Quetzaltenango (, also known by its Maya name Xelajú or Xela ) is a
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' ...
and
namesake department in western
Guatemala
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
. The city is located in a mountain valley at an elevation of
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...
at its lowest part. It may reach above within the city.
As of 2018, the city has a population of 180,706. 43% of the population was indigenous in 2014. The Municipality of Quetzaltenango consists of an area of . Municipalities abutting the municipality of Quetzaltenango include
Salcajá,
Cantel,
Almolonga
The Almolonga volcano, also called "Cerro Quemado" (Burned Mountain) or "La Muela" (The Molar) due to its distinct shape, is an andesitic stratovolcano in the south-western department of Quetzaltenango in Guatemala. Part of the mountain range o ...
,
Zunil,
El Palmar,
Concepción Chiquirichapa,
San Mateo,
La Esperanza, and
Olintepeque in Quetzaltenango department and
in
Totonicapán department.
Etymology
The word "Quetzaltenango" is generally considered to mean "the place of the
quetzal
Quetzals () are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family. They are found in forests, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus ''Pharomachrus'' being exclusively Neotropical, while a single species, the eared quet ...
bird." The resplendent quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, and the
Guatemalan quetzal
The quetzal (; code: GTQ) is the currency of Guatemala, named after the national bird of Guatemala, the resplendent quetzal. In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird's tail feathers were used as currency. It is divided into 100 ''centavos,'' ...
is the currency of Guatemala. Quetzaltenango became the city's official name in colonial times.
Many people, especially the indigenous population and locals, refer to the city by its
Kʼicheʼ Mayan name, "Xelajú", or more commonly "Xela". This name is derived from the indigenous ''xe laju' noj'', meaning "under ten mountains", referring to the mountain range of the
Sierra Madre de Chiapas
The Sierra Madre is a major mountain range in Central America. It is known as the Sierra Madre de Chiapas in Mexico. It crosses El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras. The Sierra Madre is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ...
near the city. Some proudly but unofficially consider it the "capital of the Mayas".
History

In
pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...
times, Quetzaltenango was a city of the
Mam Mayans
Maya () are an ethnolinguistic group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived w ...
, although by the time of 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 ...
in 1524, it had become part of the
K'iche' Kingdom of Q'umarkaj. The city was said to have already been over 300 years old when the Spanish first arrived. With the help of his
allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
,
Conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado (; 1485 – 4 July 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, ''conquistador'', ''adelantado,'' governor and Captaincy General of Guatemala, captain general of Guatemala.Lovell, Lutz and Swezey 1984, p. 461. He participated in the c ...
defeated and killed the Maya ruler
Tecún Umán here.
From 1838 to 1840 Quetzaltenango was the capital of the state of
Los Altos, one of the states or provinces of the
Federal Republic of Central America
The Federal Republic of Central America (), initially known as the United Provinces of Central America (), was a sovereign state in Central America that existed between 1823 and 1839/1841. The republic was composed of five states (Costa Rica ...
. As the union broke up, the army of
Rafael Carrera
José Rafael Carrera y Turcios (24 October 1814 – 14 April 1865) was the president of Guatemala from 1844 to 1848 and from 1851 until his death in 1865, after being appointed President for life in 1854. He ruled during the establishment of ne ...
conquered Quetzaltenango making it part of Guatemala. In 1850, the city had a population of approximately 20,000.
During the 19th century,
coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
was introduced as a major crop in the area. As a result, the economy of Xela prospered. Much fine
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque () or La Belle Époque () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...
architecture can still be found in the city.
On October 24, 1902, at 5:00 pm, the
Santa María Volcano erupted. Rocks and ash fell on Quetzaltenango at 6 PM, only one hour after the eruption.
In the 1920s, a young
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin
** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities
** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom
* Romanians (Romanian ...
woman named Vanushka Cardena Barajas died and was buried in the Xela city cemetery. An active legend has developed around her tomb that says those who bring flowers or write a request on her tomb will be reunited with their former romantic partners. The Guatemalan songwriter Alvaro Aguilar wrote a song based on this legend.
In 1930 the only electric railway in Guatemala, the ''
Ferrocarril de Los Altos'', was inaugurated. It was built by
AEG The initials AEG are used for or may refer to:
Common meanings
* AEG (German company)
; AEG) was a German producer of electrical equipment. It was established in 1883 by Emil Rathenau as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte El ...
and
Krupp
Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...
and had 14 train cars. The track connected Quetzaltenango with
San Felipe,
Retalhuleu
The city of Retalhuleu () is situated in south-western Guatemala. It is the departmental seat of Retalhuleu Department as well as the municipal seat of Retalhuleu Municipality.
Retalhuleu stands at about 240 metres above sea level. The city has ...
. It was soon destroyed by mudslides and finally demolished in 1933. The people of Quetzaltenango are still very proud of the railway. A
railway museum has been established in the city center.
Since the late 1990s Quetzaltenango has been having an economic boom, which makes it the city with the second-highest contribution to the Guatemalan economy. With its first high-rise buildings being built, it is expected by 2015 to have a more prominent skyline, with buildings up to 15 floors tall.
In 2008, the Central American Congress
PARLACEN announced that every September 15, Quetzaltenango will be
Central America
Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
's capital of culture.
Quetzaltenango was supposed to host
2018 Central American and Caribbean Games
The 23rd Central American and Caribbean Games were held in Barranquilla, Colombia. Asamblea ODECABE, Islas Caimán' (translation: "CASCO Assembly, Cayman Islands"). Published by CACSO on 2012-10-27; retrieved 2012-11-13.
Bidding process
Quet ...
but dropped out due to a lack of funding for the event.
In March 2022, indigenous activists began blockading the central waste deposit near Valle de Palajunoj to protest a
city development plan enacted by the municipal authorities in June 2017.
Climate

According to
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
, Quetzaltenango features a
subtropical highland climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring c ...
(''Cwb''). In general, the climate in Quetzaltenango can go from mild to chilly, with occasional sporadic warm episodes. The daily high is usually reached around noon. From then on, temperatures decrease exceptionally fast. The city is quite dry, except during the rainy season. Quetzaltenango is the coolest major city in Guatemala.
There are two main seasons in Quetzaltenango (as in all of Guatemala); the rainy season, which generally runs from late May through late October, and the dry season, which runs from early November until April. During the rainy season, rain falls consistently, usually in the afternoons, but there are occasions in which it rains all day long or at least during the morning. During the dry season, the city frequently will not receive a single drop of rain for months on end.
The coldest months are November through February, with minimum temperatures averaging , and maximum temperatures averaging . The warmest months are March through July, with minimum temperatures averaging and maximum temperatures averaging . Yearly, the average low is and the average high is .
Economy
Historically, the city produced
wheat
Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
,
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 ...
, fruits, and vegetables. It also had a healthy
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 ...
industry. Livestock was exported throughout the country and to
El Salvador
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
. As of 1850, wheat was the largest export, followed by
cacao,
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
,
wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...
and
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 ...
.
[
]
Sports
Quetzaltenango is home to the Club Xelajú MC
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises
* ...
soccer team. The team competes at Estadio Mario Camposeco which has a capacity of 13,500 and is the most successful non-capital team in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala
The Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala (National Football League of Guatemala), officially known as the Liga Guate Banrural for sponsorship reasons, formerly known as Liga'' ''Mayor A (Major League A) is a professional football division in Guat ...
.
Due to the city's high altitude many athletes have prepared themselves here such as Olympic silver medalist Erick Barrondo and the 2004 Cuban volleyball team.
The swimming team has enjoyed success in national and international events.
Quetzaltenango withdrew from hosting the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games
The 23rd Central American and Caribbean Games were held in Barranquilla, Colombia. Asamblea ODECABE, Islas Caimán' (translation: "CASCO Assembly, Cayman Islands"). Published by CACSO on 2012-10-27; retrieved 2012-11-13.
Bidding process
Quet ...
. It planned to build a 30,000-seat stadium by 2016, as well seven new facilities for indoor sports and aquatics.
Transportation
The city has a system of micro-buses for quick and cheap movement. A micro-bus is essentially a large van stuffed with seats. Micro-buses are numbered based on the route they take (e.g., "''Ruta 7''"). There is no government-run mass transport system in the city. The sole public means of transport is the bus or micro-buses. Transportation to other cities is provided by bus. Bicycling is a way to get around and to travel to (and in) rural areas. Quetzaltenango Airport provides air service to the city.
Education
Quetzaltenango (Xela) is the center of many schools and Universities that provide Education to locals and many thousands of students from the surrounding cities and departments (states) and international students from North America and Europe, that's the reason it's a very important city for the south-west/north-west region of the Country of Guatemala, for many decades Quetzaltenango has produced distinguished Citizens through all Educational establishments, among those we can mention:
* Centro Universitario de Occidente San Carlos de Guatemala (CUNOC)
* Universidad Rafael Landivar
* Universidad Mariano Gálvez
* Universidad Mesoamericana
Universidad Mesoamericana (in english language, English, Mesoamerican University) is a private university in Guatemala. It has branches in Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango.
History
In 1971, the Salesians of Don Bosco association signed an agr ...
* Universidad de Occidente
* Universidad Galileo
Galileo University is a private university in Guatemala City. It was founded and authorized on October 31, 2000. Initially, it was the School of Computer Engineering (FISICC) of Universidad Francisco Marroquín. It stands out for its technolog ...
People born in Quetzaltenango
* Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán
Jacobo is both a surname and a given name of Spanish origin. Based on the name Jacob. Notable people with the name include:
Surname:
* Alfredo Jacobo (born 1982), Olympic breaststroke swimmer from Mexico
* Cesar Chavez Jacobo, Dominican professio ...
(1913–1971), President of Guatemala
The president of Guatemala (), officially titled President of the Republic of Guatemala (), is the head of state and head of government of Guatemala, elected to a single four-year term. The position of President was created in 1839.
Selectio ...
* Manuel Barillas (1845–1907), President of Guatemala
The president of Guatemala (), officially titled President of the Republic of Guatemala (), is the head of state and head of government of Guatemala, elected to a single four-year term. The position of President was created in 1839.
Selectio ...
* Jesús Castillo (1877–1946), Musician
* Ricardo Castillo (1891–1966), composer
* Manuel Estrada Cabrera
Manuel José Estrada Cabrera (21 November 1857 – 24 September 1924) was the President of Guatemala from 1898 to 1920. A lawyer with no military background, he modernised the country's industry and transportation infrastructure, via granting c ...
(1898–1924), President of Guatemala
* Rodolfo Galeotti Torres (1912–1988), sculptor
* Alberto Fuentes Mohr (1927–1979), economist, finance minister, foreign minister, social-democratic leaders
* Comandante Rolando Morán
Comandante Rolando Morán (29 December 1929 – 11 September 1998) was the ''nom de guerre'' of Ricardo Arnoldo Ramírez de León, leader of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), an armed Guatemalan communist resistance organizat ...
(1929–1998), one of the guerrilla leaders in the Guatemalan Civil War
The Guatemalan Civil War was fought from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatemala and various Left-wing politics, leftist rebel groups. The Guatemalan government forces committed Guatemalan genocide, genocide against the Maya population o ...
* Carlos Navarrete Cáceres (b. 1931), anthropologist and writer
* Efraín Recinos (1928–2011), engineer, architect, sculptor
* Otto René Castillo
Otto René Castillo (April 25, 1934 – March 23, 1967) was a Guatemalan poet, activist, guerrilla fighter and revolutionary.
Early life and activism
Castillo was born in Quetzaltenango on April 25, 1934, to middle-class parents. Active i ...
(b. 1934), poet and revolutionary
* Rodolfo Robles
Rodolfo Robles (January 14, 1878 – November 8, 1939) was a Guatemalan physician and philanthropist. In 1915, he was the first to describe onchocerciasis in Latin America, which was known and widespread on the African continent, with the first ...
(1878–1939), physician and philanthropist
* Julio Serrano Echeverría (b. 1983), poet and writer
* José Carlos de Gálvez y Valiente (1831, 1838, 1853), Alcalde Primero del Ayantamiento de Quetzaltenango
Consular representations
* Mobile Consulate of El Salvador
* Consulate of Italy (Closed)
* Consulate of Mexico
*Honorary Consulate of Spain
Twin towns – sister cities
Quetzaltenango is twinned with:
* Campeche
Campeche, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche, is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, make up the Administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the sta ...
, Mexico
* Chiapa de Corzo, Mexico
* Livermore, United States
* San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico[
* Santa Fe, Spain
* ]Santa María Huatulco
Santa María Huatulco is a town and Municipalities of Oaxaca, municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico.
It is part of the Pochutla District, Oaxaca, Pochutla District in the east of the Costa Region, Oaxaca, Costa Region.
The meaning of H ...
, Mexico
* Tapachula
Tapachula de Córdova y Ordóñez, simply known as Tapachula, is a city and municipality located in the far southeast of the state of Chiapas, Mexico, near the Guatemalan border and the Pacific Ocean. Economically, it is one of the most importan ...
, Mexico
* Tromsø
Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...
, Norway
* Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
, Italy
* Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...
, Mexico
See also
* Hospital Nacional San Juan de Dios
* Luna de Xelajú
* History of Guatemala
The history of Guatemala traces back to the Maya civilization (2600 BC – 1697 AD), with the country's modern history beginning with the Spanish conquest of Guatemala in 1524. By 1000 AD, most of the major Classic-era (250–900 AD) Maya cities ...
* History of Central America
Central America is commonly said to include Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. This definition matches modern political borders. Central America begins geographically in Mexico, at the Isthmus of Tehuan ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the Quetzaltenango Department