El Callao is a town of

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. It is the capital of

El Callao Municipality The El Callao Municipality is one of the 11 municipalities ( municipios) that makes up the Venezuelan state of Bolívar and, according to the 2011 census by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, the municipality has a population of ...

of the Bolívar State. The gold mine at El Callao started in 1871, was for a time one of the richest in the world, and the goldfields as a whole saw over a million ounces exported between 1860 and 1883. The gold mining was dominated by immigrants from the British Isles and the British West Indies, giving an appearance of almost creating an English colony on Venezuelan territory. The real number of inhabitants may be five times higher than the official one, which is around 25.000. This is due to gold mines in the area. El Callao stands out for being a

multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

Venezuelan city, where diverse mixes and variants of Afro-Caribbean and

Antillean The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...

culture coexist. Until the middle of the 20th century, when it began to be regulated by the national government, the majority of the inhabitants of El Callao spoke

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and Creole languages such as

patois ''Patois'' (, pl. same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon o ...

, which has mainly French influence, language that has been lost in generations, unlike the rest of the Spanish-speaking population in the country.

History

The city was founded in the mid-19th centuryMunicipality El Callao
/ref> by Venezuelans, Africans, Antilleans, English, Spanish, Brazilians and French who explored the area, hence the various languages (patois) and cuisines descended from these ethnic groups. One of the most outstanding facts was that in

1876 Events January–March * January 1 ** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin. ** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol. * February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs is ...

, this population prepared and witnessed the first soccer game in

. El Callao and some neighboring towns such as

Guasipati Guasipati is a town that serves as the administrative seat An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countri ...

Tumeremo Tumeremo is a town in the state of Bolívar in eastern Venezuela. It is the shire town of the Sifontes Municipality. History Its first settlers were Guayan Indians and Kamaracotos, coming from the savanna of the Divina Pastora and Tupuquen l ...

, El Dorado, Kavanayen and

Santa Elena de Uairen Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

are the areas with more foreign languages in Venezuela, due to the great migration of foreigners who settled in search of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

. The strongest established languages were the

, the French and the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, with the lowest influence being

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

Carnivals of El Callao

The colorful carnivals of El Callao have already gained fame and tradition with the peculiar Guianan calypso that originated with the arrival of the Antilleans from the

island of Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmo ...

who brought their music , gastronomy and its typical English, mixed with the local, giving rise to the local

and other customs. Notable figure of the carnival troupes and its main sponsor was "Madame" Isidora Agnes, popularly called ''Negra Isidora'', who gave great importance to this show. The main instruments are the bumbac, the rallo, the bell and the Venezuelan cuatro. The calypso was a musical genre in which they represented the work of the day to day. It was created as a protest song for the government to let them work. The carnival is one of the most important in Venezuela, and they say that it is the most awaited party by tourists and inhabitants of the area. It is famous for its colorful and strong cultural richness, and for its catchy calypso music. It has its main characters such as madams, mediopintos, fantasies and devils. There are also other characters created such as the miner, the mamarracho and the black girls. The founder of the carnivals of El Callao was Isidora Agnes (La Negra Isidora). First they took to the streets in protest of hard work, then parties were organized for the holiday.

References

Populated places in Bolívar (state) {{BolívarVE-geo-stub