Vallegrande
Vallegrande
Town in Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia
Vallegrande (Spanish: "Big Valley") is a small colonial town in Bolivia, located in the Department of Santa Cruz, some 125 km (bee-line) southwest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. It is the capital of the Vallegrande Province and Vallegrande Municipality and serves as a regionally important market town.
Vallegrande
Jatunquichua | |
|---|---|
Town | |
| Coordinates: 18°29′S 64°06′W | |
| Country |  Bolivia |
| Department |  Santa Cruz Department |
| Province | Vallegrande |
| Municipality | Vallegrande |
| Canton | Vallegrande |
| Elevation | 6,660 ft (2,030 m) |
| Population (2001) | |
| • Total | 6,000 |
| Time zone | UTC-4 (BOT) |
| Climate | Cwb |
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The town was the first burial site of revolutionary Che Guevara, after his 1967 execution.
Overview
The town lies in a big valley (hence the name) at an altitude of 2,030 m (6,660 ft) and has approximately 6,000 inhabitants. It has a mild temperate climate due mainly to its valley location, altitude, and the cold winter fronts the sweep the plains of Santa Cruz known as "Surazo".
Climate
Vallegrande has a subtropical highland climate (Köppen: Cwb). Temperatures are relatively temperate annually, with high levels of diurnal temperature variation due to the altitude. Precipitation falls mainly during summer storms, while winter is marked by a drying period.
| Climate data for Vallegrande | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 18.8 (65.8) |
18.3 (64.9) |
17.9 (64.2) |
16.4 (61.5) |
15.3 (59.5) |
13.9 (57.0) |
13.8 (56.8) |
14.8 (58.6) |
16.8 (62.2) |
17.2 (63.0) |
18.4 (65.1) |
18.8 (65.8) |
16.7 (62.0) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 129.5 (5.10) |
119.3 (4.70) |
92.0 (3.62) |
32.8 (1.29) |
19.2 (0.76) |
9.8 (0.39) |
11.6 (0.46) |
16.7 (0.66) |
17.8 (0.70) |
51.9 (2.04) |
73.7 (2.90) |
123.0 (4.84) |
697.3 (27.46) |
| Source: Climate-Data.org[1] | |||||||||||||
The main industries in the area revolve around agriculture and its derived products. The region is mainly dedicated to the production of grains such as corn and wheat, and fruits such as peaches, apples, grapes, pears, chirimoyas and plums. Among the value added products the most important are homemade bread, chamas, fruit liquor, wine, handmade rugs, and other handcrafts.
Vallegrande can be accessed via a spur road branching off the (old, southern) Santa Cruz to Cochabamba highway and has an airstrip off Av Circunvalación 2do Anillo.
Che Guevara
On October 8, 1967, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was captured by the CIA-assisted Bolivian Army nearby La Higuera, where he was killed the next day. The body was buried in Vallegrande, on an airstrip near Av. Circunvalación 2do Anillo, and was returned to Cuba in October 1997, where he was buried in a mausoleum in Santa Clara. A "Che Guevara Mausoleum" is located in Vallegrande on the former burial site and can be visited by tourists.[2][3][4][5]
- The Local Deity: Bones or Not, Vallegrande's a Must Stop on the Che Route Archived 2011-06-16 at the Wayback Machine by Joshua Hammer, Newsweek, 1997
- Che Guevara Legacy Lives on in Bolivia BBC News, August 24, 2004
- Bolivian Town Recalls Che Assassination[permanent dead link] Prensa Latina, October 8, 2008
- Che Sat Here: The Making (and Marketing) of a Martyr by Alex Ayala Ugarte, Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2009 Issue
