Chipatá is a town and municipality in the Vélez Province, part of the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia. The urban centre is situated at an altitude of at a distance of from the department capital

Bucaramanga Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and has the ninth-largest population in the country, with 6 ...

and at from the national capital Bogotá. The municipality borders Vélez in the south and west, La Paz in the north, San Benito,

Güepsa Guepsa is a town and municipality in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia. References Municipalities of Santander Department {{Santander-geo-stub ...

and Barbosa in the east.Official website Chipatá
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Etymology

Chipatá is named after ''cacique Chipatá'' and means in

Chibcha The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan lan ...

: ''chi'' = "our", ''pa'' = "father", ''tá'' = "farmland"; "farmland of our father".

History

The area of Chipatá was one of the northernmost territories of the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

, bordered by

Guane Guane is a municipality and town in the Pinar del Río Province of Cuba. It was founded in 1602. Geography The municipality is divided into the barrios of Cabo de San Antonio y La Fe, Catalina, Cortés, Hato de Guane, Isabel Rubio (Paso Real d ...

territories to the north and east. It was ruled by a '' cacique'', who was independent within the loose Muisca Confederation. Modern Chipatá was the first settlement founded by conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and his brother, on March 8, 1537, during his expedition of conquest. After the local elections of October 2015, where Belisario Romero Chávez gained the position of mayor with a difference of 44 votes, supporters of his contestant Emilse Santamaría Castillo destroyed a school and molested the former mayor Argemiro Angulo.Mayor molested after local elections of October 25, 2015
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Economy

The main economical activities of Chipatá are

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

and

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

. Among the agricultural products cultivated are

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

blackberries The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family (biology), family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus' ...

pitaya A pitaya () or pitahaya () is the fruit of several different cactus species indigenous to the Americas. Pitaya usually refers to fruit of the genus '' Stenocereus'', while pitahaya or dragon fruit refers to fruit of the genus '' Selenicereus' ...

, aloe, and stevia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chipata, Santander Municipalities of Santander Department Populated places established in 1537 1537 establishments in the Spanish Empire 1537 disestablishments in the Muisca Confederation