Agustín Codazzi, or Codazzi, is a city and municipality of the Department of Cesar in Colombia. It was founded in 1784 by the Spanish Captain Salvador Felix de Arias with the name of El Pueblito del Espiritu Santo but later renamed after the Italian cartographer, Giovanni Battista Agostino Codazzi, who died in this place in 1859. It is located along the Serranía del Perijá, covering some of the area pertaining to the valley of the Cesar River.
In 1958 Codazzi was proclaimed a municipality due to its rapid population increase in the 1950s and 1960s, triggered by an agricultural boom of cotton, that attracted people searching for jobs from many departments of Colombia; mainly from Tolima, Huila, Santander, North Santander, Antioquia, Cundinamarca, Bolivar and Magdalena.
When this boom ended, the agroindustry opted for other products like palm, sugar cane, liquors and milk products. In 2005 the municipality of Codazzi had approximately 52,219 inhabitants.
Symbols
Coat of arms
The coat of arms of the city is divided into four parts: the upper left shows an allegory of the religious festivals of the divine shepherdess; in the top right are the mountains of Perija; the bottom part shows the fruits and products of agriculture such as coffee, corn and cotton flowing from the horns, like the bows and arrows that make memories to the Yukpa tribe, ancient inhabitants of their territory.
Flag
The flag of the municipality of Codazzi consists of two colors, white and green. These colors highlight the high elevations of the Perijá mountains and cotton farming.
Other symbols
Cotton is one of the symbols of the municipality for which it was called the white city of Colombia and that led to the highlight of Agustín Codazzi when this crop (between 1958 and 1975), became a Codazzi cotton in the capital of Colombia and earned it the title of White City. In 1960, with planted, Codazzi became the first domestic producer of cotton, followed distantly by Armero, Tolima, with . The area planted reached in 1975, but decreased rapidly with the later cotton crisis.
History
This town in the beginning (1700) was called "Holy Spirit" and Captain Salvador Felix Arias, governor of Province of Santa Marta, founded it on land donated for that purpose (there are versions that Captain Felix Torres founded it in 1784).
These lands were claimed by the local tribes who came from the Serranía del Perijá, forcing the captain to flee Salvador Arias.
The creation of this municipality was given by the division of the municipality of Robles, with the priest Algezares Leandro Maria, who gave the name of Agustín Codazzi, in honor of the military and Italian geographer (year 1958).
The town of Codazzi before reaching a municipality, was known and was part of the remembered Robles, time when the Father Leandro Algezares Maria began the quest for the disaggregation municipal today known nationally and internationally, as Agustín Codazzi or Codazzi simply.
The creation of the municipality of Codazzi was proposed by decree no 179 of February 25, 1958 of the Government of the Department of Magdalena, then approved by Resolution No. 0265 of April 9, 1958 of the Ministry of Government and confirmed by Order No. 122 of November 12, 1958, issued by the Honorable Madeleine Departmental Assembly.
Codazzi
Augustine (also called Agostino) was son of Domingo Codazzi, draper and Bartolotti Constance. He was born on July 12, 1793, in the city of Lugo (Italy).
During the period 1850–1859, Codazzi traveled through what is now Colombia with the Commission Corográfica, which was a group of geographers and naturalists in charge of mapping the country. But as he prepared to go along what is the Colombian Atlantic coast, a surprise malaria attack led to his death on February 7, 1859, in the town of the Holy Spirit, now called Codazzi in his honor.
Geography
Physical description
The municipality of Agustín Codazzi is located in the northern part of Cesar approximately 1 hour from the state capital, Valledupar (). It consists of four districts, 23 villages and 42 districts. There are diverse climates in the area because part of its territory forms the mountains of Perijá.