Cereté is a town and

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' ...

located in the Córdoba Department, northern

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. According to 2020 estimates, the population of Cereté town and municipality was 108,409.

Name origin

Cereté comes from the two indigenous words meaning Chere (fish) and te (shelter).

History

Cereté is one of the oldest administrative divisions in the Sinú Region, founded in 1721 by

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

Francisco Velásquez and Cristóbal Jiménez de León. In 1731 the

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

of Cereté-Mocarí was given to

jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

s who were in the process of evangelizing local

indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

. The settlement of Cereté was not officially established until 1740 when Juan de Torrezal Díaz Pimienta reorganized the settlement into a village.

Geography and climate

The municipality of Cereté borders to the north with the municipality of San Pelayo, the municipalities of Ciénaga de Oro and San Carlos to the east, the municipalities of San Carlos and

Montería Montería () is a municipality and city located in northern Colombia and the capital of the Departments of Colombia, Department of Córdoba Department, Córdoba. The city is located away from the Caribbean sea, by the Sinú River. The city and r ...

to the south and to the west again with the municipalities of San Pelayo and Montería covering a total area of 351.8 km². Cereté has a yearly average temperature of 28 °C and is some 12 m over sea level. The town of Cereté is located some 18 km from the Cordoba Department capital

. The town of Cereté is crossed by the ''Caño Bugre'' (Bugre Stream) an affluent of the

Sinú River Sinú River (), is a river in northwestern Colombia that flows mostly through the Córdoba Department and into the Caribbean. It is the third most important river in the Caribbean Region, after the Magdalena River and the Cauca River. It is ...

. The Bugre stream was once navigable and connected the town with other river towns like Puerto Wilches and San Pelayo.

Economy

The economy of Cereté is based primarily in cattle raising with some 270 km² used and agriculture with extensive cultivations of

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

(colloquially known as the "white gold") and

sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...

covering an area of 80 km².

References

Alcaldía Municipal de Cereté

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cerete Cordoba