Azua de Compostela

Azua de Compostela Azua
—  Municipality  —
Azua de Compostela
Coordinates: 18°27′9″N 70°44′10″W
Country	Dominican Republic Dominican Republic
Province	Azua
Municipal Districts	8
Founded	1504
Municipality since	1844
Area
• Total	432.95 km2 (167.16 sq mi)
Elevation	83 m (272 ft)
Population (2002)
• Total	87,024
• Density	201/km2 (520/sq mi)
• Urban	56,453
	Including populations of its municipal districts
Time zone	AST (UTC-4)
• Summer (DST)	AST (UTC-4)
Demonym	Azuano (female, azuana)

The Dominican city of Azua de Compostela, or simply Azua, is the head municipality of the Azua province, on the south of the country, about 5 km north of the Caribbean coast. It is also called sometimes Compostela de Azua.

Azua is the Taíno name of the region where the old city was founded. In this place, Pedro Gallego (or Pedro Mariscal), a Spanish colonist, developed a farm and he gave it the name of Compostela after Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, nortwestern Spain.

Population

The municipality had, in 2002, a total population of 87,024: 44,178 men and 42,846 women. The urban population was 64.87% of the total population. In this numbers are included the population of the municipal districts that are part the municipality. The population of Azua de Compostela without those municipal districts was 56,453.

History

The town was founded in 1504 by Diego Velázquez, who later went to conquest the island of Cuba; the Spanish governor of the Hispaniola island at that time was Nicolás de Ovando. The town was in the original region of Azua, where there was a Taíno town and Pedro Gallego had a farm. This place is called now Pueblo Viejo (in English, Old Town), at about 8 km to the soutwest of the modern city.

The first secretary of the town was Hernán Cortés. He lived in Azua from 1504 to 1511, when he left to Cuba and, later, to conquest México.

Several sugar factories were established around the town and pirates came here to get the sugar and other products.

In 1751 there was a strong earthquake that destroyed the old town and a new one was founded on the right (western) side of the River Vía, where the modern city is now.

Because Azua is on the road that goes from the western part of the island to Santo Domingo, the city was destroyed several times during the Dominican-Haitian War (1844-1856). Two important battles (the Azua Battles) were fought in the city; the first was on 19 March 1844 and the second on 1849.

Geography

The municipality of Azua de Compostela is in a very dry valley (the Azua Valley or Azua Plain) where cacti and other plants of dry regions are common. Farming is possible only with irrigation.

Azua is at 97 km to the west of Santo Domingo. The average temperature in the city is 27.0 °C and the average rainfall is 665.30 mm but it rains in only 53.3 days.

The land around the city is very flat, with only a few very small hills but there are mountains in the north and northwest of the municipality; those mountains are part of the Cordillera Central. The only river in the municipality is the Vía, a very small river that flows through the city.

The limits of the municipality are the municipality of Peralta to the north, the municipality of Estebanía to the east, the Caribbean Sea to the south, the municipality of Pueblo Viejo to the southwest and the municipality of Sabana Yegua to the west.

Azua de Compostela has eight municipal districts; these are:

• Barreras
• Barro Arriba
• Clavellina
• Emma Balaguer Vda. Vallejo
• Las Barías-La Estancia
• Las Lomas
• Los Jovillos
• Puerto Viejo

Economy

The main economic activity in the province is farming. In the valley, the most important crops are banana, plantain, vegetables and fruits like mango.

Fishing is important along the Caribbean coast.