Acarigua (), founded as San Miguel de Acarigua in 1620, is a city in northwestern

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, in the northern part of the state of Portuguesa and its former capital. It encompasses the Páez municipality. It is a major commercial center for the northern

Llanos The Llanos ( Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, ...

region of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. It is contiguous with the neighboring city of

Araure Araure () is a town in the Venezuelan state of Portuguesa. This town is the seat of the Araure Municipality and, according to the 2001 Venezuelan census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiri ...

Etymology

The name Acarigua comes from the indigenous word ''Hacarygua'', given to the land by the indigenous Gayón people. The name ''San Miguel de Acarigua,'' given to the area by Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

es, follows the Spanish Catholic tradition of naming cities after saints.

History

The first accounts of the ''Hacarygua'' territory was in the writings of German colonizer Nicolás Federmann, who arrived in one of the area's

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

villages on December 15, 1530. He was headed to southwestern Llanos territory to search for the mythical city of

El Dorado El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...

. In the winter of 1535, German colonizer Jorge Spira sought shelter and food during his travels in what is now Acarigua. It was established as the state capital of Portuguesa in 1927, but ten years later in 1937 Guanare took its place.

Demographics

The city's population was 116,551 in 1990 and was estimated at 208,495 in 2008. In 2012 the population was 143,704. In 2020 the population of the Páez municipality was 216,827.

Religion

Its

Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

''Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Corteza'' is the episcopal see of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Acarigua–Araure The Roman Catholic Diocese of Acarigua–Araure () is a Latin suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan of Barquisimeto in Venezuela. Its cathedral episcopal see is Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Corteza, in the cit ...

Geography

Climate

Acarigua is in a

tropical savanna Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and t ...

wet (Aw) Koppen climate type region.

Fauna

Fauna of the area includes

macaw Macaws are a group of Neotropical parrot, New World parrots that are long-tailed and often colorful, in the Tribe (biology), tribe Arini (tribe), Arini. They are popular in aviculture or as companion parrots, although there are conservation con ...

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

howler monkey Howler monkeys (genus ''Alouatta'', monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are the most widespread primate genus in the Neotropical realm, Neotropics and are among the largest of the New World monkey, platyrrhines along with the muriquis (''Brachyte ...

s, pumas, and

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

s. The ''

Thysania agrippina ''Thysania agrippina'' is a species of moth in the family Erebidae. It was described by Maria Sibylla Merian in her 1705 publication ''Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium,'' and Pieter Cramer provided the formal description of the species ...

'' is one of the world's largest moths, with wings in size, and can be found in Acarigua.

Flora

The saman or ''

Samanea saman ''Samanea saman'' is a species of Flowering plant, flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, now in the Mimosoideae, Mimosoid clade and is native to Central and South America. It is often placed in the genus ''Samanea'', which by yet other aut ...

'' is the most widespread tree throughout the city.

Protected areas

* Parque Musiu Carmelo * Parque Mittar Nakichenovich * Balneario Sabanetica * Balneario el Mamón * Parque Curpa, popularly known as

José Antonio Páez José Antonio Páez Herrera (; 13 June 1790 – 6 May 1873) was a Venezuelan politician and military officer who served as the president of Venezuela three times. The first as the 5th president from 1830 to 1835, the second as the 8th president ...

Park.

Agriculture

Acarigua is a principal commercial center of the northern portion of the

(plains), in which

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...

cashew Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree ''Anacardium occidentale'', in the family Anacardiaceae. It is native to South America and is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple, an accessory fruit. The tree can grow as t ...

bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

(maize), and

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

are the principal products.

Media

Acarigua is home to 3 regional newspapers, and the community TV station Siguaraya TV.

Transport

Acarigua is served by the

Oswaldo Guevara Mujica Airport Oswaldo Guevara Mujica Airport () , is an airport serving Acarigua, a city in the Portuguesa state of Venezuela. The Acarigua VOR-DME (Ident: AGV) and non-directional beacon (Ident: AGV) are located on the field. Airlines and destinations S ...

and the Central Western Railway System. The main access road into the city is the José Antonio Páez Highway.

Sports

It is home to

Portuguesa FC Portuguesa Fútbol Club, usually known simply as Portuguesa, is a Venezuelan professional football club based in Acarigua, that competes in the Primera División. History The club was founded on 10 April 1972, in Acarigua in the northern part ...

, whose home stadium is the

Estadio General José Antonio Paez The Estadio General José Antonio Páez is a sports infrastructure stadium in Acarígua, Venezuela. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home stadium of Portuguesa Fútbol Club the building was built in t ...

. Other sports facilities in the city include the Estadio Bachiller Julio Hernández Molina, the Wilbaldo Zabaleta Indoor Gym, and the Cancha Techada 19 de Abril de la Urb. La Goajira.

Notable people

* Luis Antonio Herrera Campins (1925-2007), was President of Venezuela''Gaceta Oficial de Venezuela'', period 1979-1984.

References

External links

Archived 2013 website
{{Authority control Cities in Portuguesa (state) Populated places established in 1620 1620 establishments in the Spanish Empire