VILLANUEVA CITY

In the Casanare Colombian*s Department

A case study of special interest for social anthropologists, sociologists and historians, accounted during the Villanueva’s foundation process, during1960-1970 decades.

PREFACE  

The agricultural and livestock settlements have been the natural origin of all towns; because of the need to establish commercial, educational and institutional activities, the rural communities projected an urban area to start trade in it and, here after, will integrate labor specialization. Based on this human geography*s reference, it is natural that the process to found Villanueva had taken place under original and similar circumstances. In the space of January1961 and October 1962, at least 15 families which were settled up in some farming territories, located on southwestern part of Casanare Colombian*s área; those families established a sequence of meetings by means of transportation on horses, for the purpose of to found a school for their children. So far, former universal reference of human geography about towns foundation, coincide with the similar original circumstances respected to the Villanueva*s foundation process; even so, we need to know what exceptional facts are argued for the epigraph: “An atipycal case study during Villanueva*s foundation”.

1.- After a request from the rural community was attended, in November 1962, Boyaca*s  Departmental Assembly authorized the creation of the Inspection of Villanueva, a prerequisite for sending a teacher to the school. The name "Villanueva" had already been chosen in the request, although it was not yet known in what specific sector of that vast community uninhabiting area would be chart the first Plaza. The surroundings of this territory were State wasteland, but occupedd by traditional usufruct, without legal property documents still. 

2.-Then, until February 1963 the most appropriate uninhabited sector was chosen.

3.- Four months later (July 1963) the first community commission was established; they charted the first Plaza and also demarked the first pieces of ground surrounding it, in which  afterwards immigranted families from other towns, would build the first urban houses. 

On those same days, with special joy, the community built a schoolroom with bahareque* walls and palm thatched roof, for the desired emblematic school; there, a young lady which family had immigrated to Casanare in 1950, taught to some adults and children with great enthusiasm, during four months, until the first formally appointed teacher arrived.

*Bahareque, an ancestral-artisanal wall, built with clay and sticks.

4.- Another atypical event also should be emphasized, is that farming people, the founders of the town, continued located in their traditional homes, in surrounding areas; although they were the original managers of the town's foundation, they could not abandon their daily farming activities nor their modest cultivation of agricultural products. 

5.- However, another exceptional event occurred at the same time, as those town*s founders, realized the need to complete a predetermined number of children to start school activities. So, they invited families from nearby towns, granted them to obtain pieces of grounds, for establish de firs urban housing, free of charge. 

6.- Thus, the first Community Commission decided to grant to a merchant the first piece of ground, who had rented a room three months before, in a farm nearby the recently traced Plaza area. Because at that time (1963-1978) still there were not vehicle roads, that merchant carried, by muleback* some products from the towns of the Boyacá*s mountain range.

*On muleback, an expression that indicates the transport of cargo on the back of specific equines. 

7,- And, it began something even more exceptional, a tacit and intersubjective atmosphere of social disharmony that fractioned the mind of the first town¨*s inhabitants. That disharmony was set up between some members of the first settled urban immigrates and some members of the founders farming people, which derived  by the the political-religious violence that had been impact all the Colombian¨s country, during the previous 1950s decade. Three decades after the foundation (1990), that tacit self repression of political resentments, emerged publicly because of some distorted writings about Villanueva*s origins, printed for some members of the administrative elite; they will intent to distort the deontological* duties respect to the Villanueva*s patrimonial history bases. In a brief review, during 1950s., the Conservative Party, while in power, delegitimized the Liberal Party; but after that conflict, the fanatical mentality remained in some people, and since the founders of the town were of liberal affiliation and  most of the early inmigrants who obtained the first urban ground pieces, were of conservative affiliation; some of these conservative people, made use of their governmental possitions to publish books and websites, distortioning the historicity of the original events related in the previous paragraphs, discrediting the primary source of oral traditions about the Villanueva*s foundation.

*Deontology: a system of rules and ethical principles, according to legitimate academic norms.

The objective of this history study, related to the previous stated events, is to protect and highlight the structural integrity of the narratives that established the oral tradition of the Villanueva*s community founders; these narratives deserve institutional, academic and state recognition. The historiological seeing analysis of this case, need to consider two sociological and ideological factors: first, it is evident that the founders people of the town did not hold public neither educational administrative positions during the 1960s and 1970s; these positions were held by persons who did not belongeg to the community collective of the town's founders; secondly, within this proto administrative and educational elite, some individuals aimed to distort and dismantle, for ideological and religious reasons, the events narrated by the town's founders.

The deontological sense of history, based on academic ethics, can benefit our social practice, because one of the objectives that seek  the historical practice is the application of favorable knowledges, that benefit the human being, making possible changes in the mechanisms of the social imaginary that promote general and individual well-being.

The narrations reviewed below, were transmited by the voice of the promoters and founders of Villanueva. The purpose of these narrators is to safeguard a fundamental historical truth in the identification of the origins of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of this city. From this premise, the present testimonial review is an unavoidable starting point in its historicity, insofar as it specifies the community origins of the people. The enquiry source of this testimonial review applies an qualitative-analytical method that "seeks the deep understanding of a phenomenon within its natural environment. It focuses on the "why" rather than the "what." (https://www.questionpro.com)

Because it is a young city, founded six decades ago (1963-2023), the stories about its community origins still pulsate in its primary source. At the end of the 1980s, the first testimonial accounts of some of the promoters and actors of the town*s foundation, were recorded in booklets. Later, motivated by an imposing approach of historicist traditionalism that emerged in a social sector of Villanueva, the compiler of these narratives extended his consultations, during the 2000s. and 2010s. decades, with other founders, in order to record their testimonies; they allowed the compiler to consolidate a narrative body, from the long-stablished primary source of their oral tradition, about the foundation of Villanueva. The gestation process of this narrative body was disseminated on different occasions within the most representative citizen population; it was registered in the Copyright of the Ministry of the Interior too and later uploaded to the Internet in August 2012 (http://villanueva-casanare1962.blogspot.com) and finally reviewed in two articles (2014 and 2016) in the "Repertorio Boyacense"*s organ, send out by the Boyaca*s History Academy in Tunja city.

 This history review attempts to protect and highlight the structural integrity of the narratives that make up the oral tradition of the community that foundedVillanueva; traditions which deserve institutional, academic and state recognition. In the historiological analysis of this case, it is necessary to consider two factors, sociological and ideological deliberations: first, during 1960s, and 1970s, it iswas evident that the managers and co-founders of the town did not occupy public administrative or educational positions; these positions were held by some personalities who did not belong to the community collective of the founders, however, it would be highligted that all the rural and urban inhabitants appreciated them with gratefull demonstrations. But, in the second term, within the proto-administrative and educational elites, some of them proposed to distort and dismantle the facts narrated by the founders of the town. By way of a general hypothesis, that abrupt discrimination was bursted due to ideological and religious attitudes. 

Ciber contacts: 

villanueva-casanare1962.blogspot.com 

https://origenesdevillanuevacasanare.blogspot.com

Testifier and compiler: Alejandro Barrera Ávila, who was vinculated with de original comunity of Villanueva since 1969.