Mérida: History

Pre-20th-Century History

In 1558, Captain Juan Rodríguez Suárez led an expedition from Pamplona (in present-day Colombia) into the Sierra Nevada. Upon entering a deep, long valley bordered by two towering mountain ranges, he founded a town and named it Mérida, after his birthplace in Spain.

When the governor of Pamplona learned that someone had been traveling around Nueva Granada founding cities without proper authority, he sent out an expedition to track down Rodríguez Suárez and bring him to justice. He was caught, arrested for 'usurpation of Royal prerogative', and found guilty. But Suárez was able to flout Spanish authority - he fled to Trujillo, where he was granted political asylum, and became the first political refugee in the New World.

In a petty revenge, the colonial bureaucracy sent out a certain Juan de Maldonado from Pamplona, with all his paperwork in order, to re-found Mérida; he did so in 1560, legally. Posterity, however, has judged in favor of the adventurer - Rodríguez Suárez is today recognized as the founder of the city, and 1558 is celebrated as the year of Mérida's true, if illegitimate, birth.

A 1812 earthquake devastated the tiny town and further hindered its development. After Venezuela's independence, the isolation that had long retarded Mérida's progress suddenly became its ally. During the federation wars in the mid-19th century, when Venezuela was plunged into full-blown civil war, the city's solitude attracted refugees fleeing the bloodshed, and the population began to grow.

Modern History

It was not until the 1920s, however, that access roads were constructed and later paved, smoothing the way for Mérida's subsequent development. Its transition from a town into a city, however, has predominantly taken place over the past few decades.

Recent History

Today, Mérida is a city with a big personality. The Universidad de Los Andes (Venezuela's second-oldest university) now teaches about 50,000 students in different campuses throughout the city, giving Mérida a sizable academic community and an atmosphere that is both cultured and bohemian. There are plenty of tourist facilities - Mérida is now Venezuela's major center for adventure sports and outdoor activities. The latest adrenaline craze is canyoning.

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