Azua de Compostela, also known simply as Azua, is a city,

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

(''

municipio A ' () or ' () is an administrative division in several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. It is often translated as "municipality." It comes from ''mūnicipium'' (), meaning a township. In English, a municipality often is define ...

'') and capital of Azua Province in the southern region of

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. Founded in 1504, Azua is one of the oldest European settlements in the Americas. The town is located 100 kilometres west of the national capital,

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

History

The territory was part of the chiefdom of Maguana, one of the five Taino chiefdoms in the island.

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

encountered great difficulties that forced him and his companions to take refuge in the Bay of Ocoa, in the eastern part of the Azua territory. There he met the resistance of the Great (

Cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

) of Azua Cuyocagua, whom the Admiral tried to subdue without success. The town of Azúa de Compostela was officially founded in 1504 by

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar Diego Velázquez de CuéllarPronounced: (1465 – c. June 12, 1524) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' and ''adelantado'' who was first governor of Cuba. In 1511 he led the successful conquest and colonization of Cuba. As the first governor ...

(conqueror of Cuba), during the government of Don

Nicolás de Ovando Frey Nicolás de Ovando (c. 1460 – 29 May 1511Some sources place his death in 1518.) was a Spanish soldier from a noble family and a Knight of the Order of Alcántara, a military order of Spain. He was Governor of the Indies in the Columbian ...

. The famous conqueror of Mexico

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

also resided in the town for several years (1504–1511). During his stay in Azua he used to spend his hours of leisure on the Monte Río beach.

Economy

Azua has an active population (of working age) of 23,242 people of which 16,167 work, 69% of the economically active population. Of those who work, 20% are

public servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

(3,232 people). Most of the area of the municipality is concentrated in medium-sized properties, in which combined technology is used, with a predominance of

mechanization Mechanization (or mechanisation) is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text, a machine is defined as follows: In every fields, mechan ...

. Large properties, with more than 800 tasks (one task = 628.83 m²), are in the hands of a few large producers. The municipality has been one of the most benefited with the installation of agro-industrial companies covered by Law 409, which has stimulated the development of the public and private financial sector.

Population

As of the Dominican Republic's 2012

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, the municipality had a total population of 128,264 inhabitants, of which 92,585 lived in urban areas and 35,679 in rural areas. It includes the municipal districts (''distritos municipal'') of Barreras, Barro Arriba, Clavellina, Emma Balaguer Viuda Vallejo, Las Barias-La Estancia, Las Lomas, Los Jovillos, Sabana Yegua and Puerto Viejo. The municipality is divided into 20 neighborhoods, and these in turn into 12 sub-neighborhoods. These are the city's neighborhoods and their respective sub-neighborhoods (in parentheses): Los Cartones, Simón Striddels, La Bombita (Los Solares, Villa Esperanza, Los Acostados, Canta la Rana and San Miguel), Villa Esperanza (Cambodia, Restaurador, Military and Resolí), City Center, Pueblo Abajo, Savica (Framboyán Urbanization), Los Mangos, Buenos Aires (Cañada del Concón or Altos del Cacheo), La Colonia Española, Social Improvement, Pajarito, La Nevera, La Frontera, El Prado, Alto de las Flores, Quisqueya Urbanization (Quisqueya II Urbanization), Juan Pablo Duarte, Acapulco and Los Parceleros.

Climate

Its location in the direct lee of the

trade winds The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere ...

gives Azua de Compostela a

hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''BSh'') in which there is frequently little rainfall outside of the hurricane season from August to October.

Notable people

* Maikel Franco (born 1992), baseball player * Geovanny Vicente (born 1986),

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

columnist, political strategist and professor * Yennsy Díaz (born 1996), baseball player *

Edna Garrido Ramírez Edna Garrido Ramírez (19 June 1913 – 11 April 2010), also known as Edna Garrido de Boggs, was a Dominican Republic, Dominican educator, researcher and folklorist. She is considered a pioneer in the studies of Dominican folklore, for her field ...

(1913–2010),

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

Esteury Ruiz Esteury Ruiz Reyes (born February 15, 1999) is a Dominican professional baseball center fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022 with the San Diego Padres and also played for the Milwaukee ...

(born 1999), baseball player * Francisca Lachapel (born 1989), actress, TV host * Franchy Cordero (born 1994), baseball player

References

External links

Azua de Compostela
(unofficial website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Azua De Compostela Populated places in Azua Province Municipalities of the Dominican Republic Populated places established in 1504