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Precolumbian era

Since pre-Hispanic times, Riohacha and the La Guajira peninsula have been inhabited by indigenous communities such as the Guanebucanes, who were great goldsmiths, the caquetíos, makuiras, anates, cuanaos and eneales. Currently, the municipal territory of Riohacha is inhabited by a large native Amerindian population, mainly from the Wayúu community (whose language is the Wayuunaiki of the Arawak linguistic family) and from the indigenous communities on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta such as the Wiwa of the Damana language, the Kogui of the Koguian language and the Ika or Arhuacos of the Ikan language, all languages ​​of the Chibcha linguistic family.

Spanish colonization

During the 16th century, the peninsular territory was disputed between the governments of Santa Marta and Venezuela, due to the existence of pearls. The first real population on the Guajiras coasts occurred in the second half of the year 1538 due to the transfer of an entire pearl society from Cubagua Island (Venezuelan Caribbean). They called this town Nuestra Señora Santa María de los Remedios del Cabo de la Vela. Subsequently, a second transfer takes place, this time towards the banks of the mouth of the La Hacha River (today Ranchería River), from the second half of the year 1544 and culminated in the middle of the year 1545, being baptized: 'Our Lady Santa María de los Remedios del Río de la Hacha´, in honor of the image of the Virgin of Los Remedios which, according to tradition, was brought from the pearl bay of Cabo de la Vela when its port was attacked and looted by English pirates looking for pearls.

The exploitation and cultivation of pearls was the most important activity of this population until recent times. In the year 1547, Riohacha received the title of Autonomous City through two Royal Cédulas issued by the Spanish Crown in the months of September and October. In 1596 Riohacha was attacked by the English pirate Francis Drake when he learned of the quality of its pearls. The siege of Riohacha proved fatal to Drake's health, who died that same year on his return to Europe infected with Measles.

In 1769, Riohacha experienced the rebellion of the Wayuu, who took the city on May 2 and forced the colonial administrators to rethink another order of treatment with the peninsular natives.

Republican period

In the year 1820, on May 25, the Battle of Laguna Salada takes place, which gives independence to the city commanded by his favorite son, Admiral José Prudencio Padilla. The mortal remains of Admiral José Prudencio Padilla rest in the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios Cathedral, which was later declared as National Heritage of Colombia in honor of this distinguished character. The main square of Riohacha is named after this admiral, who was a hero of the naval battles for the independence of Colombia and Venezuela.

During the rest of the 19th century, Riohacha was related commercially with the ports of England, Holland, with the Caribbean islands, Panama and New York. The territory was subject to the Department of Magdalena until 1871, the year in which it became the national territory, preserving that category until 1898, when it was promoted to the Mayor of La Guajira. In 1911 he was demoted to the category of Police Station and returned to being a national quartermaster in 1954. Finally, a department was erected in 1965.

20th and 21st century

Already in the twentieth century the National Government approaches the city and involves it in the social dynamics of the country. In 1965 it became the Capital of the newly created Department of La Guajira. Today Riohacha has a population of 169,000 inhabitants, made up of an ethnic diversity such as the Wayuu, the Wiwa, the Kogui and Ika, as well as a large community of Afro, mestizo and Creole origin. According to the latest Development Plans, the city aims to become a development pole for Eco-tourism and Cultural Tourism. Riohacha was, in the 19th century, the cradle of the most popular music in Colombia, today known as Vallenato.





Riohacha, called in Wayuunaiki, ´´Süchiimma´´, is the northernmost city of the Caribbean Region of Colombia, capital of the Department of La Guajira, located 1,486 kilometers northeast of the country's capital and 160 kilometers northeast of Santa Marta . With a population of 167,865 inhabitants (According to the 2005 DANE census), it is one of the oldest post-Hispanic cities in Colombia and America, founded in 1545. In 1596 it was attacked by the English pirate Francis Drake. It is a port at the mouth of the Ranchería River.

Riohacha is also the birthplace of several prominent figures at the national and regional level such as José Prudencio Padilla (1788 - 1828), whose name is honored in the Venezuelan city Almirante Padilla or in the Colombian military ships Almirante Padilla class. Padilla was also the hero of the Battle of Maracaibo in 1823. It is also the birthplace of Francisco El Hombre, a character considered a precursor of Vallenato music. Other characters are Luis Antonio Robles (black prime minister of Colombia) and the maternal grandparents of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez: Colonel Nicolás Márquez and Tranquilina Iguarán Cotes.

The name Riohacha exists from the same period of the Spanish conquest and land colonization in La Guajira (1526-1536). There are three different versions about its origin, all of them related to the exploration of the place of the mouth of a river in the middle part of the Peninsula. The First Version relates the rescue that a young indigenous man does to a lost and thirsty Spanish battalion, guiding them towards the encounter with the river; As a reward, the captain presents the native with an Ax and baptizes the place as El Río de La Hacha. The Second Version speaks of the same Spanish battalion whose Captain loses his emblematic Ax when crossing said river; as a consolation he baptizes it Río de La Hacha. The third version documents the discovery of a beautiful ax buried on the river bank by a battalion of European explorers, who until now believed they were the first to reach that place. In this way, they called it River of the Ax.

The word Süchiimma means, in the Wayuunaiki language Land of the River: Süchii (river) and Mma (land). The city is also known as Portal de Perlas (in allusion to its pearl origin), the Capital of the Magical Arreboles (the most beautiful sunsets in the Colombian Caribbean) and the Mestiza del Nordeste (for its rich multiculturalism and the Northeast Trade Winds) .

Riohacha is located in the central left part of the Department of La Guajira, this area limits to the north with the Caribbean Sea, to the east with the Ranchería River, Manaure and Maicao, to the south with the municipalities of Hatonuevo, Barrancas, Distracción, San Juan del Cesar and to the west with the municipality of Dibulla and the Caribbean Sea.

The Municipality occupies about a quarter of the departmental territory with an area of ​​491,383 Ha, of which 133,980 belong to Indigenous Reservation areas, 134,444 to the Sierra de Santa Marta National Natural Park and 4,784 to the Sanctuary of Flora and Fauna of the Flamingos.

An important line of the economy is livestock: cattle, pigs, horses, mules, donkeys, goats and sheep; Fishing, especially shellfish, turtles and pearls is done by hand. The forest exploitation of indigo, mahogany, cedar, dividivi, guayacán, mangrove, oak, totumo is important. It lacks a manufacturing industry.

Urban helmet

According to the 2005 census, the predominant economic activity in the urban area is commerce (52%), which has been boosted by the construction of two Hypermarkets (Carrefour and Super Almacén Olímpica) and the Suchiima Shopping Center, which attract customers from neighboring towns that used to shop in Maicao. The second economic line of the city is services (30%), Other activities (10%) and Industry (8%).





The tourist profile of Riohacha, and the Department of La Guajira in general, is Cultural Tourism. Currently there is potential or there is potential for various trends such as agrotourism in the Agroindustrial Corridor (Corregimientos de Tigreras, Choles and Matitas), ecotourism in areas such as the Sanctuary of Flora and Fauna Los Flamencos (Corregimiento de Camarones), Pozo García (Corregimiento de Tomarrazón) and the Ranchería River Delta (Casco Urbano. Commune 9) or beach tourism that covers the coastal corridor that ranges from the eastern margin of the mouth of the Enea River to the western margin of the mouth of the Ranchería River with several beaches virgin beaches and six (6) urban beaches (Marbella Beach, Guapo Beach, Muelle Beach, Gimaura Beach ´´La Boca´´, Valle de los Cangrejos Beach and La Raya Beach), all of white sand lined by coconut palm trees and its Tourist Pier (since 1936). There are also: the Malecón or Paseo de la Marina, which at night is illuminated with multicolored lights that give it an atmosphere of perpetual festival, the Historic Center, the Laguna Salada, the Tomb of Francisco El Hombre (Corregimiento de Villa Martín or Machobayo) and the Los Flamencos Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, in the Camarones district.

Among the historical buildings most appreciated by the community are the Capuchin Chapel, the Balconies of Third Street, the House of Emilio Vence, the House of the Sources, the House of Vladimiro Pérez, the Municipal Mayor's Office, the Monument to the Admiral Padilla, the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios Cathedral, the Customs House and the Aurora Theater.

PASEO DE LA MARINA

Constituted by the Beaches of the city and its articulation with the Tourist Pier and the Camellón on the coastal strip of Avenida La Marina, designed to exercise the walk at leisure, enjoying the landscape of the Caribbean Sea and the development of the conversation among its passers-by . It has twelve interpretive columns on the landscape and culture of La Guajira.

VALLEY OF THE CANGREJOS

A place to the Northeast of the City, located in the Delta of the Ranchería River, spread by the Kalaankala arm. It takes its name from the large population of crustaceans (Crabs and Crabs from Brackish Waters), which inhabit this place. Its main vegetation is made up of the Red (Rhizophora Mangle), White (Laguncularia Racemosa), Black (Avicennia Germinans) and Button (Conocarpus Erecta) Mangroves. The characteristics of its beach circumscribe it in the area of ​​coastal eco-tourism.

LAGOON SALADA

This lagoon constitutes the largest body of water in the urban area of ​​Riohacha. Previously, it was an entire ecosystem linked to the Ranchería River Delta with a large population of migratory and native birds; The extent of its waters was such that on May 25, 1820, in the struggles of Independence, it allowed the entry of warships, commanded by the patriots by Admiral José Prudencio Padilla, giving rise to the Battle of Laguna Salada . At present, a comprehensive Recovery Plan is being implemented to reconnect it with the Ranchería River Delta and with the small Lagunas de Bocagrande and La Esperanza.

SHI MUKSHI (The Black Line):

Concept of sacred spaces, belonging to the Wiwa, Kogui and Ika Cosmovision (Arhuacos), the older brothers inhabitants of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. They are energetic sites, in the contours of the Sierra, in which it is believed that they contain great vital energies for the harmony of the world or the sustainability of places sensitive to pollution. In the Municipality of Riohacha it is distributed in numerous places around the mouth of the Ranchería River (on both banks), the Laguna Salada, the Laguna de Bocagrande, La Laguna de La Esperanza, the mouth of the Arroyo Guerrero, the Boca de Camarones ... others more distributed in hills and in places of sacred trees. Pagamentos ceremonies are held there with prayers to Serankua and offerings of flowers and stones. The conservation of these sites is vital for the balance of the earth.

FLORA AND FAUNA SANCTUARY LOS FLAMENCOS

In the rural area of ​​Riohacha, there is the town of Camarones, ancestral land of the extinct Guanebucanes; This town is located about 20 kilometers to the southwest of Riohacha, bordering the Caribbean Sea and on the shore of the Troncal del Caribe Highway, with bodies of water such as the Cienaga Navío Quebrado and Laguna Grande, which constitute this natural reserve of great tourist attraction.

The “Sanctuary” is the largest refuge for the Pink flamingos (Tokoko) in La Guajira, which find rich nutrients in its waters due to the confluence of salty and fresh waters and the abundance of fish from the lower waters of the Sanctuary. Its privileged fauna includes bays, anteaters, deer, tigrillos, foxes and a wide variety of estuarine and continental birds.

It has an Administrative Cabin, a small wooden auditorium and a cozy lodging and food system (Cabins in Bareheque and Fresh Sea Food) attended by the natives of the place: Indigenous and Afro-Jiros.

Culture

Riohacha is Caribbean, multiethnic and multicultural, it is a city enriched by a wide diversity of rites, customs, traditions and cultural manifestations nurtured by its new settlers: Afro-descendants and Europeans, and its ancestral indigenous inhabitants: in the plains the Wayuu and in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta the Wiwa and the Kogui.

The city has experienced a stage of socialization of culture since the 90s when, in addition to the festivities of the townships, communes and neighborhoods, festivals and cultural events have also been held such as the Theater Festival Teatrízate, the Festival de Cuenteros Akuentajui, the Itinerant Dance Festival and the Dance for Couples Festival, the Bolero Festival, the Pajará Festival (vallenata music), the Alternative Poetry Festival, and another cultural event begins in October 2009 which will surely continue with the ascending scale of the culture of this city, The Meeting of Oral Narrators of the Caribbean. The most traditional cultural events are the Patronal Festival of the Virgen de los Remedios (February 2), the Riohacha Carnival and the National Dividivi Festival. Recently, high impact events have been organized at a national and international level, such as the Hay Festival Riohacha (chapter of the Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias) and the Francisco el Hombre Festival of contemporary vallenata music.

In the city there are 3 public libraries: Departmental Library Hna. Josefina Zúñiga, Almirante Padilla Library and Banco de la República Library, as well as the University of La Guajira Library and a dozen school libraries

Curiosities: The term GUAJIRO, in addition to being the gentilicio of the natives of this Department, is a Cuban idiom that means PEASANT.

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