Tello is a town and municipality in the

Huila Department Huila () is one of the departments of Colombia. It is located in the southwest of the country, and its capital is Neiva. Demography and Ethnography Huila department had a population of 1,122,622 inhabitants in 2020, of which 679,667 (60.54%) ...

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 ...

. It is characterized by its extensive plain between the Magdalena River and the foot of the Cordillera Oriental mountain range up to its peaks, with the Fortalecillas and Villavieja rivers located nearby. Its territorial extension is 589 km², its altitude is 575 meters above sea level and its climate is warm with an average temperature of 26°C. It has a population of 14,536 inhabitants according to the DANE projection for 2019. The urban area of the municipality is located in the northeast part of the department (Sub-North Region). Its economy is based on

agricultural 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 f ...

production and

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

activity. Fruits such as grapes and bananas, from which 91% of the total output is produced in the department, stimulate its economy, which is considered the basis of the development of the region. It is known as "El Viñedo del Huila".

History

In 1811, Don Juan José Mesa donated the necessary land, on his farm "Matarredonda" for the settlement that was called the

hacienda A ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or '' finca''), similar to a Roman '' latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards ...

. In 1925, it was elevated to the category of municipality with the name of Tello, in honor of the war hero José María Tello. Within its history, the period of

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

rivalry between liberals and

conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

in 1848 stands out. With monumental events, such as the burning of the San Andrés Town Center in 1950, and the hundreds of homicides in the still existing place El Puente De Los Decapitales, where more than 500 inhabitants were shot, beheaded, and hanged, most of them men who could be of voting or fighting age. The massacre was done in order to avoid their incorporation into the growing Colombian Guerrillas of the time. The bodies were quartered at the hands of the Goths, a faction of the conservatives, and placed the parts in a row, embedded in the sand on the side of the road to remind the Liberals of the power that the conservative party had in Tello at that time. Other memories of the crumbling history, including Huila's red squares in 1950, is compiled in the literary work ''La Carnicería'' written in 2010.

Climate

References

Municipalities of Huila Department {{Huila-geo-stub