From the top, left to right: Virgen del Socavón Church, Diablada, View of the city, Central post office, View of the city and Lake Uru Uru, Lighthouse of Conchupata, Altiplano between the towns of Cahuasi and Caracollo seen from the RN4.
Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru[1] is a city in Bolivia with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation),[2] about halfway between La Paz and Sucre in the Altiplano, approximately 3,709 meters (12,169 ft) above sea level.
It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by population, after Santa Cruz de la Sierra, El Alto, La Paz, and Cochabamba. It is the capital of the Department of Oruro and the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oruro. Oruro has been subject to cycles of boom and bust owing to its dependence on the mining industry, notably tin, tungsten (wolfram), silver and copper.
History
The city was founded on November 1, 1606, by Don Manuel Castro de Padilla as a silver-mining center in the Urus region. At the time it was named Real Villa de San Felipe de Austria, after the Spanish monarch Philip III. It thrived for a while, but it was eventually abandoned as the silver mines became exhausted.[3]
Oruro was reestablished by European Bolivians in the late nineteenth century as a tin mining center.[4] It was named after the native tribe Uru-Uru. For a time, the La Salvadora tin mine was the most important source of tin in the world. Gradually, as this resource became less plentiful, Oruro again went into a decline. Its economy is still based on the mining industry.[4]
Economy
While traditionally based upon mining, Oruro has become increasingly popular for tourism since the late 20th century. In the early 21st century, Oruro's economy grew through trade and economic connections with Chile, especially for exporting products to Pacific markets. It transported products by road through Chile to the Pacific port of Iquique to open new connections to external markets; it also used the rail connection through Uyuni to the port at Antofagasta for exports.[5] Thanks to increased road building, Oruro has become important as a waystation on the overland route of goods from the Atlantic port of Santos, Brazil, through Puerto Suárez and Santa Cruz to the capital, La Paz.[6]
Despite its economic decline, the city attracts numerous tourists to its Carnaval de Oruro, considered one of the great folkloric events in South America for its masked "diablada"[7] and Anata.[8]
The Oruru Carnival was discovered in 1559, when the Augustinian priests were on the land, the festival is in honor of the Virgin of Candlemas.[9]
Oruro lies north of the salty lakes Uru Uru and Poopó. It is three hours (by vehicle) from La Paz. Located at an altitude of 3709 meters above sea level, Oruro is well known for its cold weather. Warmer temperatures generally take place during August, September and October, after the worst of the winter chills and before the summer rains. From May to early July, night-time temperatures combined with a cold wind can bring the temperature down to well below freezing. Summers are warmer, and, although it is an arid area, it has considerable rainfall between November and March. The Köppen climate classification describes the climate as a cold subtropical highland climate, bordering on a cold semi-arid climate, abbreviated Cwb and Bsk.[12] Due to the warm days and dry winters, snow is not a frequent occurrence as much as the bitter cold (especially at night); however, flurries can fall usually once every few years, most recently July 4, 2015.[13] The other three most recent snowfalls were those of 13 June 2013,[14] 1 September 2010 (with accumulation),[15] as well as one in 2008.
Museo Mineralógico (Mineralogical Museum): has exhibits of precious stones, minerals, and fossils
Museo Etnográfico Minero (Ethnographical Mining Museum): housed in a mine tunnel, depicts methods of Bolivian mining
Museo Nacional Antropológico Eduardo López Rivas (National Anthropological Museum): displays tools and information on the Chipaya and Uru tribes, and about Carnaval de Oruro.
Churches: Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Santuario de la Virgen del Socavón, Iglesia de Cunchupata
Inti Raymi, a mine
Education
Because of a high proportion of German-speaking residents, many of whom came as immigrants to work in the mines, the area once had a German school, Deutsche Schule Oruro.[17]
^Oscar Cornblit. Power and Violence in the Colonial City: Oruro from the Mining Renaissance to the Rebellion of Tupac Amaru (1740-1782). Trans. Elizabeth Ladd Glick. New York: Cambridge University Press 1995.
^Ancalle 2012, p. 27 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAncalle2012 (help)
^Kartomi, Margaret Joy & Blum, Stephen (1994). Music-Cultures In Contact: Convergences And Collisions. Basel, Switzerland: Gordon and Breach. p. 63. ISBN978-2-88449-137-2.
^G. N. Devy, Geoffrey V. Davis, K. K. Chakravarty, Knowing Differently: The Challenge of the Indigenous, ISBN1317325680 (2015). Quote: "The Anata is a festivity celebrated since the early 1990s in the city of Oruro, but it is linked to pre-Hispanic agricultural practices in the rural highlands related to fertility. The most public expression of the Anata in Oruro is a danced parade that is ..."
^Lecount, Cynthia. "Carnival in Bolivia: Devils Dancing for the Virgin." Western Folklore 58, no. 3/4 (1999): 231-52. Accessed May 13, 2021. doi:10.2307/1500459.
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