Kamach

Kamach, recorded by Spaniards as Camacho, was an Indigenous settlement near the mouth of the Magdalena River. Its people lived in a river-and-coast landscape that later became part of Barranquilla. In 1549 the colonial authorities assigned Camacho as an encomienda to Domingo de Santa Cruz, making its inhabitants' tribute part of a Spanish reward for military service.

After his death, a dispute over the community exposed the violence of colonial labour demands. Historical research describes Camacho people being taken away by the encomendero of neighbouring Galapa and compelled to serve him. Lands left behind entered the allocation of royal land grants. During the early seventeenth century, the San Nicolás estate and settlements of free cultivators developed in this area. Camacho's history therefore belongs to the displacement of an Indigenous community and the subsequent rearrangement of land, labour and river access during the formation of colonial Barranquilla.