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

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

(''

municipio ' (, ) and ' () are country subdivisions in Italy and several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. They are often translated as "municipality". In the English language, a municipality often is defined as relating to a single city or ...

'') and capital of

Azua Province Azua () is a province which is collectively one of the thirty-two provinces of the Dominican Republic. It is divided into 10 municipalities (the same as Santiago) and its capital city is Azua de Compostela. It is bordered by the provinces of La ...

in the southern region of

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

. 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 , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

History

The territory was part of the chiefdom of Maguana, one of the five Taino chiefdoms in the island. Christopher Columbus 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'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Sp ...

) 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 the first governor of Cuba. In 1511 he led the successful conquest and colonization of Cuba. As the first governor of the island, he establ ...

(conqueror of Cuba), during the government of Don

Nicolás de Ovando Frey Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres (1460 – 29 May 1511 or 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 (Hispaniola) from 1502 until 1509, sen ...

. The famous conqueror of Mexico

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

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 servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

(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 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 some fields, mechanization includes the ...

. 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, 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 the 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 Hemisph ...

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 semi-ar ...

(

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

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

Notable residents

* Maikel Franco (born 1992), baseball player *

Geovanny Vicente Geovanny Vicente-Romero is a Dominican political strategist, lawyer, columnist, international consultant and university professor who teaches strategic communications at Columbia University as an associate lecturer. He specializes in public poli ...

(born 1986),

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by t ...

columnist, political strategist and professor * Yennsy Díaz (born 1996), baseball player * Edna Garrido Ramírez (1913-2010),

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

* Francisca Lachapel (born 1989), actress, TV host

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