Tucurrique

Tucurrique is a district of the Jiménez canton, in the province of Cartago, Costa Rica.

It is one of the eight existing Municipal District Councils in Costa Rica.

History

Tucurrique is one of the oldest towns in Costa Rica. At the time of the Conquest, few people lived there, but they became extinct, perhaps due to the diseases brought by the Spanish.

The king of the Huetares of Oriente, Fernando Correque, who originally had other residences, established his court in Tucurrique in the late 1560s or early 1570s.

According to a document from 1593,

"Don Fernando Correque was a natural lord of this land to the place of Cuquerrique and was already fed up a mountain for having died the Indians who lived there and made him pray and made his cssas... and many other Indians of the other people went with him to make him the houses and simenteras... ". In this way Tucurrique, also called Cuquerrique, became an indigenous center of first importance, since "wheresoever the said don Fernando was populated they had a head for being lord of all of them and there they all came to his call and to serve him and brought him tribute and present..."

The historian Ricardo Fernández Guardia identifies it with the town called Ibuxibux; however, there are documents that indicate that they were different towns, and that Tucurrique was also known by the names of Taquetaque and Uriuri, which in the Huetar language meant respectively lords and sons of lords.

Without legal powers to do so, Governor Alonso Anguciana of Gamboa granted Pedro de Ribero the Corroce encomienda, in which Tucurrique was intended to be included, but Governor Diego de Artieda Chirino y Uclés awarded the Tucurrique encomienda to the King Fernando Correque himself.

Ribero filed a lawsuit, and in 1590 the interim governor Juan Velázquez Ramiro de Logrosán ruled in his favor and ordered to strip Alonso Correque, Fernando Correque's successor, of the encomienda.

In 1591 the Royal Court of Guatemala erected the Corregimiento of Tucurrique, which was not subject to the authority of the governor of Costa Rica and which was later incorporated into the Corregimiento of Francisco de Ocampo Golfín. Later it was part of the Turrialba township and the Suerre mayor's office.

In Executive Decree 12 of April 19, 1911, Tucurrique is segregated from Turrialba and becomes part of the canton of Jiménez. Segregated from Paraíso canton.

Location

It is located about 6 km southeast of the Juan Viñas cantonal capital, on the banks of the Reventazón River.

Geography

Tucurrique has an area of 33.52 km² and an average altitude of 777 m above sea level. n. m.

Demography

For the year 2022, Tucurrique has an estimated population of 5,601 inhabitants, and for the last census carried out, in 2011, Tucurrique had a population of 4,872 inhabitants.

Localities

• People: Alto Campos, Bajo Congo, Duan, Esperanza, Hamaca (part), Sabanilla, San Antonio del Monte, Volconda, Vueltas.

Economy

The economic activity is basically agricultural, with livestock and the planting of sugar cane and pejibaye.

Transportation

Roads

The district is crossed by the following national highway routes:

• National Route 225