Tolima

Tolima is one of the thirty-two departments that, together with Bogotá, Capital District, make up the Republic of Colombia. Its capital is Ibagué. It is located in the center-west of the country, in the Andean region, bordering Caldas to the north, Cundinamarca to the east, Huila and Cauca to the south; and to the west with Valle del Cauca, Quindío and Risaralda. The Magdalena River crosses Tolima from south to north.

Toponymy

The name of Tolima would come from the term panche tolima, tulima or dulima - river of snow or cloud) The first mentions of the territory or people related to the word Tolima is given by Baltasar Maldonado who mention it as the limit of Ibagué in the minutes of the Cayma chambers of August 26, 1551.

"Which such a motto is going to give a Nevado Morro and pouring waters to the motto, to the people of Tolima, and the people of Tolima be named after the end of the city of Ibagué."

Baltasar Maldonado.

Other mentions refer to the story of an indigenous cacica and mohán; Tulima or Yulima, martyred and executed by the Spanish She was a priestess, who ran a guaca or religious sanctuary near Cerro Machín and Nevado del Tolima that protected and administered the mineral wealth of these territories; this region is rich in gold deposits. The mohán was assaulted and taken prisoner, being led chained to Ibagué, in whose main square she was cremated alive by the conquerors and while she was dying she received blessings from Father Cobos so that her soul would soon fly to heaven. Her legendary name has been preserved by the Department as a perennial tribute to her martyrdom.

History

Indigenous civilization

Throughout the territory of this department lived in pre-Columbian times, the Pijao, whose descendants are part of 80% mestizos and a small group of indigenous Reservation that are part of its current population, in America extensive territories were populated by warrior ethnic groups that forced to carry out administrative divisions, today the department of Tolima was included in the Royal Court of Santa Fe de Bogotá, an administrative division of the Viceroyalty of Peru whose main function was to administer "justice", however, the "administration" and "pacification" of the Pijao territories.

Etnias del Tolima during the conquest and colony.

Before the conquest, the region was populated by various tribes belonging to the Caribe family. The Pijao groups inhabited these territories: Ondaimas, Gualies, Marquetones, Lumbies, Palenques (Panches) north of Tolima in the Gauli river basin; Muizes, (Muizka or Muzos) south-west of Boyacá in the Río Negro basin (defeated and made Castilian allies in 1539); Kolimaes, western Cundinamarca in the eastern basin of the Magdalena River; Panchaes, (Panche) north of Tolima in the western basin of the Magdalena River; Kundaes, (Kundayes) Department of Tolima basin of the Sumapaz River; Yaporoges, (Yaporoges or Poinas) Center of the Department of Tolima eastern basin of the Magdalena River; Ambigues, (Ambigues) Center of the Department of Tolima Cuello River Basin. (1550); Kimbaes, (Kimbayas) north of the Valley and Quindío eastern basin of the Cauca River. (1607); Coyages, (Coyaimas) south of the Tolima basin of the Saldaña river. (1556); Natagaes, (Natagaimas) south of Tolima western basin of the Magdalena River; Paeces, (Nasa) Departments of Cauca and Huila. (1562, 1914)

Conquest, colonization and the Province of Mariquita

First Spanish provinces formed in the current territory of Colombia.

Already in 1513 Vasco Núñez de Balboa had found the Pacific Ocean, which allowed Sebastián de Belalcázar to begin his conquering route that, arriving through Guayaquil and from Quito, he crossed the Colombian massif, taking Cali for Spain in 1536 and Popayán in 1537, this being last the first to have contact with the Carib ethnic groups of Alto Magdalena in the territories of Tolima. On his way, Belarcázar crosses the Magdalena River to the municipality of Flandes having contact with kolimas, tocaimas, kundayes. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, in search of an imaginary place called El Dorado, founded the city of Bogotá on August 6, 1538 and brought him to the Tolima territories. In 1550 the conquest of these territories began. By June 1550, the encomendero Andrés López de Galarza and Francisco de Trejo began a military campaign to take the territories of central Tolima by force. On June 25 of that same year, after the campaign had begun, the conquerors arrived at a place they called: "The Valley of the Lances" and founded the Fort of San Bonifacio de Ibagué, coming into contact with ambiguous pijaos, panches, cucuanas, bribes among All of them numbered more than twenty thousand men in a state to take up arms. On August 28, 1551 by Francisco Núñez Pedrozo and reached neighboring regions of the current city of Mariquita territories of the pantágoras, panches, marquetones, panchiguas, lumbies, chapaimas, calamoimas, slings, gualíes, bocanemes, etc., among all of them were They numbered more than thirty thousand men in a state to take up arms. During the Colony and due to the constant attacks of the Tolima ethnic groups to the south of the Coello river, Mariquita had greater preeminence, for being the place of collection of the gold exploitations of the region as it was chosen by the Spanish crown for its geographical location and the wealth of its gold and silver mines as well as being the starting point of the road that was used for more than two centuries to go up to Santa Fe de Bogotá and other towns.

The American Republic

Territory of the Province of Mariquita in 1810, which was proclaimed independent as the Free State of Mariquita in 1814.

The geographical area that today comprises the department of Tolima was part, in the XIX century, of the province of Mariquita, which declared its independence on December 22, 1814. In March 1851, the capital of the province was moved to Ibagué. On April 12, 1856, the department was created. But it was in the year 1861 when the Sovereign State of Tolima was created to integrate the Confederation of Granada (later the United States of Colombia), being the only one of the nine that was erected by force, perhaps motivated by the caudillo interests of Don Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera. The provinces of Neiva and Mariquita adhered to his cause and became independent from Cundinamarca. Mr. Mosquera was succeeded by Ángel María Céspedes. Ibagué was still the capital of the State and only for a brief period was Neiva.

The department was legally created by Law 65 of November 1909. During the colony and the XIX century, it stood out for to be a cultural center with the activity of prestigious figures such as Mutis, Humboldt, Bompland, José Eustasio Rivera and others.

Administrative political evolution

The territories of the provinces of Neiva (present-day Huila) and Mariquita (present-day Tolima) have had a long political-administrative evolution:

• 1550: After the establishment of the Royal Audience of Santafé, the first political division of its territories was advanced, Mariquita and Neiva are appointed as Corrections. Spain then divided the territory of the New Kingdom of Granada into provinces, a denomination that acquires the territories of Neiva and Mariquita and which preserve during the Colony and much of the Republic.
• 1815: Independent Province of Mariquita (21 June 1815) and Neiva Province (31 August of the same year).
• 1819: The Great Colombia is divided into three major departments: Quito, Venezuela and Cundinamarca; the latter were annexed to the provinces of Neiva and Mariquita.
• 1832: When the Constitution of New Granada was issued, the national territory was divided into 18 provinces, eliminating the old departments, including the provinces of Neiva and Mariquita.

The Sovereign State of Tolima.

• 1857: The provinces of Neiva and Mariquita were once again annexed to the territory of the Sovereign State of Cundinamarca, by Law of 15 June 1857, a decision ratified by the Constitutions of the State of 1857 and 1858 in time of the Granadina Confederation.
• 1861: General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera creates the Sovereign State of Tolima in April 1861; a determination that was subsequently validated and legalized by the other States of the Colombian Union, through article 41 of the Covenant of the Union on 20 September 1861. To the last Mosquera was the first president of the Sovereign State of Tolima, of a list of about thirty leaders who succeeded in power in a quarter of a century.
• 1886: After several months of armed clashes between supporters of radical liberalism and followers of political regeneration led by President Rafael Núñez, this political fraction militarily defeated its opponents, calling on a Constituent Assembly to expiate the Political Constitution of 1886; through this sovereign states become new administrative political units called departments, heirs of the same jurisdiction and limits of the sovereign States.
• 1905: By law 46 of 1905, the current department of Huila is created with the southern part of the great Tolima, and with part of the north of the territory of Tolima Caldas is created.

Geography

Physical map of Tolima.

Physiography

Because the department of Tolima is located in the equator region, it does not have a seasonal cycle, but it enjoys all mountain temperature levels. With snow-capped peaks at more than 5,000 meters of altitude with temperatures below zero such as Nevado del Huila, Nevado del Tolima, and the Las Hermosas National Natural Park, Nevado del Huila Natural Park, and hot areas, in wide valleys. below 400 meters of altitude that reach thermal values above 40 degrees C. The department of Tolima is defined by two types of geographical regions: the first, a flat one, the dry valley of the Magdalena River that runs through it from north to south, and the other of slopes that form the eastern slope of the Central Cordillera and the western slope of the Eastern Cordillera.

Tectonic scheme

Nevado del Tolima, who gives his name to the department.

The department of Tolima is located mostly in the Grenvillian Mesoproterozoic Continental Lithospheric Province (PLCMG) of which the central cordillera, the eastern cordillera of Colombia and the Santa Marta and Macarena sierras are part. Its territory is located for the most part on Mesozoic deposits of the late Triassic (T3) and early Jurassic (J1).

Large faults cross the department of Tolima from south to north. The Algeciras fault and its branch the Altamira fault that reaches the city of Bogotá on the eastern side of the department.

In the center of the department and to the south are the Falla de la Pava and the Falla la Salina that rises in the foothills of the Nevado del Huila Volcano and follows the course of the Magdalena River and reaches the departments of Santander and Cesar.

To the west, linked to the Cauca Almaguer Fault, the Palestina Fault on the western limit of the department following the Central Cordillera with its annexes the Silvia Pijao Fault and the San Jerónimo Fault, related to the snow-capped volcanoes of Tolima and Ruiz and from which the Ibagué fault arises, related to the Cerro Machín Volcano and which continues as the Honda Fault which, due to the Viani Fault, joins the Bituima and Cambao fault that is part of the Salina

Hydrography

Río Magdalena

The territory of Tolima is crossed from south to north by the Magdalena River. Some major tributaries of the Magdalena River belong to the department of Tolima, such as the Saldaña river with an area of influence of 9,800 km², which is equivalent to 41.5% of the departmental area, the longest in the department and the one with the highest flow with its irrigation district, which feeds crops in the municipalities of Saldaña and Purificación and their tributaries Cucuana River, Luisa River and Amoya River.

The Coello River with an area of influence of 2000 km², and its tributaries Cocora River, Combeima River and Anaime River with its irrigation district for the municipalities of El Espinal and Guamo. The Recio River and its irrigation district for the municipalities of Guayabal and Ambalema, all of which originate from the eastern slope of the Central Cordillera. The municipality of Prado has the Prado Hydroelectric, with an approximate area of 34 km², it is the largest freshwater dam in the center of the country and an important tourist center, it is fed by the Prado and Cunday rivers, it pours its waters into the Magdalena River as Prado River, its waters are born on the western slope of the Eastern Cordillera. It is worth noting others such as the Cabrera River on its north bank, the Tetuán River, the Gualí River on its south bank, the Sabandija River, the Lagunillas River, the Opía River, the Anchique River, the Chenche River, the Atá River and the Totare River..

Natural parks

There are several national natural parks that are a reserve of water, flora and fauna belonging to the department of Tolima:

Natural National Park Los Nevados

Natural National Park Las Hermosas

National Natural Park Nevado del Huila

Political-administrative division

Ibago

Alpujarra

Alvarado

Ambalema

Get ready.

Armero

Ataco

Cajamarca

Casab.

Carmende Ap.

Chaparral

Coello

Coyaima

Cunday

Dolores

Guamo

Finn

Falan

Flanders

Fresno

Herveo

Honda

Icononzo

Lérida

Lebanon

Lady

Melgar

Murillo

Natagaima

Ortega

Stones

Paloc.

Plans

Prado

Purification

Rioblanco

Roncesvalles

Rovira

Saldaña

San Antonio

SanLuis

Santa Isabel

Suárez

Valle de San Juan

Venadillo

Villahermosa

Villarrica

The Department of Tolima grouped its municipalities, for a better administration of its resources, in the following provinces: Ibagué, Nevados, North, East, South and Southeast.

Judicial Branch

He is represented by the Administrative Court of Tolima with headquarters in the city of Ibagué, with judicial territorial understanding of the Department of Tolima and the municipality of Beltrán, in Cundinamarca and made up of ten (10) Administrative Judicial Circuits as follows:

• Administrative Judicial Circuit of Ibagué: It has its head office in Ibagué and comprises the municipalities of Alvarado, Cajamarca, Piedras, Rovira, Roncesvalles and Valle de San Juan.

• Administrative Judicial Circuit of Chaparral: It has its header in Chaparral and comprises the municipalities of Ataco, Planadas, Rioblanco and San Antonio.

• Administrative Judicial Circuit of the Espinal: It has its header in Espinal and comprises the municipalities of Coello, Flanders and Suarez.

• Fresno Administrative Judicial Circuit: It has its header in Fresno and comprises the municipalities of Casablanca and Herveo.

• Administrative Judicial Circuit of Guamo: It has its head office in Guamo and comprises the municipalities of Coyaima, Natagaima, Ortega, Saldaña and San Luis.
• Honda Administrative Judicial Circuit: It has its headboard in Honda and comprises the municipalities of Falán, Mariquita and Palocabildo.
• Administrative Judicial Circuit of Lérida: It has its header in Lérida and comprises the municipalities of Ambalema, Anzoátegui and Armero Guayabal, Santa Isabel, Venadillo and Beltrán, in Cundinamarca.
• Administrative Judicial Circuit of Lebanon: It has its headboard in Lebanon and comprises the municipalities of Murillo and Villahermosa.
• Administrative Judicial Circuit of Melgar: It has its header in Melgar and comprises the municipalities of Carmen de Apicalá, Cunday, Icononzo and Villarica.
• Administrative Judicial Circuit of Purification: It has its header in Purification and comprises the municipalities of Alpujarra, Dolores and Prado.

Demographics

Evolution of the population of the department of Tolima (1912-2018)

Population by census.Population by projection.Source: Statoids. DANE.

Ethnography

• Mestizos (48.46%)
• Whites (46.10%)
• Amerindians (4.32%)
• Black or Afro-Colombian (1.22%)

There are families descended from Germans (2nd and 3rd generation), English (2nd and 3rd generation), Spanish (1st, 2nd and 3rd generation), Americans (1 th generation). In the last 10 years, a large number of Orientals has increased. A large number of indigenous Ecuadorians have emigrated to the central zone of Colombia (among them to Ibagué) in search of employment and better opportunities.

For the 2005 census, the department of Tolima had a total of 1,365,342 inhabitants.

Economy

Rice cultivation in Saldaña.

To understand the department's economy, it should be noted that before the conquest, gold exploitation (of which a part is illegally exploited for the benefit of criminal gangs and informal miners) and tobacco cultivation were the drivers of its development, the geographical characteristics of the upper valley of the Magdalena River only allowed the cultivation of food and tobacco, cotton and corn and intensively. Then, for almost three hundred years, mining prospered in the department with its center in the municipality of Mariquita and with developments in the cultivation of corn, cotton and tobacco, the latter until its industrialization and export, which focused on the municipality of Ambalema. Livestock activity and coffee cultivation appear, which are incorporated into the economy by Creoles and mestizos on the slopes of the mountain ranges.

Agribusiness

Trajectory of the completed tunnel of La Línea, between the cities of Calarcá (Quindío) and Cajamarca (Tolima).

At the beginning of the XX century, corn and tobacco were a factor of development, the latter until its industrialization and export to Europe through way of “English tobacco” processed in La Factoría (or Casa de la Logia) built in 1916, the English House, the Walled House in the municipality of Ambalema. Then the irrigation districts of the Saldaña Coello and Recio rivers are developed, which throughout Tolima allow the cultivation of rice and cotton in vast extensions of the department with a center in the municipality of El Espinal, agroindustry then being the development pole for the department making it the first producer of rice, second of cotton. The coffee culture of which the department of Tolima is its third producer at the national level has a seat in the mountain municipalities, highlighting those of Líbano, Anzoátegui, Santa Isabel, Ibagué, Murillo, Chaparral, Roncesvalles, Dolores and Planadas, among others.

The department has great wealth of fish from extraction from natural sources such as the Magdalena and Saldaña rivers and as an aquaculture industry established in the Prado electrical reservoir. There are also among the departments with cattle herds with diversity in pure breeds for the production of meat or cheese in Roncesvalles and milk for national consumption.

Tourism

With tourism as a green industry, the department of Tolima developed important tourist centers in the municipalities called "Tierra Caliente", which have water parks, rafting on the Sumapaz de Melgar river, Carmen de Apicalá, Coello, Flandes and Suarez. To the north of the department with Mariquita, Honda, Ambalema and Falan with colonial historical tourism in combination with water parks. To the south we find tourism of the hot land with the Prado dam focused on sport fishing and water sports framed in regional Amerindian expressions in ceramics where the chamba and basketry, made by the Pijao indigenous communities and with landscapes such as the Cerro del Pacandé and the Tatacoa Desert on the western bank, nestled in the Magdalena River valley in the municipality of Natagaima. In the center of the department, the municipalities of Ibagué, Murillo and Líbano with the Los Nevados National Park promote ecological tourism and mountain sports such as climbing.

Mining

The gold mineral wealth of the department is recognized since pre-Hispanic periods when the Pijao ethnic groups traded this material and manufactured tools and gold elements for personal use, with permanent exploitation in the colony and for more than 500 years they have exhausted some of its sources, mining is currently carried out, with the artisanal exploitation of alluvial gold in the municipality of Coyaima, Ataco on the Saldaña or Amoya river and the exploitation of tunnels on the slopes of the Central Cordillera and new deposits have been discovered. Its gold reserves are being explored by the company AngloGold Ashanti, the project is being developed in the area called La Colosa in the vicinity of the municipality of Cajamarca. This project has generated regional interest due to its magnitude, job creation and the huge royalties it could leave if it is exploited, although with many concerns regarding the negative impact that such exploitation could have on the environment.

Textile industry

The cotton agroindustry fostered the development of the textile industry in the department with textile industrial centers in the city of Ibagué. Tolima's industry, as has been happening with the country, has been losing participation in GDP, while services are gaining more relevance, a phenomenon known by researchers as deindustrialization. Within the services sector, commerce, public administration and other services to the community stand out.

Symbols

Anthem

• Wikisource contains digitized documents on: Himno de Tolima (Colombia).

The Bunde Tolimense, whose music was composed by the maestro Alberto Castilla and Nicanor Velásquez Ortiz added verses, is sung in all the protocol acts of Tolima. By ordinance number 023 of June 21, 2001, it was declared as the official letter of the anthem of the department of Tolima, the Tolima bunde was composed in the municipality of El Espinal, where in the center of the municipal seat, a sculpture is placed as a tribute to this.

Flag

Flag of the department of Tolima

The flag is a burgundy bicolor on gold. Adopted by the Department of Tolima, it consists of two horizontal stripes, one red and the other yellow.

«To be gentle men, paint with a broom that is a colourful thing»

Fernando de Oviedo

Red wine represents the color of the bija that the pre-Columbian natives used on their skin. and yellow represents gold and the riches of the department.

Tolima department shield

Shield

It was adopted by Law of December 7, 1815, in Honda, by the United Chambers of the Province of Mariquita, sanctioned by the hero José León Armero, governor and general commander. In 1861, it was adopted for the Sovereign State of Tolima, by Decree of April 12, signed by General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, as recorded in the official register No. 12 of September 7, 1861.

Traditions

Music is the distinctive cultural expression of Tolima. Its capital, Ibagué, is known as the Musical Capital of Colombia with education provided from the Tolima Conservatory of Departmental order at the university level and the Ibagué Conservatory, of Municipal order, for primary, secondary and higher technical education, but also the Festivities of San Pedro in El Espinal, of San Juan in Natagaima, the National Music Festival "Mangostino de Oro" in Mariquita and in Ibagué the Colombian Folk Festival, the National Duet Contest "Príncipes de la Canción" and the National Composition Contest "Leonor Buenaventura". The Ibagué Music Conservatory is a nationally recognized music school.

Colombian Folk Festival

Education

The department has a wide educational offer: the University of Tolima, as the main public university with branches in several cities of the department, in addition to the National Open and Distance University, and in private higher education, the University of Ibagué, formerly known as Ibagué University Corporation, Cooperative University of Colombia, Antonio Nariño University, National Unified Corporation of Higher Education, Santo Tomás University, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Remington University Corporation, San Martín University Foundation, Catholic University of Colombia, Corporation John F. Kennedy, Andean Area University Foundation and Uniminuto.

Illustrious people

The department of Tolima has given the country rulers such as: José León Armero, José María Melo, Manuel Murillo Toro, Miguel Abadía Méndez, Alfonso López Pumarejo, Darío Echandía, Gabriel París and Deogracias Fonseca Espinosa; the last two belonged to the military junta constituted in May 1957.

The Musicians: Cantalicio Rojas, Gentil Montaña, Garzón y Collazos, Luis Enrique Aragón Farkas, Régulo Ramírez, Patrocinio Ortiz, Emeterio and Felipe 'Los Tolimenses' and Silva and Villalba, Onofre Bonilla, Miguel Antonio Ospina Gómez. Also famous is the engineer Eduardo Aldana, who was part of the National Mission of Wise Men, chaired by Gabriel García Márquez, and integrated by the national government in 1991 to make a diagnosis on education in Colombia or the renowned historian Hugo Viana Castro with documents complete historical records on independence in the department of Tolima.

Facade of the Tolima Art Museum.

Its writers Albeiro Arias, Diego Fallon, James Cañón, William Ospina, Arturo Camacho Ramírez, Juan Lozano y Lozano, Martín Pomala, Luz Stella, María Cristina Rivera Rojas, Orlando Pardo, Eutiquio Leal, Jorge Eliecer Pardo, Héctor Sánchez, Magil, Benhur Sánchez, Oscar Perdomo Gamboa, Dagoberto Páramo Morales, Tiberio Murcia Godoy, Álvaro Cuartas Coymat.

The painters Darío Ortiz Vidales, Darío Jiménez, Jorge Elías Triana, Darío Ortiz Robledo, Carlos Granada, Julio Fajardo, Carlos Alfonso Vargas;

Historians Eduardo Santa, Gonzalo Sánchez, Hermes Tovar Pinzón, Hernán Clavijo, Tiberio Murcia Godoy, Álvaro Cuartas Coymat.

Land of jurists such as José Joaquín Caicedo Castilla, Antonio Rocha Alvira, Alfonso Reyes Echandía, Alberto Camacho Angarita, Carlos Peláez Trujillo, Ricardo Bonilla Gutiérrez, Guillermo González Charry, Jaime Vidal Perdomo, Hernando Franco Idárraga, José Ignacio Narváez, Francisco Yezid Triana, Miguel Ángel García, Luis Fernando Alvarado, Jaime Orlando Santofimio, Carlos Ariel Sánchez, Alfonso Gómez Méndez, Germán G. Góngora, Eduardo Montealegre Lynnet, Augusto Trujillo Muñoz, Simón de la Pava Salazar, Leovigildo Bernal Andrade, César Castro Perdomo, Cesáreo Rocha Ochoa, Ernesto Rengifo García and Flavio Rodríguez Arce among others.

In Tolima, highly prestigious scientific researchers have been born in different areas of knowledge: Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, Eduardo Aldana Valdés, and Dagoberto Páramo Morales.

Gastronomy

Piglet

Tolimense woman with bed.

Among the typical foods, one of the most famous is the suckling pig. A dish based on the meat of a suckling pig or pig stuffed with peas, mixed inside the suckling pig itself. This is baked, leaving the golden and toasted skin of the suckling pig. It is served with a portion of the leather and occasionally with bland, a kind of custard made with wheat flour and a little sugar. To finish the suckling pig dish, it is ideally served in a Bijao leaf, similar to a banana leaf, passed over the flame, although this leaf is not edible.

Tolimense tamale

It consists of a preparation of dry peas, beef, chicken and pork meat, egg, potato, carrot and seasonings. The wrapper of the mixture is made with banana leaves that, in addition to constituting its characteristic presentation, also contributes to the flavor of the dish. It is traditionally accompanied with chocolate and white arepa, almojábanas, achiras or pandeyucas.

The Mayor's Office of Ibagué through Decree 265 of 2002 declared June 24 the day of the tamale, as a celebration of the day of San Juan.

Chicken stew

It is a typical soup cooked on a wood stove that is made up of chicken leg, green plantain, cassava, potato, arracacha, squash, tomato and long onion stew, corn on the cob, garlic and coriander. It can be accompanied with rice and avocado.

Black pudding

They are sausages made from liquid blood and pig guts to fill, coriander, plants such as mint and pennyroyal, salt, pepper, rice and peas. They are served at barbecues and outdoor gatherings, accompanied with chorizo, Creole or salty potatoes, guacamole, arepas and corn on the cob.