Aburrá Valley

Aburrá Valley (in Spanish "Valle de Aburrá"), is the natural basin of the Medellín River and one of the most populated valleys of Colombia in its Andean Region with near 3 million inhabitants. The valley is located on the Central Range, over the Antioquian Mountain just between the Magdalean and Cauca valleys from east to west. The name "Aburrá" comes from an ancient language spoken in the place by the "Aburreans" (Aburraes) before the Spaniards settled the place during the 16th century.

The valley is oriented from south to north being the south the highest level and the north the low level. The altitudes of the mountains around the valley (west and east mountains), can reach up to 2,800 meters above the sea level. The lowest level is 1,300 meters above the sea level. From its north natural limit to its southern part, the valley is 60 kilometers long, while there are several varieties in its wide, being the wider part the one that corresponds to the municipality of Medellín with 80 to 90 kilometers and the narrowest the part that corresponds to the municipality of Copacabana with 30 kilometers.

History

Aborigins

There are archaeological evidences of human settlements in the Aburrá Valley since 10,500 years by hunters and collectors. The Spaniard conquers of the Valley found groups like Aburrá, Yamesí, Pequé, Ebejico, Norisco and Maní that were in the Valley since about the 5th century. The Aburrá people gave the name to the Valley. They lived from agriculture (maize, beans and cotton), textile weaving and decoration, commercialization of salt and goldsmith. Under the Spaniard rule they lost the possession of the land and were located in mines and feudalist systems. Sickness brought by the Europeans, the heavy work and mistreatments caused their extinction, at least from the Valley. Descendants and peoples related to the Aburrá Valley ancient ancestors could be found today in other regions of the Antioquia State like Urabá and the West and South regions.

The Spaniard discovering of the Valley

In August 1541 Marshal Jorge Robledo was in what is today Heliconia, when he saw at the distant what he thought was a valley. He sent Jerónimo Luis Tejelo to explore the territory and Tejelo arrived during the night of August 23 to a plain field. The Spaniards gave the name of Valley of Saint Bartholomew that was to be changed for the Aboriginal one of Aburrá that is translated as the "Painters" due to the textile decorations of the natives. [Restrepo Uribe, Jorge: Medellín, su Origen, Progreso y Desarrollo (tr. "Medellín, Its Origin, Progress and Development"), Ed. Servigráficas, Medellín, 1981. ISBN 84-300-3286-X.] However, the conquerors did not feel attracted by the valley due to the lack of wealth and the bellicosity of the aborigines.

In 1574 Gaspar de Rodas asked to the Antioquia's Cabildo four miles of land to establish herds and food stays in the valley. The Cabildo granted three miles. [Restrepo Uribe, Jorge: Medellín, su Origen, Progreso y Desarrollo.]

In 1616 the Colonial Visitor Francisco de Herrera y Campuzano founded a settlement with 80 aborigines naming it "Poblado de San Lorenzo" in what is today "El Poblado Square". In 1646 a racist Colonial law ordered the separation of aborigines from mestizos and mulattos and for this reason the colonial administration began the construction of a new town in Aná, where is today the Berrio Square and where it was built a place called "Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Aná" ("Our Lady of Candelaria of Aná"). Three years after they started the construction of the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Candelaria, rebuilt at the end of the 18th century. [Restrepo Uribe, Jorge: Medellín, su Origen, Progreso y Desarrollo.]

The development of Medellín

In 1674 Medellín became the provincial capital of Antioquia and it made that the Valley gained a big importance for the region. The new provincial capital would become during the next years the axe of human development in the valley. The new city was located until the 19th century in what was known as "El Sitio de Aná" (nowadays the Berrio Square along the Santa Elena Creek and the Medellín River. Places like El Poblado, Barrio La América, Barrio Robledo, Barrio Manrique, were just rural townships. Other towns like Envigado and Bello were very small villages.

During the first part of the 20th century Medellín would start its industrial revolution attracting a great number of farmers from differents regions of Antioquia. The small provincial capital became an overspopulated city by the 1960s with more than 1 million inhabitants. This had a direct effect over the other villages in the Aburrá Valley: many of them were integrated in the growing city like Robledo, La América, La Floresta, El Poblado, Manrique and others became themselves cities to be a part of the Metropolitan Area of Medellín by the 1970s.

The Aburraen cities

The Aburrá Valley has ten cities within its mountains:

* Barbosa, located in the lowest level of the Valley.
* Bello, the second most populated city after Medellín.
* Caldas, located in the highest level of the valley.
* Copacabana, the narrowest part of the valley.
* Envigado
* Girardota
* Itagüí
* La Estrella
* Medellín, the more plain, the wider and the more populated part of the valley.
* Sabaneta

Description

All the flat areas of the valley is completed populated. The majority of the people live in Medellín and the density is less toward south and toward north. The Central Range makes two branches to form the valley and it is crossed by the Medellín River that has its beginning in Caldas and ends in the Porce River.

References

External links

* [http://www.metropol.gov.co Metropolitan Area of Medellín Official Site]