Nueva Esparta


The State of Nueva Sparta, in Spanish Estado Nueva Esparta, is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It comprises Margarita Island, Coche, and the largely uninhabited Cubagua.
The state has the smallest area, and is located off the northeast Caribbean coast of Venezuela. It is the only insular state of Venezuela. The main island of Margarita has an area of. Its capital city is La Asunción, and the main urban center is Porlamar.

Etymology

Its name Nueva Esparta comes from the heroism shown by its inhabitants during the Venezuelan War of Independence, deemed similar to that of the Spartan soldiers of Ancient Greece.

History

Spanish colonization

Margarita was discovered on August 15, 1498 during Columbus' third voyage.8 On that trip the Admiral would also discover the mainland, Venezuela. That August day, Columbus saw three islands, two of them small, low and arid, separated by a channel from a third, larger one, covered with vegetation and populated by indigenous people who called it Paraguachoa, a word that means "fish in abundance" according to historians and "sea people" according to others.
Columbus named the island La Asunción, because it was discovered on the religious date of the Virgin that bears his name.9 The following year, in 1499, Pedro Alonso Niño and Cristóbal Guerra, renamed it La Margarita due to the abundance of pearls found in the region, other hypotheses suggest that the name Margarita is referred to by Queen Margarita of Austria-Styria.
Shortly after its discovery, other European sailors confirmed the existence of rich pearl deposits in Cubagua, whose exploitation gave rise to the first Spanish establishment in Venezuela. According to Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, in 1500, only 2 years after his sighting, there were already 50 adventurers installed in Cubagua who were eagerly looking for the precious mother-of-pearl gems used by the natives in their personal ornaments. This settlement of small Spanish villages for the exploitation of these pearl riches in Cubagua consisted of a Cabildo and Regidores by 1510. But the settlement was carried out in this early date spontaneously without following Hispanic patterns, since even in 1517 it is indicated that the population resided in awnings and huts.
At first, all official attempts to achieve the colonization of Cubagua failed, the problem of water supply was paramount and it was concluded that the establishment of a village in Cubagua could not bear fruit without the previous construction of a fortress at the mouth of the river of today's Cumaná, which was the one that supplied the water.
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo's version that the establishment of Cubagua dates back to 1517 is considered correct. Under the protection of the Cumaná fortress, which was finally built in early 1523, the village of Cubagua was quickly organized and an extraordinary boom emerged in the exploitation of pearl pleasures.
It is unlikely that before 1525 the residents of the village of Cubagua were aware of being a town or city. None of the pearl records from 1521 to 1525, which are the first known local sources of Cubagua, mention the name of the village on this island, and only speak of Cubagua.
In 1526 the town was elevated to the category of Villa with the name of "Villa de Santiago de Cubagua", although it seems that this title was never used. On September 13, 1528 this town was granted the rank of city, was given a coat of arms, the first ordinances were issued granting the city political autonomy and its name was changed to "Nueva Cádiz". Through these ordinances, the city of Nueva Cádiz, today recognized as the first city of Venezuela, did not depend on Hispaniola and could trade directly with Castile. This helped the inhabitants of Nueva Cádiz to stimulate their activity. They set about building their city, replacing the huts with stone houses, material brought from Araya, and increasing the number of inhabitants.
Between 1531 and 1532 the pearly beds show the first signs of exhaustion. The growing population with scarce means of living, created in New Cadiz problems of supply of food, water and firewood. Foodstuffs arrived from Santo Domingo, water from the Manzanares River in Cumaná and firewood was transported from Isla Margarita. When pearls were scarce, they sought new fisheries and with the authorization of the Royal Court of Santo Domingo and King Carlos I, they moved to Cabo de la Vela.
The disappearance of the Cubagua population was a slow process due mainly to the lack of water, the resistance of the Indians to the exhausting work of the pearl fisheries, and to the conquests of distant lands. The visit of the French corsairs meant a serious threat to the survival of the city. Likewise, caribbean boats prowled the contours of the island. However, the fundamental cause of Cubagua's depopulation was the disappearance of the oyster beds.
The population did not migrate all at once. Coinciding with the boom in fisheries in Cubagua there is already a migration to Cabo de la Vela, because there were not enough of them in Cubagua. By 1537, the island was becoming depopulated and in 1541, history indicates that a hurricane hit the island, possibly causing an earthquake, and its inhabitants fled to Margarita and founded a town. In 1543, French pirates arrived at the ruins of Nueva Cádiz, where some 10 inhabitants still remained, and left the city in flames, causing the island to be abandoned once again.
Although the exact date of its total abandonment by the Spaniards in this early period is not known, history indicates that by 1545 a group of residents of Nueva Cádiz aspire to incorporate Margarita under their jurisdiction, which confirms the existence of a population on the island at least for that date.
In 1676, the Marquis of Maitenon with a fleet of 10 ships and 800 French buccaneers attacked Margarita Island and Cumaná. This bold action motivated the Spanish to build several forts on the island.
The Province of Margarita is the oldest of those that in 1777 formed the Captaincy General of Venezuela. It had depended on the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo until 1739, when it was annexed to the Viceroyalty of New Granada, along with other entities; and in 1830, when the Republic of Venezuela emerged, it was one of its 13 original provinces.

19th and 20th Centuries

In the Church of Santa Ana an Assembly of Notables was held on May 6, 1816 in which the Third Republic of Venezuela is proclaimed as a single and indivisible nation, the Provisional Government of the Republic is established, the General Simón Bolívar as Supreme Chief of the Republic, General Santiago Mariño is appointed second in command, various military promotions are made and Bolívar signs the repeal of the Death War Decree of 1813. Inside the Church there is still the chair where General Bolivar sat down and the remaining illustrious who participated in the assembly.
In 1835 the province of Margarita was divided into the cantons of La Asunción and Norte.
In 1856, the province of Margarita was divided into the cantons of Norte, with its capital in Santa Ana del Norte, and Sur, with its capital in La Asunción.
In 1864, when the country was divided into 20 states and a Federal District, Margarita took the name of Estado Nueva Esparta. The name Nueva Esparta honors the courageous behavior of its inhabitants during the heroic defense actions during the independence struggle. The nascent Republic granted the title of "Nueva Esparta" to the island territory because of its resemblance to the Sparta of classical Greece for the heroism shown by the island's inhabitants in the struggle for Venezuela's independence. The complete exhaustion of the Cubagua pearl oysters in 1857, determines the abandonment of this island and from now on it will be visited by fishermen who will improvise rancherías. In 1881 it became a section of the Great State Guzmán Blanco. In 1901, two years after the autonomy of the states was restored, it regained the name of Nueva Esparta, but lost it again between 1904 and 1909, during which time it was included in the Federal District as an Eastern Section. Finally, in 1909 it regained its statehood and in 1948, the island of Cubagua was annexed to its territory.

Geography

The main island of Margarita has an area of. Its capital city is La Asunción. The main urban center is Porlamar. Other important towns are Juan Griego, Pampatar, Punta de Piedras, San Juan Bautista, Las Guevaras, Las Hernández, Villa Rosa, Bella Vista, El Valle del Espíritu Santo.
Nueva Esparta is located between the coordinates 10º44, 11º10` of North latitude and 63º 46`, 64º13` of West longitude, in the insular region of the country.
The entity is limited in all its cardinal points by the Caribbean Sea.
Together, the three islands of the entity bring together magnificent beaches, wonderful mangroves and other landscapes that make it a true island paradise. Margarita, the largest of them, has a maximum elevation on Copey Hill and includes the Macanao mountain core to the west. Coche and Cubagua are rocky cores covered with marine sediments and have a flat relief, with cliffs. The climate is arid or semi-arid, to the point that there are no permanent current rivers. The Nueva Esparta state is divided into 11 municipalities

Municipalities

Geology

The state territory is characterized by events of volcanism, sedimentation, emersion, deposition and uprising. Igneous-metamorphic rocks of the Mesozoic era form the foundation of the mountainous areas and their foothills, including the hill landscape, with the exception of the undulating reliefs of Pampatar, constituted by tertiary sediments, as well as the coastal plain. The lowest marine areas are Pleistocene and Holocene formations, composed of alluviums, coastal and alluvial terraces, calcareous sandstones and lagoon deposits. Coche and Cubagua are rocky cores covered with marine sediments. You can also see that it is from the precambrian geological era

Relief

The eastern sector of Margarita Island has three small mountain ranges, aligned in a southeast–northwest direction, whose altitude stops are the Copey, Matasiete, La Guardia and Guayamurí hills; To the southwest, the relief is flat, with the exception of moderate elevations, known as Las Tetas de María Guevara. The Macanao Peninsula, in the western sector, has an elongated east–west massif, between the Macanao and Guarataro hills. The rest are coastal plains that descend towards wide-ranging beaches. The islands of Coche and Cubagua offer a flat terrain with some cliffs.
The relief is composed of coastal plains, lagoons and mountain ranges. The coastal plains of the eastern massif descend to oceanic beaches of great breadth and white sands that constitute a great tourist attraction, also conducive to sports and recreation activities.
Among the highest elevations found in the state, there are:

Hydrography

There are no significant permanent water currents, but thin rivers lately seasonal due to climatic changes that have raised temperatures throughout the planet in recent years. Dry most of the year and with torrential in short periods of rain. Of these, the main ones are San Juan, San Francisco, La Asunción, El Valle, Chaguaramal, El Muco, La Vieja, Negro and Tacarigua.
The lagoons of La Restinga, Los Mártires and Las Marites, together with the hot springs of the Holy Spirit Valley and the San Francisco sector, complete a scarce, insufficient and unsuitable hydrographic system to supply the local population with potable water.

Climate

Nueva Esparta has a semi-arid climate, with microclimates ranging from very warm aggregate to warm-moderate semi-arid. The semi-arid climate dominates in Margarita. In Porlamar the rainfall is only 399 mm. annual with an average temperature of 27 °. The areas with the highest rainfall are located in the Serranía de El Copey, reaching 1,100 mm., Which, together with local fogs, allows the development of cloud forests, which derive on lower slopes in formations of premontane dry forests. Precipitation is lower in the Macanao Peninsula, ranging from 300 to 500 mm. annual, with temperatures from 27 ° to 28 °. By car the average annual temperature is also high with rainfall of 512 mm. annual Dry conditions are rigorous in Cubagua with 250 mm. of rainfall per year. If it is considered that in the coastal and beach sites, such as Porlamar, there are only 66 days of appreciable rainfall per year, the optimal conditions for various types of tourism are given. Some examples of its climate are Cerro Copey, La Restinga lagoon, Macanao peninsula, the islands of Coche and Cubagua.
On rare occasions tropical cyclones affect the islands of the state due to their low latitude. Some cyclones that have affected the islands either directly or indirectly have been Hurricane Joan-Miriam in 1988 and Tropical Storm Bret in 1993.

Soils

The soil is thin and underdeveloped, subject to an intense erosive process due to overgrazing. The oscillations of the sea level and the deforestation carried out for agricultural use contribute to this. The valleys' soils, the best quality lands, are well developed, have an organic layer, are protected from the erosive action of the wind and are covered with vegetation, but only occupy a small proportion of the state.16 In the areas of Piedmont, the cones of injection and colluvial materials give rise to very stony soils. The islands of Coche and Cubagua have soils with salinity and strong erosion resulting from the action of the winds, which gives their surface layer a stony character.

Vegetation

On Margarita Island, the climatic and / or edaphic effects have produced a mixture of life zones, with varied ecosystems that range from tropical desert weeds, in low and dry areas, to thorny mountains and tropical dry forest in areas of greater height. In the Copey hill is the premontane humid forest and in the swampy and saline areas mangroves abound. The most representative species are olive trees, divi-divi and pardillo, around the hills Matasiete, El Copey, and Guaraguao. The very dry forest is in areas of very intervened vegetation. The main species are: cují, guatacare, guamache, cardón, divisive and olive. The spines and desert weeds, dominant formations of the state, occupy the coastal plains. Its main species are abrojo, cují, yaque, oregano, naked Indian, prickly pear, cardon, divisive, guamache and others. Mangrove concentrations are located in La Restinga, Las Marites and other coastal water areas. The most important species are the red mangrove, button and the black mangrove.
Most of the State presents a vegetation corresponding to the Insular Coastal subregion of the Type:
The region has a great variety of animals; Among the most prominent animals of Margarita Island are:
, Margarita Island
Other species of animals found are: mapurite, comadrejita and rabbit margariteño. And several species of reptiles, such as: iguana which was once more in Margarita but its hunting for the consumption of its eggs and meat has made it an endangered species in Margarita; slot or macaurel, rattlesnake, coral snake, guaripete, lizard. And many species of birds that are found and seen in many places on the island, such as the paraulata llanera or tropical mockingbird, carrot carrot or black thrush or llanero scaly or "potoco" alone, parallata eyes of lamp, tile, red-crowned woodpecker, tucusito or hummingbird, emerald hummingbird, coepellae, beaten barbarian, guacharaca that inhabits Tobago and Margarita, turpial, guayamate or cardenalito, partridge, dove, palomino, turtledove and last but most importantly the bird cotorra margariteña as a natural symbol of the island and endangered species on the island.
It is also possible to find species such as escolopendra or giant centipede.

Flora

The semi-arid climate of the Nueva Esparta state is one of the fundamental reasons for the evolution of two main types of vegetation. In the state there are abundant areas of tropical vegetation on the slopes of the main hills of the island
The entity stands out for its scenic resources, represented in natural landscapes, such as lagoons, beaches, hills, salt flats and wind formations, all of great tourist potential. However, it does not have large energy resources, and its availability of minerals is limited to the existence of gravel, sand, limestone, dolomite, chromite, manganese, talc and stone. It also has limited forest resources: araguán, cardón, cují, yaque, guayacán, jobo, vera, among others. The vegetation and natural resources of the state are few for being an arid zone in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, but, heat plants such as cacti, palm trees are very seen in warm areas, but, there are also green areas such as Copey Hill and others.

Economy

Trade predominates, due to the condition of Puerto Libre and its link with local tourism. The tourist activity has stimulated the construction industry, as evidenced by the existence of hotels, restaurants, holiday homes and entertainment centers, as part of an infrastructure that revalue this area for visitors of both national and international origin. Fishing has allowed the production of; needle, anchovy, tuna, snapper, corocoro, lamparosa, carite, torito, lisa, catfish, cazón, vaquita, horse mackerel, picua and sardine ; shrimp and lobster ; clam, squid, chipichipi, guacuco, pearl casing and oysters. Agriculture is also seen as a complementary economic activity, especially on the island of Margarita, where the cultivation of eggplant, corn, melon, paprika, pinilla, sweet pepper and tomato stand out. As well as poultry farming, goats and pigs.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the resident populations of the three islands, mainly in Margarita. The Nueva Esparta State, has become a place of rest and escape for the inhabitants of the great cities of the center of the country being a popular tourist destination of Venezuela.

Main shopping centers

The region is one of the most important tourist attractions in Venezuela. The islands have beaches with conditions for surfing, diving, windsurfing, kitesurfing and other water sports, as well as historic colonial towns. In recent years, several projects have been planned to boost tourism, such as the Puerto la Mar Cruise Port, the expansion of the Santiago Mariño Caribbean International Airport, the Punta Ballena Lighthouse among others. On the island there are several old Spanish fortifications, which are considered national heritage.
Coche Island has exceptional conditions for quality selective tourism. To the west of the island the conditions for windsurfing and kiteboarding and the Tricycles with sail or Sand Yacht can be cited among the best in the world. You can see the effect of strong and continuous breezes in the sparse vegetation of the island, as can be seen in the image of San Pedro de Coche. On the roads, cycling can be practiced, naturally, with sun protection to avoid sunstroke, given the absence of clouds throughout the year. The temperature, although high, is pleasant for the fresh sea breeze, taking into account that this breeze rises, precisely, in the hottest hours during the afternoon.
On the island there are high quality hotels that offer tourists all the necessary services for a pleasant stay. In addition, both water and land tours and tours are offered.

Natural heritage

Parks

Its density exceeds the national average and is one of the highest in the country, due to a constant population growth since the 40s, only slowed by the decline in birth from the 60s. Particularly, the decree of Puerto Free, promulgated in 1971, caused a drastic increase in immigration. Most of the population is grouped in the municipalities most closely associated with the commercial activity emanating from tourism. The Mariño municipality, for example, concentrates more than 23.7% of the entity's inhabitants, and its capital, Porlamar, is the largest economic center on the island of Margarita. It is followed in importance by the municipalities García and Maneiro, which are neighbors of Porlamar, a city that, given the physical impossibility of continuing to grow, has expanded towards them. Other important populations are Villa Rosa, Pampatar, San Juan Bautista, La Asunción, Paraguachí, Juangriego and El Pilar.
IslandPopulation EstimatedAreaDensityLargest location
Margarita Island400.000 1071 km²373,48Porlamar
Coche Island8.756 55 km²159,20San Pedro de Coche
Cubagua Island71 24 km²2,95Playa Charagato

Statistics according to the 2001 census:
In total: 655,235

Ethnography

The native inhabitants of Nueva Esparta State were indigenous people of the Guaiquerí nation, who called the current island of Margarita Paraguachoa. They were great fishermen and farmers, made canoes, hammocks, bows, arrows, wooden mortars, bamboo tubes to extract palm oil and clay utensils. Grouped in nomadic tribes ruled by chiefs, firm believers of the eventual advent of a demigod of the color of the sun, the guaiqueríes provided a friendly reception to the conquerors who arrived at the islands, so they were favored by Spain with the status of free vassals

Main cities and towns

In the state there is a predominantly Catholic population and other Christian branches, evidenced by the churches present in the neo-Spartan entity, among the most important are: Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Valley, Cathedral of The Assumption, San Juan Evangelista Church, San Juan Parish Church, San Nicolás de Bari Church, San José de Paraguachi Church, Santa Ana Church in the Gómez Municipality where Simón Bolívar was declared supreme chief of the Republic and his armies on May 6, 1816 in an assembly held in this church located in the town of Santa Ana del Norte, and other minor churches located in towns such as: Punta from Piedras, Porlamar, Pampatar and practically in all the towns of the island. On the other hand, there are also a variety of religions on the island, among them the Muslim and the Jews.

Race and ethnicity

According to the 2011 Census, the racial composition of the population was:
Racial compositionPopulation%
Mestizo49.1
White217,82847.1
Black11,5622.5
Other race1.3

Culture

The celebrations in Honor of San José de Paraguachí, Patron of the town, are celebrated from March 19 of each year, day of San José, for a week. This week there are cultural activities, dances, food fairs and the famous procession in Honor of San José, where hundreds of parishioners tour the town.

Gastronomy

The Nueva Esparta state has a wide range of native dishes, usually made from seafood products or obtained through local sowing. The dogfish cake could be considered as the emblematic dish of the region, it is a cake made with dogfish and banana . There are also "boiled" fish, which are basically soups made with local fish. Among the products of the land used in the local gastronomy, the tomato and ají margariteño stand out.
Another representative dish is the Margariteño pavilion, in which the shredded meat is replaced by shredded and stewed dogfish. Fried or roasted fish are also consumed, among which the corocoro, the snapper, the carite, the Catalan, etc..; accompanied by arepas or casabe.
Other typical dishes obtained from the sea may be molluscs and crustaceans such as mussels, clams, sea urchins, crab, shrimp, shrimp, etc. Which are prepared in various ways, one of the most common is a soaked dish commonly called phosphorera or stewed with rice, calling it seafood rice.
It is common to observe in many of the streets and squares of the towns of Nueva Esparta, stalls selling cazón empanadas and white cheese, where, the food stalls located in the Market of Los Conejeros, those of the Valley of the Holy Spirit stand out and The Assumption. As for candy store, the piñonate, made in the Parish of San Juan Bautista, coconut kisses, mango jellies and "tits" stands out.

Crafts

Since its inception, the Nueva Esparta State has been a region composed of artists. Mainly because of the heritage of pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Guaiqueries; as well as by artisans who came to the islands mainly from Spain.
Within the craft genre, in the municipality Antonio Díaz, the espadrille, footwear of Hispanic-Arab origin, presents the rubber sole variant. For several years, especially in the decades of the 50s, 60s and 70s, it became a thriving industry, where large businessmen of the espadrille, came to have in their so-called espadrilles called more than 100 people directly and a large amount indirectly; and produced the one used in the state and was taken to others in Venezuela.
The espadrille consists essentially of four parts: the sole, the cut or chapel, the heel and the straps; the first part is extracted from the rubber used by motor vehicles; the rest are made with thread; the cut or cap and heel are made in knitting machines, specially designed for this purpose; and the strips are made manually.
The process to obtain the sole begins by selecting the rubber, which must meet some conditions, this is divided into two parts, when cut exactly through the middle, hence the strips are removed, which can be canvas or rubber, depending on the thickness and utility; on these strips, using pre-made templates of different numbers, are marked on them and then cut; After trimming, they are drawn with very special knives, which indicates where the gaps will be made, this task corresponds to the specialist in using the pin, a knife used for this purpose.
After the sole is prepared, the bonding process is followed, which consists of adhering the cut and heel to the sole with thread which is added beeswax, to make it more resistant, after this, the heel is joined and The cut with the strips.

Education

In different areas of the state are universities that offer careers mostly related to activities related to tourism, fishing and scientific research of the sea. However, over the decades, these institutions have been adapting to the growing demands and the labor demand not only of the activities mentioned above, to the point, that currently the variety of careers they offer are from the branches of the Social Sciences to the Human Sciences.
Below is a list of the main universities and institutes of higher education almost all in Margarita, due to the small population in Cubagua and Coche, are the following:
With 592.6 km of roads, the main routes are the CL5, which crosses Margarita from east to west, the premises # 4 and # 1 that cross the eastern part of the island in a north–south direction; and branch # 11, which runs from Punta de Piedras to CL5. Coche Island has a land route, which partially borders it.
The entity has the Santiago Mariño Caribbean International Airport, located near El Yaque beach, and small tracks by Car and Macanao.
The port infrastructure is headed by the El Guamache International Port and the Chacachacare and Punta Algodones piers; The Punta de Piedras ferry terminal serves tourist routes to Puerto La Cruz, Cumana, La Guaira and San Pedro de Coche, while other maritime operators dispatch from Pampatar and Juangriego. There are also piers in La Isleta and El Yaque, which provide transportation service to the neighboring island of Coche, as well as a service of smaller vessels that depart from Porlamar to the town of Chacopata in Sucre State.

Prominent figures

Sport teams

Margarita Braves Baseball Venezuelan Professional Baseball League
Margarita Soccer Club Soccer Second Division of Venezuela
UDC Margarita CF Soccer Third Division of Venezuela
Deportivo Nueva Esparta Soccer Third Division of Venezuela
Guaiqueríes de Margarita Basketball Professional Basketball League of Venezuela

Sports facilities

The state is autonomous and equal in political terms to the rest of the federation, organizes its administration and its public powers through the Constitution of the Nueva Esparta State, dictated by the former Legislative Assembly published in the Official Gazette of the Nueva Esparta State, Extraordinary Number, dated July 6, 1993, and its Amendment No. 1 published in the Official Gazette of the Nueva Esparta State, Extraordinary Number E-060 dated December 29, 2000.

Executive power

He is represented by the Governor of Nueva Esparta and a group of State Secretaries of his trust. The Governor is elected by the people by direct and secret vote for a period of four years and with the possibility of immediate re-election for additional periods, being in charge of the state administration.
Until 1989 the governors were appointed by the National Executive Power, since then several parties have alternated in the government of the State:
Since 2002 the governor was General Carlos Mata Figueroa of the PSUV. On October 15, 2017 Alfredo Díaz was elected from the Democratic Action party.

Legislative power

The state legislature rests with the Legislative Council of Nueva Esparta, a unicameral regional parliament, elected by the people by direct and secret vote every four years and may be re-elected for new consecutive periods, under a system of proportional representation of the population of the state and its municipalities, the State has 5 deputies, of which 4 belong to the opposition and 1 to the government.

State Police

The State has its own police force called INEPOL on the basis of what is established in the National Constitution of Venezuela, 19 being the one in charge of regional security and organized under the legal figure of the Autonomous Institute. It was created in 1970 and depends on the Government of the State Nueva Esparta since 1989, currently remains attached to the Directorate of Civil Protection and Public Safety of the state.