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:''This article is about the Bolivian city. For other cities named Santa Cruz, see Santa Cruz''
'Santa Cruz de La Sierra', commonly known as 'Santa Cruz', is the capital city of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia. With a population of 1,528,683 inhabitants (2006 official estimate^[2]), Santa Cruz is the largest city in Bolivia.

Contents

Geography

Climate

History

Gastronomy

Trivia

External links

References

Geography

The city of 'Santa Cruz de la Sierra' is located in the eastern part of the country (17°45', South, 63°14', West) at 416 m above sea level. This city is part of the province of Andres Ibañez and it's the capital of the department (state) of Santa Cruz.

Climate

The weather is semi-tropical, with an average annual temperature around 21 °C (or 70 °F). Although the weather is generally warm all year round, cold wind patterns, called "surazos", can blow in occasionally (especially in the winter) from the Argentine pampas making the temperature drop considerably. The months of greatest rainfall are January and February.

'Seasonal temperatures'

Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter
18 °C - 33 °C	22 °C - 38 °C	20 °C - 30 °C	8 °C - 29 °C
21 Sep - 20 Dec	21 Dec - 20 Mar	21 Mar - 20 Jun	21 Jun - 20 Sep

History

Santa Cruz de La Sierra was first founded on February 26, 1561 by Ñuflo de Chávez who gave the new settlement its name, which means "Holy Cross of the Hills," in honor of his beloved native city in Extremadura, Spain. Ñuflo de Chávez was a Spanish Captain whose biggest legacy was the expansion of colonization through virgin rainforest and savanna areas in southeastern South America. His campaign started in Buenos Aires - then Argentina's capital city - to the second biggest settlement, Asunción - then Paraguay's capital city - and finishing with the last of the larger settlements, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Each of the three cities helped to consolidate the colonization of several indigenous populations through what was named as Audiencia de La Plata, or a type of administrative province during the colonial stage of Latin America history. The Audiencia de La Plata consolidated what today is Argentina, Uruguay, the three Southern states of Brazil, Paraguay, and the south, southeast, and north of Bolivia, inclusively the state of Acre which is currently part of the Brazilian Federation.
Within the specific area of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, several tribes were incorporated under Spaniard control and converted to the Catholic faith, as a result of the Jesuits' influence over this region; the Guaranies, Moxeños, Chiquitanos, Guarayos, and Chiriguanos were just a few of several ethnic groups who were the ancestors of the racially mixed population of the modern Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, and Tarija departamentos (states) of Bolivia.
The original settlement of Santa Cruz de la Sierra was actually 220 km east of its modern location, only a few kilometers south of today's San José de Chiquitos. After conflicts with the indigenous population, the town was moved to another location closer to the banks of Río Grande; as aa result of unfriendly environmental conditions, however the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra was then moved to its present location on the banks of Piraí River in 1592. Remnants of the original settlement can be visited in Santa Cruz la Vieja ("Old Santa Cruz"), an archeological site south of San José de Chiquitos. It is commonly believed there were more than two relocations of the city between February 26, 1561 and the year when the last settlement was finally founded, but this is still not known for certain.
After the city was moved, it became an important staging point for Jesuit and other Christian missions to Chiquitos and Moxos for the next two centuries. Still, Santa Cruz saw little growth during that period of time. It was not until nearly a century after Bolivia gained its independence that the city started to take an important role in the nation's history. The Acre war with Brazil in the early 20th century, as well the Chaco war with Paraguay in the 1930s, forced the central government to turn its attention to the east, allocating more resources for regional governments and improving communication. The isolated town was connected by a road to Cochabamba in the 1950s, and subsequently to Brazil by railway, thus stimulating economic and demographic growth. Improvement in routes and pathways of communication, such as Viru Viru International Airport), as well as a continuous influx of immigrants, turned the city into one of the most industrialized and important trading centers of the country during the second half of the twentieth century.
Today Santa Cruz is not only the most populated city in Bolivia, but the department is also the richest, with over 30% of the national GDP. Santa Cruz is also leading an important revolutionary movement against the central government of Bolivia to transform the country into an autonomic political system, similar to that present in Spain, where every region manages its own production, taxation, and internal laws with some level of coordination with the national government. The other departamentos following this vision are Tarija, Beni, and Pando, regions that for historic reasons, including similar values and cultural background, are the pioneers of changes on a national level.

Gastronomy

The city of Santa Cruz has benefited from a fast paced growing economy for the last 15 years. This has allowed for a multicultural and ethnically diverse city to develop. Despite its fast growth, the city preserves much of its traditions and culture. This is particularly reflected in its typical foods. The agricultural richness of the region allows Santa Cruz to enjoy a vast variety of flavours and ingredients. The following is a list which describes the most typical foods:
'Typical Foods'

★ Picante de Pollo (chicken in a red hot salsa served with a portion of rice and yuca

★ Majao or Majadito (a rissoto style plate which includes charque, duck or chicken meat.)

★ Locro (a very dense, rice based soup containing vegetables and chicken)

★ Sopa de maní ( Another dense soup, whose base is made of cooked peanuts, crushed and boiled)

★ Masaco (smashed plantain with charque(sun dried meat)Also made with yuca and charque)
'Typical Drinks'

★ Mocochinchi (this rather strange looking drink consist of sun dried peaches which are boiled with honey and clove)

★ Somó (white corn based drink, served cold, very refreshing)

★ Chicha (alcoholic drink made by fermenting white corn).
'Typical Pastries'

★ Cuñapé (yuca and cheese baked as small bread bunds)

★ Zonzo (yuca and cheese, boiled and mixed in a type of mashed potato consistency, oven baked or grilled)

★ Empanada de arroz

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★ Empanada de queso

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★ Empanada de jigote

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★ Empanada de carne

★ Bizcocho de trigo

★ Masaco de plátano

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★ Masaco de yuca

★ Arepa

★ Salteña

★ Queque

Trivia

★ The city's street layout currently consists of a concentric ring model.

★ There are several Japanese-manufactured taxi cabs throughout the city. The steering wheels have been modified to the left side of these vehicles, thus earning them the name of "transformers" (transformed).

★ Mobile kiosk fast food establishments began to appear in the early 1980s decade, most notably Hamburguesas TOBY and Hamburguesas King Burger. Smaller clandestine kiosks serve soda in a small plastic bag with a straw.

★ The Spanish language of Bolivia's eastern lowlands (the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando) is referred to as "Camba Spanish". Aside from local idioms and vernacular, the distinctive, phonological traits of Camba Spanish include the aspiration of the /s/ syllable final (similar to Caribean Spanish) and the infrequent use of the ''voseo'' pronoun instead of ''tú'' in informal address. The use of ''vos'' is spoken with more frequency within the department of Tarija in southern Bolivia.

★ Santa Cruz de la Sierra is a major fashion and modeling hub in Bolivia. Cruceños pride themselves in winning the most Bolivian beauty pageant titles, including the Miss Bolivia pageant whose delegate continues her representation at the Miss Universe pageant. For this reason, Cruceños colloquially honor their city as ''"La Capital de la Belleza Amazonía"'' (''"The Capital of the Amazon Beauty"''). Nationally, Cruceños spend the highest amount of money per capita on personal care and beauty products.

★ ''Las Magníficas de Pablo Manzoni'' is a modeling troupe and agency that conducts showcases of Bolivia's top fashion models; several of them being from Santa Cruz. The showcase is heralded as one of Bolivia's most pretigious fashion and modeling events, having recently acquired international appeal and interest.

★ The city is home to Palmasola prison

External links

★ Official city government site

★ Images of cosmopolitan Cruceños, social events, and nightlife.

References

★ Gutsch, Jochen-Martin, "Im Labyrinth der Unordnung" Der Spiegel 5 December 2005, pp. 144-50.