Ochomogo is a location in the province of Cartago, Costa Rica. It is in a mountain pass between the cities of San José and Cartago. It was the site of the Battle of Ochomogo (5 April 1823) between those who wanted Costa Rica to join the newly formed

First Mexican Empire The Mexican Empire ( es, Imperio Mexicano, ) was a constitutional monarchy, the first independent government of Mexico and the only former colony of the Spanish Empire to establish a monarchy after independence. It is one of the few modern-era, ...

and those who preferred independence.

Name

The name "Ochomogo" comes from the

Chorotega language Mangue, also known as Chorotega,Daniel G. Brinton. 1886. Notes on the Mangue; An Extinct Dialect Formerly Spoken in Nicaragua Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , Vol. 23, No. 122 (Apr., 1886), pp. 238-257 is an extinct Oto-Mangue ...

, and means "the first man". He was a companion of the god

Cipactonal Cipactonal is the Aztec god of astrology and calendars. Oxomoco and Cipactonal were said to be the first human couple, and the Aztec comparison to Adam and Eve in regard to human creation and evolution. They bore a son named Piltzin-tecuhtli, who ...

, one of the creators of the Aztec calendar.

Location

Ochomogo is in San Nicolás, Cartago, Provincia de Cartago, Costa Rica. Ochomogo is just south of the Autopista Florencio del Castillo, which connects San José to Cartago, and is on the northeastern outskirts of Cartqago. The

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

is Cfb : Temperate oceanic climate. The left-lateral strike-slip Ochomogo fault is about long, running between the south of San José and the southern slopes of the

Irazú Volcano The Irazú Volcano ( es, Volcán Irazú) is an active volcano in Costa Rica, situated in the Cordillera Central close to the city of Cartago. The name could come from either the combination of "ara" (point) and "tzu" (thunder) or a corruptio ...

. The slip rate is no less than per year, and no more than per year. At one time there was a plaque in Ochomogo that said "Continental division of waters". This could mean that the location was at the center of America, but more plausibly meant that it was on the drainage divide between the Atlantic (Cartago) and Pacific (San José) slopes.

History

The

Ochomogo War The Ochomogo War was a civil war fought in Costa Rica, the first in its history, and was fought shortly after the country became independent from Spain. The most important event was the Battle of Ochomogo (5 April 1823) which was fought on Oc ...

in 1823 was won by the Republicans, and caused the capital of Costa Rica to be transferred from Cartago to Sane José. During the

League War The League War was the second civil war of Costa Rica, as a member state of the Federal Republic of Central America. It passed between September and October 1835 in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Its immediate trigger was the repeal of the ...

in 1835 there was another confrontation in Alto de Ochomogo where the people of

Alajuela Alajuela () is a district in the Alajuela canton of the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica. As the seat of the Municipality of Alajuela canton, it is awarded the status of city. By virtue of being the city of the first canton of the province, it i ...

, Heredia and Cartago fought the people of San José, who were again victorious. A railway was built through the Ochomogo Pass in the 1870s to link Cartago to San José. In 1948 the Ochomogo Pact (''Pacto Ochomogo'') resulted from a conversation in Ochomogo between José Figueres Ferrer, leader of the National Liberation Army, and

Manuel Mora Manuel Mora Valverde (27 August 1909 – 29 December 1994) was a communist and labor leader in Costa Rica. He was born in San José and helped to found the Workers and Farmers Party (later the People's Vanguard Party) in 1931. For his cont ...

, leader of the Communist Party. They agreed to avoid a clash in San José between the conflicting forces, which would have led to a bloodbath. This resulted in the end of the Costa Rican Civil War. In the night of 9–10 December 1963 torrential rain on the Irazú Volcano caused the Reventado River to widen to over , carrying a heavy load of rocks and mud. The flood destroyed buildings, roads and cemeteries, including 400 homes, and over 15 people died. Many of the inhabitants moved up to Alto de Ochomogo.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ochomogo Populated places in Cartago Province