Pacho is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. Pacho is part of the

Rionegro Province Rionegro Province is one of the 15 provinces in the Cundinamarca Department, in Colombia. Provinces of Cundinamarca Department {{Cundinamarca-geo-stub ...

and the urban centre is situated at a distance of from the capital

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest ...

at an altitude of , while the altitude ranges from to . The municipality borders San Cayetano,

Villagómez Villagómez is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. Municipalities of Cundinamarca Department {{Cundinamarca-geo-stub ...

and Topaipí in the north, Supatá and

Subachoque Subachoque is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Western Savanna Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The municipality is situated on the Bogotá savanna with the urban centre at an altitude of at a distance of from the c ...

in the south, Vergara and El Peñón in the west and in the east

Zipaquirá Zipaquirá () is a municipality and city of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. Its neighboring municipalities are Cogua and Nemocón to the north; Tocancipá to the east; Tabio, Cajicá and Sopó to the south; and Subachoque and Pacho ...

Tausa Tausa () is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Ubaté Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. Tausa is and was an important town on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense due to its salt mine. It was the third most prolific salt deposit fo ...

and

Cogua Cogua () is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. It is situated on northern part of the Bogotá savanna with the urban centre at an altitude of at from the capital Bogotá. Cogua borders Tausa in the north, ...

.Official website Pacho

Etymology

In the times before the

Spanish conquest of the Muisca The Spanish conquest of the Muisca took place from 1537 to 1540. The Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. They were organised in a loose confederation of diff ...

, Pacho was called ''Guataque'' or ''Gotaque''; ''Gua''; "mountain", ''Tha''; "strong" and ''Que''; "elevated", so "strong elevated mountain". The modern name is also derived from

Chibcha The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan lang ...

; ''Pa'' is "father" and ''chó'' is "good"; "good father".*

History

The area of Pacho before becoming part of the

New Kingdom of Granada The New Kingdom of Granada ( es, Nuevo Reino de Granada), or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Royal Audience of Santa ...

was inhabited by the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan l ...

where the area of Pacho formed the western boundary of the

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', ''iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andes, Andean highlands of present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Spanish ...

, bordering the

Muzo Muzo () is a town and municipality in the Western Boyacá Province, part of the department of Boyacá, Colombia. It is widely known as the world capital of emeralds for the mines containing the world's highest quality gems of this type. Muz ...

in the northwest and the Panche or Colima in the west and southwest. Modern Pacho was founded on August 25, 1604, by Lorencio de Terrones.

Economy

Pacho was already an

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

area in the times of the Muisca. Today the main agricultural products are

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

oranges An orange is a fruit of various citrus species in the family Rutaceae (see list of plants known as orange); it primarily refers to ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', which is also called sweet orange, to distinguish it from the related ''Citrus × ...

strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid species of the genus ''Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The f ...

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within modern-day southern Mexico and ...

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centurie ...

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...

s, plantains,

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Un ...

es,

yuca ''Manihot esculenta'', 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 cultivated ...

and flowers. The town also as an important

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

farming industry.

Born in Pacho

Samuel Cabrera Samuel Cabrera Castañeda (15 August 1960 – 21 March 2022) was a Colombian professional road cyclist. Cabrera died on 21 March 2022, after being struck by lightning while working on his farm.José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha (14 May 1947 – 15 December 1989), also known by the nicknames 'Don Sombrero' and ''El Mexicano'' ( en, The Mexican), was a Colombian drug lord who was one of the leaders of the notorious Medellín Cartel along wi ...

, drug lord, part of Medellin Cartel

Etymology

History

Economy

Born in Pacho

Gallery

References

See also