Puerto Tejada () is a town and municipality in the

Cauca Department Cauca Department (, es, Departamento del Cauca) is a Department of Southwestern Colombia. Located in the southwestern part of the country, facing the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Valle del Cauca Department to the north, Tolima Department t ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

History

Puerto Tejada was officially made a town on September 17, 1897, in Monte Oscuro (Dark Mountain), named after General Manuel Tejada Sanchez. During the 18th and 19th centuries there had been uprisings of both black slaves and free blacks in the general area, and maroons had established settlements in Monte Oscuro, which provided great cover because of its dense tropical vegetation. After the abolition of slavery in 1852 the former slaves and the maroons' descendants established themselves as organized communities forming family farms that produced coffee, corn, plantain,

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively ...

and cacao. They were joined by settlers and colonists from Antioquia, Valle and the rest of Cauca. There was a thriving agricultural economy at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Its first inhabitants settled at the banks of the Palo and Paila rivers. With the creation of the town, other towns surged around the area.

References

Municipalities of Cauca Department {{Cauca-geo-stub