{"id":1314,"date":"2024-08-02T18:18:27","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T00:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/?p=1314"},"modified":"2025-09-28T17:16:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T23:16:05","slug":"origenes-de-cobano-de-parte-de-una-comarca-a-un-propio-distrito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/2024\/08\/02\/origenes-de-cobano-de-parte-de-una-comarca-a-un-propio-distrito\/","title":{"rendered":"Origins of C\u00f3bano: from part of a region to its own district."},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading time 5'<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The small size in territory and population that Costa Rica has had compared to other countries could lead us to believe that little more than nothing has happened. However, part of the magic that this country has, and in particular the south of the Nicoya Peninsula, is showing that a place and its people do not have to fit into the parameters of Western development or greatness to be home to true experiences, beauty and freedom, among others. Having said the above, Santa Teresa Hoy begins a series of articles that aim to shed light on the very particular historical path that has resulted in the place we see today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite having signed its independence from Spain in 1821, Costa Rica was part of the Central American Federal Republic and it was not until 1848 that it was permanently established as a Republic and not a Free State. In December of that same year, decree 16 of the government of Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Castro Madriz established that Puntarenas was not part of the then five provinces, but rather \u201cThe port of Puntarenas will form a separate Region, and will be governed in a special way in its internal regime, until the increase in its population allows it to be erected into a Province.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This population increase came relatively quickly. According to the municipal ordinances of 1868, Puntarenas was already a province. In documents from the end of the 19th century, it is common for the territory south of the Nicoya Peninsula to be simply named the \u201cwestern district\u201d, which included the current districts of Lepanto, Paquera and C\u00f3bano. Already in October 1915, again by presidential decree, the districts of the central canton of the province were specified, among which is the fifth district, whose head was Paquera.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In said district, apart from the main town in Paquera, the only place with the rank of neighborhood was Tambor. It should be noted that the category of neighborhood implies the existence of a high concentration of population, in contrast to hamlets. Among the latter, the ones noted were Gigante, R\u00edo Grande, Cuchillo, Paquerita, \u00d3rganos, La Jeriaga, Cur\u00fa, and, as the only hamlet in the current territory of C\u00f3bano: Ar\u00edo and \u201cLa Playa\u201d. Information about the neighborhoods and hamlets of the current district of C\u00f3bano between the decades of 1910 and 1960 is found mainly in letters and reports from the Ministry of Education, Institute of Land and Colonization, Ministry of the Interior, Costa Rican Social Security Fund, among others. In other installments we will delve into them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main and most recent milestone in terms of population increase and administrative reorganization occurred in 1971. In August of that year, the national government decreed the creation of the C\u00f3bano district, number 12 of the central canton of Puntarenas, segregated from the Paquera district. Its limits were established as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStarting from the mouth of the P\u00e1nica River in Ballena Bay in the Gulf of Nicoya, it is taken upstream along the aforementioned river towards its sources. The \u201cSula\u201d triangulation vertex is reached, 611 m. and then descends along the hill with a WNW orientation and for an approximate length of 2 km until reaching the waters of the Seco River. It continues downstream along this river until its confluence with the Ar\u00edo River and always downstream along the latter until its confluence with the Bongo River and continues along it until its mouth into the Pacific Ocean.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following article establishes the internal division as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe head of the new district will be the town of C\u00f3bano and will also be made up of the following towns: San Ram\u00f3n Sur, Pav\u00f3n, Santa F\u00e9, Betel, Santa Clemencia, P\u00e1nica, San Pedro, Tambor, Abuela, Florida, Ar\u00edo (Manzanillo), Respingue, R\u00edo Negro, Santiago, Montezuma, Delicias, San Isidro, Santa Teresa, Carmen, Malpa\u00eds and Cabuya.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is worth noting how no distinction is still made between Santa Teresa and Hermosa, and how the word Montezuma is formalized at the central government level, despite the fact that in the 1960s local educational authorities referred to the place as Moctezuma. This is, in fact, the name of the local school to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finally, it must be remembered that new populations imply more immigration, and with them more work, projects and living communities. Between 1848 and 1971, the current territory of C\u00f3bano went from being a corner of a port that did not reach the rank of province, to being recognized as a territory with a sufficient population to be an administrative unit in itself. Having built this brief timeline, the challenge now is to trace the process by which these communities have been transformed into what we see today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access to information about this region is challenging in itself, but we work to share with you particular episodes and stories that allow us to value, ideally with gratitude and inspiration, the past experiences of those who have inhabited this area. With that intention, through the next two installments, we will share the impressions of a French military sailor who toured Tambor Bay in the 1890s, as well as the critical view of a teacher on the main social problems in C\u00f3bano during the 1990's.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jose Pablo Arguedas. Costa Rican, C\u00f3bano resident, historian and professor.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tiempo de lectura 5′ El peque\u00f1o tama\u00f1o en territorio y poblaci\u00f3n que Costa Rica ha tenido en comparaci\u00f3n con otros pa\u00edses, podr\u00eda hacernos creer que ha pasado poco m\u00e1s que nada. Sin embargo, parte de la magia que tiene este pa\u00eds, y en particular el sur de la Pen\u00ednsula de Nicoya, es evidenciar que un … Continue reading Origins of C\u00f3bano: from part of a region to its own district.<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":235223963,"featured_media":1317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3503],"tags":[6328208,9710,768136413,678,705,859744,768136414],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-historia","tag-cobano","tag-costa-rica","tag-historia","tag-history","tag-local","tag-malpais","tag-santa-teresa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peOIQI-lc","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/santateresahoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Captura-de-Pantalla-2024-07-31-a-las-20.24.56.png?fit=987%2C727&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/235223963"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1321,"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions\/1321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santateresahoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}