Chiquitania ("Chiquitos" or "Gran Chiquitania") is a region of tropical savannas in the Santa Cruz Department in eastern Bolivia.
Geography
edit"Chiquitos" is the colonial name for what is now essentially five of the six provinces that make up the Chiquitania, a region in Bolivia's Santa Cruz department. "Chiquitos" refers to a region, not a tribe.[citation needed]
Today, the Chiquitania lies within five provinces of Santa Cruz Department: Ángel Sandoval, Germán Busch, José Miguel de Velasco, Ñuflo de Chávez and Chiquitos province.[1][2][3]
Peoples
editOne of the many tribes inhabiting Chiquitos were the Chiquitano, who still speak the Chiquitano language today.[4]
Languages
editLanguages historically spoken in the Chiquitania included:
- Chiquitano
- Gorgotoqui (extinct)
- Otuke (extinct)
- Ayoreo
- Guarani
Today, Camba Spanish is the main vernacular lingua franca.
Missions
editA notable feature are the 18th-century Jesuit reductions and Franciscan settlements scattered throughout the region. Six churches still remain in the zone and were selected in 1990 as UNESCO World Heritage Sites under the name Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos.[citation needed]
Ecosystem
editThe Chiquitano dry forest is the ecosystem which connects South America's two largest biomes, the Amazon and the Gran Chaco, a dense dry forest of thorn-covered trees and scrub that extends south into Paraguay and Brazil.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Roth, Hans. "Events that happened at that time". Chiquitos: Misiones Jesuíticas. Retrieved 2009-01-21.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "I Congreso Internacional Chiquitano, 22–24 May 2008". San Ignacio de Velasco. Archived from the original on 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
- ^ "Provincia Boliviana de la Compañia de Jesús" (in Spanish). Jesuitas Bolivia-Online. 2005. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
- ^ http://www.chiquitania.com Archived 2009-01-26 at the Wayback Machine: The two names Chiquitos and Chiquitano should not be confused, the first is a place; that second a tribe.
- ^ "'Murderer of nature': Evo Morales blamed as Bolivia battles devastating fires". TheGuardian.com. 2 September 2019.