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About Santa Cruz

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Santa Cruz de La Sierra was first founded on February 26, 1561 by Ñuflo de Chávez who gave the new settlement its name, which means "Holy Cross of the Hills," in honor of his beloved native city in Extremadura, Spain. Ñuflo de Chávez was a Spanish Captain whose biggest legacy was the expansion of colonization through virgin rainforest and savanna areas in southeastern South America. His campaign started in Buenos Aires - then Argentina's capital city - to the second biggest settlement, Asunción - then Paraguay's capital city - and finishing with the last of the larger settlements, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Each of the three cities helped to consolidate the colonization of several indigenous populations through what was named as Audiencia de La Plata, or a type of administrative province during the colonial stage of Latin America history. The Audiencia de La Plata consolidated what today is Argentina, Uruguay, the three Southern states of Brazil, Paraguay, and the south, southeast, and north of Bolivia, inclusively the state of Acre which is currently part of the Brazilian Federation.

Within the specific area of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, several tribes were incorporated under Spaniard control and converted to the Catholic faith, as a result of the Jesuits' influence over this region; the Guaranies, Moxeños, Chiquitanos, Guarayos, and Chiriguanos were just a few of several ethnic groups who were the ancestors of the racially mixed population of the modern Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, and Tarija departamentos (states) of Bolivia.

The original settlement of Santa Cruz de la Sierra was actually 220 km east of its modern location, only a few kilometers south of today's San José de Chiquitos. After conflicts with the indigenous population, the town was moved to another location closer to the banks of Río Grande; as a result of unfriendly environmental conditions, however the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra was then moved to its present location on the banks of Piraí River in 1592. Remnants of the original settlement can be visited in Santa Cruz la Vieja ("Old Santa Cruz"), an archeological site south of San José de Chiquitos. It is commonly believed there were more than two relocations of the city between February 26, 1561 and the year when the last settlement was finally founded, but this is still not known for certain.

After the city was moved, it became an important staging point for Jesuit and other Christian missions to Chiquitos and Moxos for the next two centuries. Still, Santa Cruz saw little growth during that period of time. It was not until nearly a century after Bolivia gained its independence that the city started to take an important role in the nation's history. The Acre war with Brazil in the early 20th century, as well the Chaco war with Paraguay in the 1930s, forced the central government to turn its attention to the east, allocating more resources for regional governments and improving communication. The isolated town was connected by a road to Cochabamba in the 1950s, and subsequently to Brazil by railway, thus stimulating economic and demographic growth. Improvement in routes and pathways of communication, such as Viru Viru International Airport), as well as a continuous influx of immigrants, turned the city into one of the most industrialized and important trading centers of the country during the second half of the twentieth century.

Today Santa Cruz is not only the most populated city in Bolivia, but the department is also the richest, with over 30% of the national GDP. Santa Cruz is also leading a movement against the central government of Bolivia to separate the country into an autonomic political regions where each region manages its own production, taxation, and internal laws with only a small level of coordination with the national government, much like in federal countries, like the United States or the neighbouring Brazil or like the autonomous communities of Spain. This movement is in direct conflict with Evo Morales aim to keep power centralized. The other departments following this movement are Tarija, Beni, and Pando, regions have interest in separating Bolivia for economic reasons such as Bolivian gas. Bolivian gas conflict.(more)