Concepción () is a

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

in the

Sololá department Sololá is a department in the west of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Sololá. Lake Atitlan is a key feature surrounded by a number of the municipalities. Municipalities # Concepción # Nahualá # Panajachel # San Andrés Semetaba ...

of Guatemala. The outstanding characteristic of the municipality is that 100% of its inhabitants are native people.

History

Spanish Colony

There is not any exact record of the exact foundation date of the town; it is known, however, that there was a time that it was called "Concepción Quechelaj" and "Concepción Paquixalá" according to several documents form the Spanish Colony era. The word "Quechelaj" is from the kakchikel language and means "River of thorns". 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 ...

the town was called "Nuestra Señora de La Concepción" after the

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

. However, the town changed name several times after that. During the Spanish Colony it was part of the Tecpán Atitlán district and when Tecpán became an "alcaldía mayor" (English:Major municipality) of

Sololá __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 ...

Nuestra Señora de La Concepción became part of it, as reported in 1749. Documents from 1765 show its name as "Nuestra Señora de la Concepción Pajixolá". And in 1770, archbishop

Pedro Cortés y Larraz Pedro Cortés y Larraz (Belchite, Zaragoza, 6 July 1712 - Zaragoza, 7 July 1787) was Archbishop of Guatemala between 1767 and 1779 and bishop of Tortosa between 1780 and 1786. Biography Early life Graduated with a doctorate in Spain when he w ...

described the town as "Concepción Kixalá, part of San Francisco Panajachel parish".

After Independence from Spain

According to a record from 1892, Concepción is reported as a municipality of

Sololá Department Sololá is a department in the west of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Sololá. Lake Atitlan is a key feature surrounded by a number of the municipalities. Municipalities # Concepción # Nahualá # Panajachel # San Andrés Semetaba ...

21st century

On 11 October 2015, a little over a month after the municipal elections for the 2016–20 mayoral term, an angry mob lynched and murdered re-elected Mayor Basilio Juracán, from the LIDER party, accusing him of allegedly ordering a hit against his former competitor for the mayor office from the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza party —UNE—; the mob burned two vehicles and three houses, among those the one where the deceased mayor was hiding.

Climate

Concepción has temperate climate (

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

: ''Csb'').

Geographic location

The municipal capital is 6 km away from

and 146 km away of

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

Notes and references

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Concepcion, Solola Municipalities of the Sololá Department