Susa, Cundinamarca
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Susa 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' ...
in the
Ubaté Province Ubaté Province is one of the 15 provinces in the Cundinamarca Department, Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North ...
, part of the
Cundinamarca Department Department of Cundinamarca (, ) is one of the departments of Colombia. Its area covers (not including the Capital District) and it has a population of 2,919,060 as of 2018. It was created on August 5, 1886, under the constitutional terms pre ...
,
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 ...
. The town centre is located at an
altitude Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...
of on the
Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. (Do not confuse with The Altiplano or the Altiplano Nariñense, both fur ...
at 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 Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
. Susa borders
Simijaca Simijaca () is a town and municipality in the Ubaté Province, part of the Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. The town centre is located at an altitude of on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at from the capital Bogotá. Simijaca borders the Boyacá ...
,
Fúquene Fúquene is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. The municipality borders Ubaté, Susa, Guachetá and the department of Boyacá. Fúquene is located 116 km northwest from the capital Bogotá.
,
San Miguel de Sema San Miguel de Sema is a town and municipality in Boyacá Department, Colombia, part of the subregion of the Western Boyacá Province. It is one of the 123 municipalities of the department of Boyacá, Colombia, located to the west of the departme ...
and
Lake Fúquene Lake Fúquene is a heart-shaped lake located in the Ubaté-Chiquinquirá Valley, part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, in the north of Cundinamarca, Colombia, at the border with Boyacá. The Andean lake, at an average altitude of , was considere ...
.Official website Susa
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Etymology

In the
Chibcha language Chibcha, Mosca, Muisca, Muysca (*/ˈmɨska/ * ˆmʷɨska, or Muysca de Bogotá is a language spoken by the Muisca people, one of the many indigenous cultures of the Americas. The Muisca inhabit the Altiplano Cundiboyacense of what today is th ...
of the
Muisca The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Muisca spe ...
, ''susa'' means "white reed" or "soft reed".


History

The area of Susa before the
Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...
was part 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 what is today Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Spanis ...
. Initially loyal to the ''
zaque When the Spanish arrived in the central Colombian highlands, the region was organized into the Muisca Confederation, which had two rulers; the ''Zipa'' was the ruler of the southern part and based in Muyquytá. The ''Zaque'' was the ruler of the ...
'' of
Hunza Hunza may refer to: * Hunza, Iran * Hunza Valley, an area in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan ** Hunza (princely state), a former principality ** Hunza District, a recently established district ** Hunza River, a waterway ** Hunza Peak, a mo ...
, Susa changed rule around 1490 when it was submitted by ''
zipa When the Spain, Spanish arrived in the central Colombian highlands, the region was organized into the Muisca Confederation, which had two rulers; the ''Zipa'' was the ruler of the southern part and based in Funza, Muyquytá. The ''Zaque'' was the ...
''
Saguamanchica Saguamanchica (died Chocontá, 1490) was the second ruler (''zipa'') of Muyquytá, as of 1470. His '' zaque'' enemy ruling over the northern area of the Muisca territory was Michuá. Alternative spellings of his name are Sacuan Machica, Sagua ...
. In pre-Columbian times, the territory of the current municipality of Susa was inhabited by the Muiscas. Around 1537, the passage of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada through the territory of Susa to the south was recorded.14 On August 2, 1600, the Oidor Luis Enríquez issued from Cucunubá the order of founding of the new Indian towns of Susa, Simijaca, Fúquene and Nemoquá. On the same August 2, Luis Enríquez contracted with the bricklayer Juan Gómez de Grajeda the construction of the church of Susa for a value of 1,620 twenty-karat gold pesos; the deed was signed before the notary public Rodrigo Zapata and the witnesses and guarantors Juan Francisco de Ortega, Juan de Silva Collante, Domingo de Guevara and Juan de Vera. On August 7, 1601, Juan Gómez de Grajeda stated that he was also in charge of building the Simijaca and Cucunubá churches, and that to build them he transferred his contract to Juan Gómez de Narváez. On April 29, 1603, there were 303 tributaries. On July 29, 1604, the Oidor Lorencio de Terrones, with the clerk Rodrigo Zapata, made a description or list of visits and registration, which included 1,132 Indians. On December 9, 1638, on the visit of Gabriel de Carvajal, 1,461 Indians were related. The chirimía was the group of Indian singers and musicians who accompanied the religious ceremonies, who enjoyed some privileges, including not paying tribute. In 1638 many Indian sheep orcars were related. The first baptism certificate that appears in the parish books dates from June 27, 1619, corresponding to Juan, 4 months old, son of Alonso Furistaguda and Doña Francisca his wife, signed by the priest Bartolomé Díaz Ortega. On the altar of the parish church the image of the Virgen de los Dolores del Topo, patron saint of Susa, is venerated. The main altar is of Neo-Granada Baroque style, this altar is composed of a series of Corinthian columns with profusely decorated and gilded shafts, another wonder of this church is the tabernacle that has phytomorphic decorations on the outside and inside there are zoomorphic paintings and of vines, emulating the biblical paradise. The name of Susa was also present in the liberation feat: on August 8, 1819, one day after the Battle of Boyacá, the lieutenant colonel of the Spanish army, Sebastián Díaz, refers: "At 10 o'clock you enter Chiquinquirá and after Two hours of rationing and rest, he leaves for Santa Fé, passing through Simijaca at two o'clock and arriving at Susa at three, where there is news that patriotic forces are advancing from Ubaté, which cannot be faced due to fatigue. At 7 o'clock in the night it turns towards Muzo ... ". 15 It is from this municipality that the Spaniards give up reaching Santa Fé and begin their definitive withdrawal, thus consolidating the independence victory. In 1863 Felipe Pérez presented the "Physical and political Jeography of the State of Cundinamarca", one of the compilation documents of the Chorographic Commission from 1850 to 1859 (directed by Agustín Codazzi) and from 1860 to 1862, in which the municipality of as follows: "Susa, on the road to Chiquinquirá near Lake Fúquene. It has in its vicinity a very beautiful rock crystal mine, and in the time of the Indians it was a large, populated and rich city. Nemequene cipa. Inhabitants 3,754; meters above sea level 2,567.4; temperature 13º " Another brief description of the surroundings of the town can be found in the "Impressions of a trip to America" by the Spanish José María Gutiérrez de Alba, who in one of his trips recounted his arrival on February 12, 1872: "At half past three we arrived at the small town of Susa, located in a long and narrow inlet on the same plain, and to reach which we crossed an extensive avenue of willows, which give shade and comfort to the road. in its smallest details, the accidents of the branch of the mountain range indicated above, where formidable recesses, very sharp ridges and frightening depths can be seen, among which the one that bears the name of the Salto de Olalla is distinguished, a horrible cliff where the Indians threw the intrepid conqueror Antón de Olalla, who, stopped in his fall by some bushes, only suffered a broken leg. Since then they called him the Lame Man. "16 On August 20, 1991, a fire destroyed the town's Municipal House, where the town's archive was located, thus losing most of the town's nearly 400 years of documentary history. The church was saved from the conflagration. By Decree 746 of April 24, 1996, the declaration of National Monument of the set of Passenger Railroad Stations in Colombia is made, sheltering said declaration to the Susa railway station (located at kilometer 140 of the Bogotá- Barbosa).It is currently listed in the list of Assets of Cultural Interest made by the Ministry of Culture, under the classification of Material Heritage - Real Estate On February 20, 2022, the mayor of Susa was revoked in a
recall referendum A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of office has ended. Recalls ...
.


Economy

The main economical activity in Simijaca is
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
, with
maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...
,
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 ...
es,
tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...
es and
strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit is appreciated f ...
as the most important agricultural products.


References


Bibliography

* {{Municipalities cundinamarca department Municipalities of Cundinamarca Department Populated places established in 1600 1600 establishments in the Spanish Empire Populated places of the Muisca Confederation