also returns to the initial conjugation as Tostadious and its variants. All this is simply the result of words worried about conjugating the relative toasted that comes from the verb tostar (the conjugation of the pronouns of this last word is very confusing at the jurisdictional level). Another example is Potato, with - Ring.Of locker, with - Knock. and the, with - I laugh.to indicate physical child or Great in the exaggeration of behavior.
• Concrete use of synonyms in words that mean only one thing but that relate to a different environment or environment. Relatives of the word review and take such as: to identify, to dream, water, tantear. For example to identify it's getting down or down, up or in the middle of something. Scratch is to collect any body or entity fallen and seen. Aguaitar is to check something related to animals and flora in the far away. Tantear is usual for the use of events or precipitated events within the space of the house or the orchards and crops adjacent to them, and it is also a research committed for a particular purpose. Aventar, understood as cast out or dare.
• The purchase or sale of certain products and elements in their pronunciation correspond to names whose system of measures is netly originating from the equivalencies and meanings of the old Spanish measures or from Castilian origin, mainly those adopted since the crisis of the seventeenth century. Usually certain denominations of this time focusing on the Mongolian identity has been exposed to being ridiculed by a clearly derogatory viewpoint of the local bourgeoisie instituted as a replica of the novelties and Guatemalan ways due to the excess of trade and political influence in Manabí since independence, and by those who in the nineteenth century adopted neo-extranjerisms English or Anglicisms and Francophiles or Gallicisms, passing the primitive Castilian denominations to a disuse that only predominated in the environment of the countryside; therefore there was a moment of indigenous cultural depreciation for stereotyping and satirizing the mountain dweller erradamente. This is so notorious that even the originality of the foreign word is respected without proper repetition of the transformation into Spanish for many cases.
• The social environment of abolengo that inhabits the countryside and possesses the possession of vast lands, usually includes alusive expressions of cultas on the typical colony treatment label; using certain vocabulary that review the sweetener, stables and nobility behavior Spanish-Andalusian of the Spanish Golden Age.
• The imprecision of the accounting and not accounting adopted as idiomatic simplism in urban and rural vocabulary without high commercial development, as there are characters applied in the colloquial language. Example: Buy a waterwithout specifying to water bottle(s). Water the ajiwithout referring to Get the Ajis from the Kill, in a plural person, so there is extensive noticeable confusion between the number of existing nouns, which do not specify exact quantities or places or physical characteristics many times.
• In the nutubia speech of old transcends an orthographic and linguistic disfase between the pronunciation of words whose characteristics on the one hand tend to conjugate two consonants in a single word swiftly 1/4 of time without rescuing the slip of the tongue: Thus for example of the verb Pass in present time is pasja or pajsaof which intrusive letter desfase is hardly pronounced in a phenomatic time less than half of the full conjugation associated with any other vowel. And in the other sphere is binding the way to be reduced by half of its terminal composition that connotes brevity and ambiguity: For example: compasFor Partner or compadre. Applied this in the verbal colloquium only.