Monte Cristi Province

Coordinates: 19°51′0″N 71°39′0″W / 19.85°N 71.65°W / 19.85; -71.65

Monte Cristi
Province
Coastline of Monte Cristi
Country	Dominican Republic
Capital	San Fernando de Monte Cristi
- elevation	16 m (52 ft)
- coordinates	19°51′0″N 71°39′0″W / 19.85°N 71.65°W / 19.85; -71.65
Area	1,924.35 km2 (743 sq mi)
Population	111,014 (2002)
Density	57.7 / km2 (149 / sq mi)
Province since	1879
Subdivisions	6 municipalities 4 municipal districts
Congresspersons	1 Senator 2 Deputies
Timezone	EST (UTC-4)
Area code	1-809 1-829 1-849
ISO 3166-2	DO-15
Postal Code	62000
Location of the Monte Cristi Province

Monte Cristi (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmonte ˈkɾisti]) is a province in the north-west of the Dominican Republic. The capital city is San Fernando de Monte Cristi (usually simply Monte Cristi). The spelling Montecristi is also seen.

Municipalities and municipal districts

The province as of June 20 2006 is divided into the following municipalities (municipios) and municipal districts (distrito municipal - D.M.) within them:^[1]

Castañuela Palo Verde (D.M.) Guayubín Cana Chapetón (D.M.) Hatillo Palma (D.M.) Villa Elisa (D.M.) Las Matas de Santa Cruz Pepillo Salcedo San Fernando de Monte Cristi Villa Vásquez

The following is a sortable table of the municipalities and municipal districts with population figures as of the 2008 census. Urban population are those living in the seats (cabeceras literally heads) of municipalities or of municipal districts. Rural population are those living in the districts (Secciones literally sections) and neighborhoods (Parajes literally stops) outside of them.^[2]

Name	Total population	Urban population	Rural population
Castañuela	&1000000000002888600000028,886	&1000000000001489200000014,892	&1000000000001399400000013,994
Guayubín	&1000000000005687100000056,871	&1000000000002984100000029,841	&1000000000002703000000027,030
Las Matas de Santa Cruz	&10000000000100089000000100,089	&1000000000008680200000086,802	&1000000000001328700000013,287
Pepillo Salcedo	&1000000000001698700000016,987	&100000000000078680000007,868	&100000000000091190000009,119
San Fernando de Monte Cristi	&1000000000009948600000099,486	&1000000000009057100000090,571	&100000000000089150000008,915
Villa Vásquez	&1000000000004468900000044,689	&1000000000002244100000022,441	&1000000000002224800000022,248
Monte Cristi province	&10000000000347008000000347,008	&10000000000252415000000252,415	&1000000000009459300000094,593

For comparison with the municipalities and municipal districts of other provinces see the list of municipalities and municipal districts of the Dominican Republic.

Also see Panama hats: Every Panama hat is unique as the making of the hats is a cottage industry and some of the finest panamas are made in Montecristi. The finest woven hats can take up to 6 months to weave and can command prices of up to £1,000. The best hats have to be woven in the right conditions and especially humidity. The weavers split the fibre razor thin and plait ring after ring of palm fibre constantly dipping their finger tips into water.

The finest panamas have a very silky texture and when held up to the light you can see a spiral of rings together with the weaver’s signature. These rings are called ‘vueltas’ and the more there are determines the quality of the hat. The cheaper quality hats may only have around ten ‘vueltas’ whereas a Montecristi Superino may have up to forty.

Panamas are exported from Ecuador in the form of hoods. These are then blocked by specialist hat factories into the two principal shapes which is the Trilby and the Folding Panama.

References

1. ^ Oficina Nacional de Estadistica, Departamento de Cartografia, Division de Limites y Linderos. "Listado de Codigos de Provincias, Municipio y Distritos Municipales, Actualizada a Junio 20 del 2006" (in Spanish). http://www.one.gob.do/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=113. Retrieved 2007-01-24. 
2. ^ Oficina Nacional de Estadística. "VIII Censo 2002 Poplación y Vivienda" (in Spanish) (PDF). http://one.gob.do/censo/volumen_I_pdf.zip. Retrieved 2007-01-24. 

External links

• (Spanish) Oficina Nacional de Estadística, Statistics Portal of the Dominican Republic
• (Spanish) Oficina Nacional de Estadística, Maps with administrative division of the provinces of the Dominican Republic, downloadable in PDF format
• (English) / Airport Information in Montecristi / FlyDominicanRepublic.com