Valcheta
Encyclopedia
Valcheta is a village and municipality in Río Negro Province
Río Negro Province
Río Negro is a province of Argentina, located at the northern edge of Patagonia. Neighboring provinces are from the south clockwise Chubut, Neuquén, Mendoza, La Pampa and Buenos Aires. To the east lies the Atlantic Ocean.Its capital is Viedma...

 in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, seat of government of Valcheta Department.

History

Valcheta is one of the oldest settlements in Río Negro Province. On 5 October 1833, an advance column of the left-flank Rosa's Desert Campaign, under Sergeant Major Leandro Ibáñez, fought a skirmish with a native tribe under Cayupán who was camped near the local creek.

Before that time, the locality was called "río Chiquito" (Spanish for small river) and that is how it was shown in maps of the time, among them the one published by Félix de Azara
Félix de Azara
Félix Manuel de Azara was a Spanish military officer, naturalist and engineer. He was born in Barbunales, Aragon....

. The place was a local ground for the Gennakenk tribe before the Mapuche
Mapuche
The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...

 invasion of the 19th Century.

The Argentine army built a small fort named "de Roa" at the site in 1883. From that date on European immigration mainly by Spaniards
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

 and Italians
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

, colonized the region, with the town officially founded on 19 June 1889.

History of the name

Valcheta's site shows up in old maps also written as Balcheta, Balchitas, Valchitas. Nonetheless, in the native Gennakenk language, the letter "v" did not exist which may have led to a misspelling in the official reports from the late 19th Century.

There are differing accounts on the meaning of the name. The most credible is the one suggested by anthropologist Rodolfo Casamiquela, meaning "creek that overflows", referring to the frequent flooding in the valley before Europeans built canals.

Geography

Valcheta, in the valley of the creek of the same name, is an oasis
Oasis
In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...

, as it sits in the middle of the semi-arid Patagonian plateau but has different environments, having woods-like vegetation, fruit-tree plantations, and alfalfa crops irrigated by the creek.

Coming from the eastern coast it is the first prominent local population center due to the fertile valley and fruit and vegetable farming.

Population

According to the 2001 Census it has 3,555 inhabitants which represents an increase of 4.2% from the 3,413 in the previous Census of 1991.

Climate

It is cold and arid, with low precipitation of no more than 200 millimetres (8 in) per year. Average temperature in January (Summer) is 35 °C (95 °F) and in July (Winter) 3 °C (37.4 °F).

External Links

Los Viajeros de Valcheta, by Jorge Castañeda
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK