Valledupar - History

History

The Spanish named the Valle de Upar (Valley of Upar) after a legendary local Amerindian cacique, Upar, leader of the Native American Chimilas. The region was first explored by Pedro de Badillo. It was conquered in 1532 by the German Ambrosius Ehinger, governor of Venezuela, who invaded the area belonging to the government of Santa Marta. The city was founded in 1550 by the Spanish conquistador, Captain Hernando de Santana, who named it. The Catholic Church commonly referred to the city as Ciudad de los Santos Reyes de Valle de Upar (city of the holy kings of Valledupar) because it was founded on the 6th day of January, Epiphany, the day the three kings visited the infant Jesus. The name was gradually modified to Valle Dupar and then to Valledupar.

Since the colonization period, the region has been a center for imports from the Caribbean area and distribution to the inland. Spaniards traveled through the area and established extensive farming, mainly rearing imported European cattle (among many animals) and agriculture. Much of the population of the Chimila Nation died from epidemics of new infectious diseases carried by the Europeans; survivors were worked at forced labor, and many died during battles.

On May 22, 1810 some 400 inhabitants of the Cabildo of the Valle de Upar rebelled against the Spanish monarchy, protesting against Mayor Colonel Marques de Valde-Hoyos. The mayor fled to neighboring San Juan del Cesar, leaving in charge V. Ruiz de Gomez. In 1813 independence from Spain was proclaimed by Maria Concepcion Loperena de Fernandez de Castro, a wealthy land owner who helped supply three hundred horses to El Libertador Simón Bolívar's revolutionary army.

In 1850 the city became capital of the Valledupar Province and in 1864 was elevated to capital of the Valledupar Department of the Federal State of Magdalena. In 1915, Aater the political and administrative division restructuring of the Unitarian Colombian State, Valledupar was proclaimed the municipality of the Valledupar Province, part of the Federal State of Magdalena during the United States of Colombia era. The region maintained relative isolation from the rest of the country due to its low importance at the time. The violent political struggles of the different governments of Colombia took place mostly in larger cities, such as Bogotá.

During World War II, the city received many immigrants from Europe, especially French, Germans and Italians. Later it attracted immigrants from the Middle East. In 1956 it was proclaimed a parish by the Catholic Church. After the Republic of Colombia was created and the Department of Cesar was established in 1967, Valledupar became its capital.

The region started developing quickly due to political support from the former president Alfonso López Michelsen, first governor of the Department of Cesar's and the Colombian Liberal Party. Valledupar came to be known as sorpresa caribe (the Caribbean surprise) because of its rapid economic growth during the 1970s, especially in cotton production, which local people called "white gold". Valledupar ranked second overall in economic profits for Colombia during this time. Urban growth and social change accompanied prosperity and the city developed its cultural identity throughout these years. The revival of the Vallenato music strongly symbolizes the culture of Colombia.

A period of violence erupted during the mid-1980s, disrupting the peaceful growth. A struggling leftist political party, the Patriotic Union (U.P.), was led by a prominent banker, Juvenal Ovidio Ricardo Palmera Pineda. Because of his incendiary remarks during a peasant strike and protest in the main plaza, he was jailed. After being given amnesty by Jorge Dangond Daza, the governor of the Department, Palmera went into hiding. The national government and conservative groups started a persecution of UP's leaders and followers. Many of Palmera's followers went into exile in Europe.

He escaped into the mountains, taking refuge with the armed branch of the UP; the FARC. Palmera became a guerrilla leader; as a banker, he knew who in the city and region were wealthy. He began kidnapping (and sometimes killing) prominent political leaders, journalists and rich land owners (including members of his own family), using the ransoms to finance his organization. He took the alias Simón Trinidad.

During this period, general crime rose and, on October 15, 1994, the national bank El Banco de la Republica (Bank of the Republic) was robbed. The amount stolen: COP$ 24,075 millions of pesos of non emitted bills (some US$ 11 million) and came to be known as the "El Robo del Siglo" (The bank heist of the century).

To counter FARC and ELN's abuses, and after approximately fifteen years of asfixiating Valledupar's society and supporting negligence by the Colombian military, some prominent leaders of Valledupar, landowners and those victims of these organizations decided to become part or promote, self-defense forces that later on affiliated with the AUC and assigned another "Vallenatean" as leader Rodrigo Tovar Pupo a.k.a. Jorge 40.

The self-defense forces adopted methods like the guerrilla, including illegal drug trafficking to finance their operations. They used terrorism tactics that also affected innocent people, such as selective and random kidnappings, and combinations of racketeering and selective assassinations – the trademark of Death Squads. The AUC helped take back the region from guerrillas, but Valledupar residents had to deal with similar uncertainty in having an illegal and terrorist organization controlling the city.

The AUC northern block demobilized March 10, 2006. It is still uncertain if the Colombian military can control the two terrorist organizations or dismantle them. Because of the longstanding violence, many rural people migrated into the city. Prominent regional leaders have been killed; others were forced into bankruptcy or out of the region.

Despite the violence, since it became capital of the Department of Cesar, Valledupar developed as an important agricultural and cattle raising center for the region between the departments of Cesar and southern parts of La Guajira. It is most notable as the cradle of vallenato music, which is played with accordion, a small drum (caja) and a scraping instrument (guacharaca). Since 1968 at the end of April, the city has held an annual four-day festival, the Vallenato Legend Festival.