Capitanejo is a town and municipality in the Santander Department of north eastern Colombia. It is one of the towns in the province of García Rovira on the banks of the Chicamocha River. It is located 197 km from the departmental capital, Bucaramanga and 35 km from Málaga Capital of the province. and 189 km from the city of Tunja; and 136 km from Duitama "Troncal central del Norte" highway. Route 55
History
In the Pre-Hispanic era, the beautiful Chicamocha Valley was populated by a group of natives, which the Spaniards called CHITAREROS and extended their dominions in most of the current Province of García Rovira, reaching Pamplona and the western part of Táchira State. Venezuela.
The conquistadors who came to the territory where the town of Capitanejo is located, found a group of indigenous Chitareros, led by "Don Bernabe," Cacique Chicamocha "and in his honor gave the name to these with Chicamocha Indians, from there also the Name of the region, and the name of the river, which in the beginning was called Rio Grande.
The name Chicamocha is an indigenism, which bears close similarity with other names of the Chibcha linguistic family, such as Chibchacún and Chiminigagua, the Muisca gods.
These clever aborigines had already set up LA CUBAYA or TARABITA, which allowed them to safely cross the Rio Grande, to communicate with their neighbors the Muiscas, Laches and Guanes.
The administration of CABUYA was exercised by the Chicamocha Indians; right they defended during the conquest and the Colony.
The system of the cabuya or tarabita still subsists in Capitanejo, because today it is still used to cross the rivers Chicamocha, Nevado and Servitá, in the riverside paths where there are no bridges. and it is also cataloged as an extreme sport.
In 1597 a "Royal Certificate" gave the Dominican Fathers the "doctrine" of the valley of Chicamocha, where they remained almost 200 years, the Dominicans were the first evangelizers of these regions. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was established in the region, thanks to the benefits of the lands that were granted by President Don Juan de Borja, three Canarian immigrants who played an important role in the First Parish Erection in Capitanejo: The Captain Don Bartolomé de Aguilar, Father Juan Bautista García and the nephew of both Cristóbal Verde de Aguilar.
These men were the promoters of the parish foundation, their support and the beginning of life as a people in that area. The three men came from the Canary Islands a Spanish colony at that time.
Name of Capitanejo
The recent conformed town of chicamocha, soon happened to be called THE CAPITANEJO. This name, says Father Ismael Mejía in his unpublished notes, was given by Don Cristóbal Verde de Aguilar who held the CAPTAIN title, and has an intimate relationship with his title. It means then, to the similarity to CAPTAIN, in honor of its founding CAPTAINS.
Geography
Capitanejo is located in the East of the Department. with an extension of 81 km 2. It has an average altitude of 1090 masl with a dry warm climate at a temperature of 25 C. It is located 197 km from the city of Bucaramanga by difficult road that connects the towns of San José de Miranda, Málaga City. San Andrés, Guaca and Piedecuesta city to get to the Capital. Bucaramanga The distance between Capitanejo and Málaga Capital of the Province is 34.5 km with a travel time of 50 minutes.
The distance of Capitanejo with the capital of the country Bogotá is 328 km paved road. with a travel time of 6 hours.
Ecology
Due to its dry warm climate, it has a vegetation where the magical carpet that can be seen when Capitanejo is seen in the distance, is a great variety of crops such as: tobacco, tomato, melon and sugarcane; wildly we find trees or shrubs such as: the cují, moral, chicken, yabo, mion, yurumo, totumo, tree bread, fig, acacias, mulato, oreganillo, yatago, some fruit such as mamón, coconut, zapote, avocado, mango, orange, tangerine, papaya, guayaba, congolos, passion fruit, sweet lemon, anon, tamarind, guanabana, guama and watermelon, another vegetation that characterizes and identifies the municipality are the cactus varieties known as tunos, as well as a unique species of large spines known as guasábaras.
Of its wildlife, we can say that there are snakes such as coral and jackets among others; iguanas, lizards, faras, weasels, owls, hawks and birds of great variety such as tiles, mirlas, toches, turpiales, coha, swallows, redheads, copetones, pispirillos and pigeons (Torcaza). In the high parts of the town there are foxes, partridges, rabbits, squirrels and tinajos.