San Andrés Semetabaj () is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

Sololá department __NOTOC__ Sololá is a city in Guatemala. It is the capital of the department of Sololá and the administrative seat of Sololá municipality. It is located close to Lake Atitlan. The name is a Hispanicized form of its pre-Columbian name, one sp ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. According to Jorge Luis Arriola's ''Geonimias de Guatemala'' (English:''Name origins of geographic locations in Guatemala''), Semetabaj means "stone of glass-like appearance" and originates from the Spanish word "semet", which means : bottle or flask and, by extension, glass, and by the k'akch'iquel "abaj" which means "stone". Originally, it was called San Andrés Limetabaj.

History

The oldest reference of San Andrés Semetabaj after the

Spanish conquest of Guatemala In a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonisers gradually incorporated the territory that became the modern country of Guatemala into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. Before the conquest, this te ...

is in the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

convent report written by friar Francisco de Zuasa in 1689, who said that San Andrés Semetabaj was a small town under the jurisdiction of the convent in Panajachel, with population 315 (297 natives and 18

criollos In Hispanic America, criollo () is a term used originally to describe people of full Spanish descent born in the viceroyalties. In different Latin American countries, the word has come to have different meanings, mostly referring to the local ...

). In his ''Descripción Geográfico-Moral de la Diósesis de Goathemala'' (English:''Moral-geographic description of the Guatemalan diocese''), archbishop

Pedro Cortés y Larraz Pedro Cortés y Larraz (Belchite, Zaragoza, 6 July 1712 - Zaragoza, 7 July 1787) was Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala, Archbishop of Guatemala between 1767 and 1779 and bishop of Tortosa between 1780 and 1786. Biography Early life Grad ...

, written in 1770 after his ecclesiastical visit to his new archidiocese, talks about the San Andrés Tzemetabah town, which, with a population of 320 people was an annex to the San Francisco Panajachel parish.

Annual fair

The annual fair in honor to Saint Andrew Apostle takes places during the last five days of November, being the main day 30 November, the celebration of the Apostle.

Climate

San Andrés Semetabaj has temperate climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Csb'').

Geographic location

The municipal capital is 1945 m above sea level. The municipal capital is reachable through a paved road and through the "Las Trampas" access road, which merges with the CA1 highway (Inter American Highway, km 117) and has a length of 22 km.

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

is 143 km away from San Andrés Semetabaj to the East.

Notes and references

References

Bibliography

External links

San Andrés Semetabaj
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Andres Semetabaj Municipalities of the Sololá Department