Huehuetenango Explained

Official Name:Huehuetenango
Native Name:Xinabahul
Settlement Type:Municipality
Nickname:Huehue
Pushpin Map:Guatemala
Pushpin Label Position:bottom
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in Guatemala
Coordinates:15.3147°N -91.4761°W
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: Guatemala
Subdivision Type2:Municipality
Subdivision Name1: Huehuetenango
Subdivision Name2:Huehuetenango
Leader Party:Lidet
Leader Title:Mayor
Leader Name:Geronimo Martinez[1]
Area Total Km2:222
Elevation M:1901
Population Footnotes:[2]
Population As Of:census 2018
Population Total:117818
Population Density Km2:auto
Population Urban Footnotes:[3]
Population Urban:117818
Population Blank1 Title:Ethnicities
Population Blank1:Mam, Ladino
Population Blank2 Title:Religions
Population Blank2:Roman Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Maya, Eastern Orthodoxy
Blank Name:Climate
Blank Info:Cwb

Huehuetenango (pronounced as /es/) is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated 269km (167miles) from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American Highway before the Mexican border at La Mesilla. Its primary export is coffee.

Overview

Huehuetenango (originally called Xinabajul in the Mam language) was already a Maya settlement before the Spanish conquest of the fortified city of Zaculeu, which was the Pre-Columbian capital of the Mam kingdom situated just a few kilometers from Xinabahul. 'Huehuetenango' means place of the ancients (or ancestors) in Nahuatl, which is the name Gonzalo de Alvarado adopted from his Nahua allies when Zaculeu and Xinabahul were conquered.

Many people of Mam descent still live in and around Huehuetenango, and the nearby ruins of Zaculeu have become a tourist attraction. The ruins are markedly distinct from other Maya archeological sites; the original unearthed stones, comprising only a small portion of the original structures, were coated with plaster during restoration works carried out in the 1940s. There is also a small museum at Zaculeu that includes statues and small artifacts found on the site.

Huehuetenango Airport is within the city and has a paved runway and a small terminal building. There are currently no scheduled airline flights.[4]

Climate

The city has a subtropical highland climate (Köppen: Cwb), with warm summers and mild winters.[5]

Sports

The city currently boasts one Guatemalan top level football side Xinabajul in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala.

Notable people

Former president Efraín Ríos Montt was born in Huehuetenango (in 1926). His younger brother, Mario Enrique Ríos Montt the emeritus auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala in 1932.

Notes and References

  1. http://www.deguate.com/artman/publish/politica-eleccion2015-alcaldes/resultados-eleccion-de-alcaldes-en-huehuetenango.shtml Resultados de elección de Alcades Huehuetenango realizadas en el año 2015
  2. https://www.citypopulation.de/en/guatemala/admin/ Citypopulation.de
  3. https://www.citypopulation.de/en/guatemala/cities/ Citypopulation.de
  4. Web site: Huehuetenango - Guatemala. World Airport Codes. 1 May 2019.
  5. Web site: Huehuetenango climate: Average Temperature, weather by month, Huehuetenango weather averages - Climate-Data.org. en.climate-data.org. 2019-02-15.