Carmen Pampa is a community in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

situated 112 km from

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

. Carmen Pampa is in the municipality of

Coroico Coroico is a town in Nor Yungas Province, in the La Paz Department, Bolivia, La Paz Department of western Bolivia. History Coroico Viejo (Old Coroico) was founded above the river Quri Wayq'u (Quechua language, Quechua ''quri'' gold, ''wayq'u'' va ...

, the capital of the Nor Yungas Province of the

La Paz Department, Bolivia The La Paz Department of Bolivia comprises with a 2012 census population of 2,706,359 inhabitants. It is situated at the western border of Bolivia, sharing Lake Titicaca with adjacent Peru. It contains the '' Cordillera Real'', which reaches ...

. According to

Holdridge life zones The Holdridge life zones system is a global bioclimatic scheme for the classification of land areas. It was first published by Leslie Holdridge in 1947, and updated in 1967. It is a relatively simple system based on few empirical data, giving ob ...

classification, it is ecologically a premontane tropical moist forest. The population is composed mainly of

Aymara people Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...

, mostly farmers. The community also hosts the

Unidad Académica Campesina-Carmen Pampa The Unidad Académica Campesina-Carmen Pampa (UAC-Carmen Pampa) is a satellite campus of the Catholic University of Bolivia founded in 1993 to serve the rural poor of Bolivia.Carmen Pampa Fund. n.d. History and Mission of the College. Available ...

(UAC-Carmen Pampa) and the San Francisco Xavier High School.

History

The community was founded with the repartition of land to ''patrón'' Augusto Vicente Pijoán after the

Bolivian War of Independence Bolivian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Bolivia ** Bolivian people ** Demographics of Bolivia ** Culture of Bolivia * SS ''Bolivian'', a British-built standard cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries ...

. The community was named for the

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or Virgin of Carmel, is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order, particularly within the Catholic Church. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Ca ...

, chosen by Matilde Belmonte, mother of the ''patrón'' of the new ''hacienda''. After Bolivia's

agrarian reform Agrarian reform can refer either, narrowly, to government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of agricultural land (see land reform) or, broadly, to an overall redirection of the agrarian system of the country, which often includes land re ...

, most of the land was given to the hacienda's peons, and the remaining land was sold to Carlos López Videla Guamán.Castro Condori, Y. (2010). Rescate del patrimonio cultural de la comunidad de Carmen Pampa del municipio de Coroico a través de una reseña histórica para el aprovechamiento turístico (thesis for licenciatura degree requirement). Carmen Pampa:UAC-Carmen Pampa, Universidad Católica Boliviana "San Pablo". Xavierian brothers bought land in the Carmen Pampa to open a high school in 1962. The Colegio San Francisco Xavier, under the direction of Brother Niles "Nilo" Cullen, received the best students from all over the

Prelature A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

(later,

Diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

) of Coroico, then under Msgr. Thomas Manning. The ideals of the high school were "''Trabajo, Estudio, Deporte y Religión''" ("Work, Study, Sports and Religion"). With the departure of Brother Nilo from Carmen Pampa in 1983, Franciscan Sister Mary Damon Nolan was made principal. The Xaverian Brothers closed the high school in 1997 and left the infrastructure to the UAC-Carmen Pampa. The UAC-Carmen Pampa, part of the Universidad Católica Boliviana "San Pablo", was founded in Carmen Pampa in 1993 by Sister Mary Damon Nolan. Its mission is to make higher education available to young people from rural areas, and offers a ''Licenciatura'' (B.S.-equivalent) in Agronomy, Veterinary/Animal Science, Nursing, Education and Tourism.UAC-Carmen Pampa. (n.d.). Oferta académica. Disponible en http://www.uac-cp.edu.bo/oferta/ . Consulted 2011-01-17.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Unidad Académica Campesina-Carmen Pampa

Xaverian Brothers
Populated places in La Paz Department (Bolivia)