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The
city of Pereira is the
capital city of the Colombian department of
Risaralda. It
stands in the center of the western
region of the country, located in a
small valley that
descends from a part of the western Andes mountain chain.
Its strategic location in the
coffee producing
area makes the city one of the most
important urban centers in Colombia, as does
its proximity to the three most
important cities in the country – Bogotá, Cali and Medellín – and to
the sea and the biggest airport in
the whole area. In 2004 it reported a
population of 576,329.
The early settlers
were the
Quimbaya
tribes famous for their
gold
artistic creations, considered of the highest in
quality among cultures from pre-Columbian
America.
The Spanish
established their first settlement around the year
1540. The town of
Cartago
was first founded here and then moved around 1691 to
the place where it is today. Much later, in 1816,
the brothers José Francisco and Manuel Pereira
sheltered in the zone after being defeated (as part
of the patriot army that fought with
Simón Bolivar
for the freedom of
Colombia)
at the battle of Cachirí. Francisco Pereira Martinez
wanted that the ground that kept him and his brother
safe from the spaniards, became a city.
 At August 24th of
1863, four days after the death of Mr Francisco, the
Priest Remigio Antonio Cañarte headed a caravan from
Cartago, founding this way, the Ville of Pereira six
days later (August 30th), right were is placed,
actually, the "Plaza de Bolivar". With the time,
settlers from
Antioquia
occupied the area and established in the city,
giving an impulse to the emerging village. The city
is thus the result of a major demographic and
territorial movement known as the "Antioquian
Expansion" or "Antioquian Colonization", which
propitiated an enormous economic movement that
boosted the development of the whole country.
With the time, due to
its strategic location, its suitable soil for
agriculture and its benevolent weather, the city
started to develop exponentially; in addition, the
first settlers created a festivity to promote the
city, this celebration was made in the anniversary of
the city (which conveniently coincided with the
harvest), they decided to name it "Harvest Fest"
(Fiestas de la cosecha);
This festivity was promoted
widely across the country, and, eventually became a
major one, that generated several phrases that still
survive in the lexic of Colombians as: "asi no vamos
a llegar a ningún Pereira" (which could be
translated as: this way, we're not going to arrive
to Pereira, which is used to mean that the actions
taken aren't useful to achieve a goal), "hicieron su
Agosto" ("they made their August" meaning that
someone made a really good deal, due that everyone
used to sell all its merchandise at the festivities
of the city).
The most important
product for the settlers was
coffee,
since the soils of these part of the
Andes
have a big compound of volcanic ashes (thing that
makes them very fertile) the cultives were massive
and of high quality. Coffee is still today the most
important crop produced in the area, in fact pereira
is right in the center of the region called "eje
cafetero", cafeterian axis, in English. |
