Barbosa is a town in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia. Municipality of the province of Vélez.
Called by the natives of the region as "The Golden Gate of Santander", being the second Santander municipality by the southern entrance of the department.
History
Founding Date: May 24, 1539
Founder's name: Heliodoro Barbosa
Barbosa called "Puerta de oro de Santander", its privileged geographical location, its colorful valley on the banks of the Suarez River, has allowed it to become the nerve center of an extensive region and the roads that converge in it have made it an obligatory one of the most powerful municipalities in the department.
His first embryo was the Center populated of Cite, today its corregimiento, founded by Martín Galeano the 24 of May 1539 (it is considered the first population founded in the department of Santander since Vélez was founded on July 3, 1539) and for many years it held the category of municipality, he first came to the legal life on October 1, 1939 precisely as a corregimiento attached to Our Lady of Cite, but its unusual development, especially caused by its rapid growth of business led to the Assembly of the department to approve ordinance No. 42 of June 21, 1940, turning it into a municipal seat.
Its name is a tribute to the Spanish general Heliodoro Barbosa, who fought relentlessly against the Ubazas Indians, settlers of the region and who are said to be the most accurate macana archery marksmen.
Conquest and colonization
The main original nuclei existing by the lands crossed by Martín Galeano are the following: Agataes, with Chipatá as head, and the clans and rancherios in Guavatá, Ubasá, Güepsa and some other points: Yariguíes or Lloriquíes, watered by the mountainous area that extends long behind Vélez to the north; the Guanes and Chanchones by the oriental margin of the Sarabita River and slopes of the Mochuelo or Fonce; and something more to the east the Chalalaes or Charalás. Neither one nor the other was concentrated in large populations. They were clans or family groups scattered here and there, with dialects and customs often dissimilar. For that reason Galeano and its people took a slip when they undertook their campaign, they thought to find great towns and a lot of gentility, at the end they only found a few groups and tough fighters.
Arrival of the conquerors
The conquistadors set foot on these lands for the first time in the year of 1539, when the conqueror Martín Galeano, following the orders of Don Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, visited the Santanderean mountains in which he had to find some similar to those of Vélez (Spain). Martín Galeano, after having passed through different Guanes territories and fought several battles with the Indians, in May 1539 camped on the banks of the Suarez River where today is Cite. The mission was to found the city of Vélez, but circumstances did not allow and after citing several names for this camp they managed to reach an agreement and called it Cite. The soldiers encamped in this place, exhausted by fatigue, began to wonder the name that they would put saying ... "Partner Cite yourself a name, Cite yourself a name"
The region was inhabited by the Ubasas Indians who were said to be the most accurate arrow shooters with bow and its name of Barbosa is due to the name of Captain Helidoro Barbosa, who fought an intense battle with the tribe and fought relentlessly, in which the Spaniards were on the verge of succumbing and after several days of intense battles they were victorious, for that reason Martín Galeano, in recognition of the value demonstrated by the commander, commanded to raise a bridge on the Suarez river which he called precisely "Puente Barbosa" , planting this name for the first time in the region. Among the first inhabitants of Barbosa who sat his plant in these rich regions are the families of surnames Becaría, Camacho, Escamilla, Ulloa, Moncada, Chaparro, Fajardo, Cely, Ríos and González.