Puente Nacional () is an agricultural town and municipality in the Suárez River Valley, part of the

Santander Department Santander () is a department of Colombia. Santander inherited the name of one of the nine original states of the United States of Colombia. It is located in the central northern part of the country, borders the Magdalena River to the east, Bo ...

of northeastern

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 ...

. Colloquially referred to as "Puente" by its inhabitants. Puente nacional ferias y fiestas 2088

The area was originally inhabited by four Muisca tribes, three of which were the Semisos, Irobaes, and Popobas. Their heritage now only survives in the names of three surrounding

vereda Vereda () is a subdivisional administrative part of a municipality in 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 ...

s. The area between Puente and neighbouring Santa Sofía (formerly called Guatoque) was inhabited by a major tribe called the Sorocotá who governed a major commercial centre (possibly home to the region's largest agricultural market) which is why Puente's local radio station is called
La Voz de Sorocotá
(The Voice of Sorocotá)''. The town still has a market every Monday which sees locally sourced produce brought to the town from its many surrounding farms.

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (; 1509 – 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory n ...

travelled south through the area in

1537 Year 1537 ( MDXXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events January–March * January 1 – Princess Madeleine of Valois, the 16-year-old daughter of François I, King of France, is married to King ...

in the search for El Dorado. Having followed the course of the

Magdalena River The Magdalena River (, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, ...

, his expedition then travelled down the Saravita, which formed the main trajectory of the subsequent

conquests Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or legal prohibitions against conquest. ...

. It was in this area that some sources report that Quesada's men made the first ever encounter with a "truffle" crop later identified as the

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

. Following the Spanish conquests a new town was baptised Puente Real de Vélez, existing as a subsidiary to the town founded by Martin Galeano in 1539, before eventually acquiring its current name during the period following the Comunero Rebellions of 1781. These local uprisings set in motion the first wave of

Spanish American Spanish Americans (, ''hispanoestadounidenses'', or ''hispanonorteamericanos'') are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from Spain. They are the longest-established European American group in the modern United States, with a ...

victories against the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

, although liberation only arrived after

1819 Events January–March * January 2 – The Panic of 1819, the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States, begins. * January 25 – Thomas Jefferson founds the University of Virginia. * January 29 – Si ...

. Every year on 8 May week, the town transforms with homage to the C''omuneros''. Townsfolk dress in traditional late-18th century attire and parades are held through the town. In 1960 the town's Cantarrana Street was the setting of a now-regularly commemorated massacre. It happened two years after the end of

La Violencia ''La Violencia'' (, The Violence) was a ten-year civil war in Colombia from 1948 to 1958, between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party, mainly fought in the countryside. ''La Violencia'' is considered to have begu ...

(The Violence); the name given to the ten year sectarian civil-political conflict which pitted conservatives against liberals. On September 29, tensions still present from the decennial conflict culminated with a shooting involving local

brigand Brigandage is the life and practice of highway robbery and plunder. It is practiced by a brigand, a person who is typically part of a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.Oxford English Dictionary second edition, 1989. "Brigand.2" first record ...

Efrain Gonzalez which left 11 civilians dead and injured 19.

References

{{coord, 5, 53, N, 73, 41, W, region:CO_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title Municipalities of Santander Department

See also

References