El Progreso Department
El Progreso Department
Departmento de El Progreso | |
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UTC-6 |
El Progreso (Spanish pronunciation: [el pɾoˈɣɾeso]) is a department in Guatemala. The departmental capital is Guastatoya. The Spanish established themselves in the region by 1551, after the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. El Progreso was declared a department in 1908, but was dissolved in 1920 before being reestablished in 1934. Guastatoya was badly affected by the 1976 Guatemala earthquake.
The department is located in northeastern Guatemala. It is bordered by the departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, Jalapa, and Zacapa. The department occupies an intermediate zone between the hot lowlands and the cooler Guatemalan Highlands, and has a generally hot climate. The most important river is the Motagua. To the north, the department is crossed by the Sierra de las Minas mountain range. The main population centres in El Progreso are Guastatoya, Sanarate and San Agustín Acasaguastlán. The CA-9 Atlantic Highway links the department with Guatemala City and the Atlantic port of Puerto Barrios.
The vast majority of the population of the department are Spanish-speaking Ladinos. The population is growing, but at a rate below the national average. At the same time, the illiteracy rate is falling.
History
Historically, the area now included in the department of El Progreso was known as Guastatoya or Huastatoya, derived from
Early history
The Spanish colonial
Departmental history
The department of El Progreso was created by executive decree on 13 April 1908, to include the municipalities of Acasaguastlán, Cabañas, Guastatoya (which was renamed as El Progreso), Morazán, Sanarate, Sansaria (now known as Sansare), San Antonio La Paz, and San José El Golfo. For a short time from December 1919 to June of the following year, the department was renamed Estrada Cabrera at the request of its constituent municipalities, in order to honour the then-president. On 9 June 1920, after the president was overthrown, the department was dissolved by the government.[8] The municipalities that it had incorporated were returned to their previous jurisdictions.[9] The department was reestablished on 3 April 1934 by the legislative assembly.[10]
The departmental capital of Guastatoya was badly affected by the 1976 Guatemala earthquake, which completely destroyed all historic architecture in the town.[10]
Geography
The department of El Progreso is located in northeastern Guatemala. It is bordered to the southwest by the department of Guatemala, to the southeast by Jalapa, to the east by Zacapa, to the west by Baja Verapaz, and to the north by the department of Alta Verapaz. The departmental capital is Guastatoya. The department occupies an intermediate zone between the hot lowlands and the cooler Guatemalan Highlands. It has a surface area of approximately 1,922 square kilometres (742 sq mi).[10]
The terrain is varied, with altitude varying between 245 and 1,240 metres (804 and 4,068 ft)
The main population centres in El Progreso are Sanarate, Guastatoya, and San Agustín Acasaguastlán. The CA-9 Atlantic Highway crosses the department from west to east, en route from Guatemala City to the Atlantic port of Puerto Barrios. Other principal highways are the CA-17 from El Rancho towards Cobán, and the RN-19 from Sanarate towards Jalapa.[11][12]
Population
According to the 2018 census, the population of El Progreso was 176,632.[1] In 2013, the non-indigenous proportion of the population was 98.2% against 1.8% indigenous.[13] The majority of the population consists of Spanish-speaking Ladinos, although some traces of indigenous culture survive, such as in modes of dress, linguistic traces, and local customs and beliefs.[14] By 2013 the total population had grown to 163,537. The 2012–2013 population growth rate was 1.73%, below the national average of 2.32%. By gender, 51.9% of the population are female, and 48.1% male. The majority of the population, 59.8%, lives in the rural portion of the department.[13] The predominant language in El Progreso is Guatemalan Spanish.[10] In 2013, 89.2% of the population were recorded as literate, with a year-on-year drop in illiteracy from 16.1% in 2009.[15]
Mortality
In 2013, 930 deaths were registered in the department, demonstrating a 3.5% drop on the previous year, and 1.3% of the national total:[16]
Cause | % |
---|---|
Heart attack
|
32.2% |
Diabetes mellitus
|
10.7% |
Pneumonia | 10.5% |
Stroke | 9.7% |
Assault with firearm | 9.7% |
Stomach cancer | 6.6% |
Unspecified | 6.6% |
Liver cancer | 6% |
Liver cirrhosis/fibrosis | 4.6% |
Vehicular accident | 3.4% |
Economy and agriculture
Agricultural products include
Tourism
Local tourist attractions include thermal baths near Sanarate and San Antonio La Paz.[10]
Archaeological sites
The best preserved archaeological site in the region is Guaytán, which was inhabited from the Late Preclassic to the Late Classic periods of Mesoamerican chronology (approximately from 250 BC to 900 AD), and was an important centre for the distribution of jade.[17]
Municipalities
El Progreso is divided into eight municipalities:[4]
- El Jícaro
- Guastatoya
- Morazán
- San Agustín Acasaguastlán
- San Antonio La Paz
- San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán
- Sanarate
- Sansare
Notes
- ^ a b Citypopulation.de Population of departments in Guatemala
- ^ Hernández 2004. Gran Diccionario Nahuatl. SEGEPLAN 2001, p. 13.
- ^ a b c Municipalidad de San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f Ministerio de Economía 2015.
- ^ a b Feldman 1998, p. 29.
- ^ Feldman 1998, pp. 29–30.
- ^ SEGEPLAN 2001, p. 18.
- ^ a b SEGEPLAN 2001, p. 13.
- ^ SEGEPLAN 2001, pp. 13–14.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hernández 2004.
- ^ a b ITMB Publishing 1998.
- ^ SEGEPLAN 2001, p. 11.
- ^ a b INE 2014, p. 14.
- ^ Low 1989, p. 120.
- ^ INE 2014, p. 23.
- ^ a b INE 2014, p. 18.
- ^ Arroyave Prera 2012, pp. 601–603.
References
- Arroyave Prera, Ana Lucia (2012). Recordando a Guaytán, una propuesta de restauración en la acrópolis y en el Juego de Pelota B2 (in Spanish). XXV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2011 (edited by B. Arroyo, L. Paiz, and H. Mejía), pp. 601–610. Guatemala: Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropología e Historia and Asociación Tikal. Retrieved 2016-10-29. Archived from the original on 2016-05-15.
- Feldman, Lawrence H. (1998). Motagua Colonial. Raleigh, North Carolina, US: Boson Books. OCLC 82561350. Archived from the originalon 2015-01-21. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
- Gran Diccionario Náhuatl [online] (2012). "Huaxin" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
- Hernández, Gonzalo (8 August 2004). Mapa No. 5: El Progreso: También conocida como la tierra de los ayotes (PDF) (in Spanish). Guatemala: Prensa Libre. Retrieved 2010-12-26. Archived from the original on 2011-12-03.
- INE (2014). Caracterización departamental de El Progreso 2013 (in Spanish). Guatemala: Instituto Nacional de Estadística. Retrieved 2016-10-29. Archived from the original on 2015-07-20.
- ITMB Publishing (1998). Guatemala (Map) (3rd ed.). 1:500000. International Travel Maps. ITMB Publishing Ltd. OCLC 421536238.
- Low, S. M. (1989), "Gender, Emotion, and Nervios in urban Guatemala". In Dona L. Davis and Setha M. Low. Gender, Health And Illness: The Case Of Nerves. New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, US and London, UK: Taylor & Francis. pp. 115–140. OCLC 19922432.
- Ministerio de Economía (2015). Información Socioeconómica de Guatemala: Departamento de El Progreso (in Spanish). Guatemala: Ministerio de Economía. Archived from the original on 2016-10-29. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
- Municipalidad de San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán (2011). "Historia del Municipio" (in Spanish). Municipalidad de San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán. Archived from the original on 2014-01-03. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
- SEGEPLAN (2001). Plan de desarollo departamental El Progreso 2011–2025 (in Spanish). Guatemala: Secretaría de Planificación y Programación de la Presidencia SEGEPLAN. Retrieved 2016-10-29.