Aracataca

Aracataca (colloquially sometimes referred to as "Cataca") is a municipality located in the Department of Magdalena, in Colombia's Caribbean Region. Aracataca is a river town founded in 1885. The town stands beside the river of the same name, the Aracataca river that flows from the nearby Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range into the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta. Aracataca is located some 80 km south of the Department capital Santa Marta. The town is best known as the birthplace of Nobel literature laureate Gabriel García Márquez.

Geography and climate

The municipality borders to the north with the municipalities of Zona Bananera, Santa Marta and Cienaga, to the east with the Cesar Department, to the south with the municipality of Fundación, and to the west with the municipalities of El Retén and Pueblo Viejo.

Aracataca's climate is tropical: warm and humid year-round.

History

Aracataca was founded in 1885. It achieved the status of municipality on the 28th of April 1915, when it separated from the municipality of Pueblo Viejo. In the late 19th century, companies that would later merge into the United Fruit Company colonized the land and started to cultivate bananas in the wide region. By working closely with the government and terrorizing their workers, the term banana republic has come into popular use. After some decades, the downfall of the company initiated and completed soon after, partly because of the worldwide recession and the war soon after. Ever since then, the town was hidden behind a curtain of violence and forgetfulness until it was rediscovered by local artists and foreign investors.