Choconta

Chocontá stood in the highlands of the Muisca world, on the frontier between the northern polity led by the cacique of Vélez and the southern zipazgo. The Chibcha place-name has been interpreted as “farmlands of the good ally” or “garden of the neighbour,” images that fit a settled landscape of fields and neighbouring communities. Its frontier position gave the town strategic weight. Around 1490, armies under the northern ruler Michuá met the southern forces of Saguamanchica in the bloody Battle of Chocontá, a conflict remembered in later accounts of the region.

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada’s expedition reached the Colombian highlands in 1537. On 9 June, the feast of Pentecost, the Spaniards arrived at Chocontá, and Fray Domingo de las Casas named it Pueblo del Espíritu Santo during Mass. Tomás López founded the village on 6 September 1563, and it was relocated in 1573. Much later, Simón Bolívar passed through after his victory in 1819. Chocontá’s history therefore joins an older political frontier with the routes and institutions of the colonial and republican highlands.