Masaya (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈsaʝa]) is the capital city of Masaya department in Nicaragua. It is situated approximately 14 km west of Granada and 31 km southeast from Managua.
The town of Masaya is just east of Masaya Volcano, an active volcano from which the city takes its name. With an estimated population of 140,000 (2005), it is Nicaragua's third most populous city, and it is culturally known as the City of Flowers.[1][2]
Contents
1 History
2 Production
3 Attractions
4 Masaya Volcano
5 Apoyo Lake
6 Coyotepe Fortress
7 Gastronomy
8 Notable people
9 Town twinning
10 See also
11 Notes and references
12 External links
History
On 19 September 1912, during the Nicaraguan civil war of 1912, Nicaraguan rebel forces opened fire on American Marines and sailors passing through the city on their way to Granada. This became known as the Battle of Masaya.[3][4][5]
Production
Masaya is located centrally to a large agricultural production region in Nicaragua. Much of the production from the departments of Masaya and Carazo and the surrounding areas is shipped through Masaya on its way north, towards Managua and Leon. Masaya is also a notable industrial center, producing footwear and clothing. Other industries in the city include the processing of fiber and the manufacture of cigars, leather products, soap, and starch. Many of the communities surrounding Masaya produce hardwood and wicker furniture, and there is a neighborhood in Masaya near the lake dedicated to the production of hammocks.
Attractions
Masaya is known as "The Cradle of Nicaraguan Folklore" and is the very heart of Nicaraguan handicrafts. The main market in Masaya is located next to the central bus station. The market is divided into sections, with each section serving a different need. Aside from unique Nicaraguan products such as hand woven hammocks, embroidered blouses, wood carvings, and hemp weaving the market is very diverse. An entire section of the market is dedicated to selling electronic devices and clothing, while another area is reserved for raw meat. Everything is available in the market from hardware and beauty supplies to produce from the surrounding area.
Masaya Market Castle
The Mercardo de Artesanias (Craft Market) is located inside what used to be the "mercado viejo" (old market), a 1900s structure that is located near the center of the city and a couple of blocks away from the general population market. This market has been revitalized and set as a tourist spot, where crafts from Masaya and other areas of Nicaragua can be found. In addition, every Thursday night there is a Noche de Verbena or Night of Revelry, where folkloric dances are presented.
Wall in Masaya
Masaya is noted for the annual fall fiesta of San Jerónimo which features folkloric dances and other street processions, such as the carnivalesque "Torovenado" celebrations, which often have groups and individuals who perform satires of local and national political figures.
Street view of Masaya
Near the Parque San Jerónimo
The historical city center has open plazas and two large 16th century baroque architecture churches: the Assumption's Parish Church, and St. Gerome's Church. But there are other colonial gems like St. John's, St. John Bosco's, and St. Michael's.
Masaya is actually the name of one of Nicaragua's Departments, which the city of Masaya is the head of. In addition to Masaya, the department includes the municipal cities of Catarina, Nindirí, Masatepe, Tisma, Niquinohomo, Nandasmo, San Juan de Oriente and La Concepción.
Masaya Volcano
Main article: Masaya Volcano
View of Masaya Volcano
Volcán Masaya National Park is a popular tourist site. It has a small museum and tourist information. Tour guides and proper equipment are provided for treks inside bat caves created by lava flows from past eruptions. Today, lava can be visible in the volcano’s crater. Masaya is the most active volcano in the region. It is actually made up of two volcanoes: Masaya and Nindirí with a total of five craters. The Spanish first described the volcano in 1524 and believed the belching lava to be melting gold. But when Fray Bartolomé de las Casas first saw it he called it the "Gates of Hell". Since then, Masaya Volcano has erupted at least 19 times. From 1965 to 1979 the volcano contained an active lava lake. The last reported eruption event was in 2003, when a plume reportedly shot ~4.6 km into the air. Masaya is an unusual basaltic volcano because it has had explosive eruptions. An eruption in 4550 B.C. was one of the largest on Earth in the last 10,000 years.
Apoyo Lake
The City of Masaya is also located west of a large, deep crater lake named "Apoyo". which is part of the Apoyo Lagoon Natural Reserve. This lake is a popular attraction in the area, and is host to several hostels and small resorts. Apoyo's crater measures four miles wide and over 656 feet deep. Major activities include fishing, water sports and scuba diving.[6] Archaeological researchers have found evidence of pre-colonial occupation.[citation needed]
Coyotepe Fortress
Coyotepe Fortress cell
Coyotepe is an old fortress located on a sharp hill from where it takes its name which has now been converted into a museum. Built at the turn of the 20th century by President José S Celaya, this site witnessed a fierce battle on October 2–4, 1912, when a Nicaraguan rebel force led by General Benjamín Zeledón occupying Coyotepe and another hill overlooking the strategic rail line, Barranca, refused to surrender to government troops under President Adolfo Díaz. U.S. Marine Major Smedley Butler's marine battalion, that Zeledón's rebels had skirmished with on September, 19, returning from Granada, Nicaragua on October 3, shelled the rebel stronghold on Coyotepe. During the pre-dawn hours on October 4, Butler's battalion, in concert with two marine battalions and one from the USS California led by marine Colonel Joseph H. Pendleton converged from different positions to storm the hill and capture it.[7] Dictator Anastasio Somoza rehabilitated the fortress in the late 1930s as a prison where political opponents or anyone suspected of plotting received particularly cruel treatment or the death penalty. Also General Benjamín Celedón was killed, at the age of 33, and his dead body dragged from a trotting horse, to instill fear among the population and to prevent a potential uprising. But quite to the contrary, Celedón's death was the spark that inspired Augusto C Sandino and other famous figures to fight for 7 years, in the Segovias in the Northern Nicaraguan mountains, against the cruel invaders. For many years Coyotepe remained a military outpost but it was given away to the Boy Scouts Association by the 1970s. The fortress has 43 jail cells, 28 of them on the upper floor, where windows let the air and sunlight in. Each of the upper floor cells could contain from 15 to 20 prisoners, sometimes even more. The basement cells, on the other hand, resembled a dungeon for they were dark, damp, stuffy, and cramped so prisoners would lose track of time and inevitably ended up with psychological trauma. In all, there were about 1,000 prisoners at any one time. Nevertheless, as time went on, the site was abandoned from 1983 to 1992. During that period, there were rumours among the population that Coyotepe was used as a sanctuary for Satanic practices for there was no proper security. Finally, the new neoliberal governments that won the elections in 1990, finally returned Coyotepe to the Boy Scouts Association.
Gastronomy
Masaya boasts a varied culinary tradition based on pre-Columbian recipes. However, the most famous Masayan dishes are Nacatamal, Vaho, and yucca. Nacatamal, is a giant tamal so it's a full meal on its own right. Nacatamals are made of corn flour sprinkled with annato and salt, and mixed with pork, bacon, a bit of rice, potato slices, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, mint, Congo chilis, and prunes. Then everything is covered in plantain leaves, tied up with ropes, and boiled for a couple of hours on a giant pot. Due to their large size, Nacatamals are normally eaten at breakfast or supper with a loaf of bread and black coffee to help with digestion. Now, Vaho is another heavy, hearty meal. So it is normally eaten at lunch to allow for digestion the rest of the day. It consists of thick, long slices of cecina (salted, dried beef) marinated in sour orange juice. Then, the cecina is mixed with yucca, green plantains, ripe plantains, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, and placed on a pot with the interior walls lined with plantain leaves, and then covered with the same leaves and a lid, and steamed very slowly. Vaho is eaten with a side of big, thick Nicaraguan tortillas, and a light natural fruit drink like linaza, chía, or maracuyá. Yucca tubers are essential to Masayan food whether boiled, steamed, fried, or broiled and used in many different dishes such as Vigorón. Vigorón consists of boiled yucca, topped with sweet-and-sour cabbage cut into strips, diced tomatoes, onions, green currants, Congo chilis, vinegar, and salt.
Notable people
Enrique Bolaños, former Nicaraguan president
Olga Núñez Abaunza, first Nicaraguan female lawyer
Franck de las Mercedes, visual artist
Town twinning
Brazil - Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Germany - Dietzenbach, Germany
United Kingdom - Leicester, England, United Kingdom
Netherlands - Nijmegen, Netherlands
United States - North Plainfield, New Jersey, United States
Beloit, Wisconsin (USA)[8]
Cartago. Costa Rica.
See also
Benemerito Cuerpo de Bomberos de Masaya
Notes and references
Perez, Max; Quintero, Glenda and Amoretty, Ezequiel. "Masaya la "Ciudad de las Flores"" [Masaya "the City of Flowers"] (in Spanish). Inside Managua. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018.
Garcia, Nary (6 December 2009). "Bailes de Negras: tradición y cultura" [Black Dances: tradition and culture]. El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 18 February 2018.
Musicant, Ivan (1990). The Banana Wars: A History of United States Military Intervention in Latin America from the Spanish–American War to the Invasion of Panama. New York: Macmillan. pp. 150–151. ISBN 978-0-02-588210-2.
Clark, George Bransfield (2001). With the Old Corps in Nicaragua. Novato, California: Presidio Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-89141-737-8.
Langley, Lester D. (1983). The Banana Wars: An Inner History of American Empire, 1900–1934. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-8131-1496-5.
Bundschuh, Jochen; et al. (2007). "Chapter 34: Geology-related tourism for sustainable development". In Bundschuh, Jochen; Alvarado, Guillermo E. Central America: Geology, resources and hazards (PDF). 2. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 1014–1098, page 1022. ISBN 978-0-415-40169-2.
American Naval History, An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, by Jack Sweetman, p. 114
"Partner Cities". Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of the Americas. Archived from the original on 22 April 2017.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Masaya.
Leicester Masaya website
Coordinates: 11°58′N 86°06′W
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Flag of Nicaragua Masaya Department
Capital: Masaya
Municipalities
Catarina La Concepción Masatepe Masaya Nandasmo Nindirí Niquinomo San Juan de Oriente Tisma
and
Ortega's forces capture Nicaragua opposition stronghold
[AFP]
Marc BURLEIGH
,AFP•July 18, 2018
Masaya (Nicaragua) (AFP) - Nicaragua's government said Tuesday that forces loyal to President Daniel Ortega have seized control of the opposition stronghold city of Masaya, following fierce clashes with activists in the flashpoint neighborhood of Monimbo that rights groups say left at least two people dead.
Police and government-backed paramilitaries launched the organized attack on Masaya as international calls mounted for an end to months of deadly violence in the Central American country.
The government said on its website "today was the turn of Monimbo, Masaya, which now has streets that have been liberated from blockades," adding that now people can "move freely."
Alvaro Leiva, secretary of the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH), told AFP that the pro-Ortega forces had taken control of the city after several hours of combat and "excessive use of force."
The head of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, Vilma Nunez, said at least two people were killed -- an adult woman and a police officer.
The offensive on Masaya came on the heels of a bloody siege of student protesters holed up in a church in the capital Managua over the weekend, suggesting Ortega was intensifying the use of lethal force to quell dissent. His government says it is carrying out a "liberation" of towns and cities where protesters have been active.
Police and masked paramilitary units toting assault rifles on Tuesday sealed off all roads leading to Monimbo, from which gunfire could be heard. Videos posted on social media showed rebels inside the zone firing back, some with homemade mortars.
State media confirmed the death of the policeman but gave no other toll from the assault.
A group of journalists, including AFP, that tried to enter Monimbo to verify the situation were shot at by pro-government gunmen to prevent them approaching.
More than 1,000 men firing automatic weapons entered the city of 100,000 people early Tuesday, residents said.
"They're attacking us from various entry points in Monimbo," Cristian Fajardo, a leader of a student protest movement, said in a WhatsApp message.
"They're attacking Monimbo! The bullets are reaching the Maria Magdalena parish church, where the priest is sheltered," archbishop Silvio Baez wrote on Twitter.
"May Daniel Ortega stop the massacre! People of Monimbo I beg you, save yourselves!"
The US warned Ortega against pursuing the assault on Masaya. It called for a halt to the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests that has left some 280 people dead over the past three months.
"We strongly urge President Ortega not to attack Masaya," tweeted Francisco Palmieri, the US principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs.
"Continued gov't-instigated violence and bloodshed in #Nicaragua must end immediately. The world is watching."
- 'Terror message' -
"They are shooting at houses in an irresponsible way. The message is that anyone who pops their head out will be killed: it's a message of terror," said ANPDH head Leiva.
The operation follows a violent week in Nicaragua in which students and opposition groups calling for Ortega's ouster came under attack several times amid widespread civil action.
Ten days ago at least 14 people died -- four of them police or paramilitaries -- after a raid by pro-government forces in the areas of Diriamba and Jinotepe, near Masaya.
Last week, five people -- four of them police officers -- died in clashes between opposition supporters and police backed by paramilitaries in the southeast town of Morrito while another operation by Ortega loyalists ended with at least 10 dead -- including four police -- on Sunday in Masaya.
On Monday, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged an end to the violence and a resumption of the stalled dialogue with the opposition.
In Brussels, Paul Oquist -- Nicaragua's minister for national policies and one of the cabinet members closest to Ortega -- told AFP in an interview on Tuesday that an attempted "coup" had been defeated.
"That is very good news because what it leaves then is dialogue, because the coup plotters did not want dialogue," Oquist said.
- 'Clean-up operation' -
The government launched its "clean-up" operation in Masaya this month in a bid to break through barriers of piled bricks and clear opposition activists from the streets.
The deadly clashes erupted on April 18, initially against a now-ditched pension reform.
That ignited long-simmering resentment against the veteran leader and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.
The bloodshed caused business support for Ortega to evaporate, and the influential Catholic Church stepped in, attempting to mediate a peaceful solution.
The Vatican's representative in Nicaragua, Stanislaw Waldemar Sommertag, on Tuesday called for an immediate truce and a return to dialogue.
The opposition insists Ortega resign. It has called for elections scheduled for 2021 to be brought forward to next year.
A former guerrilla leader, Ortega has been in power since 2007 following an earlier 11-year stint as leader after the 1979 overthrow of US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza.
The 72-year-old president has dismissed the opposition demands, and doubled down on using force to get his way.
Clotho la Fileuse, Lachésis la Répartitrice et Atropos l'Implacable.
Vision fantastique.
“Combien de joies ne voyons-nous pas à nos pieds quand notre regard est perdu dans les nuages ?”
Catharina Goethe.
Juanes, Camisa Negra.
Ortega's forces capture Nicaragua opposition stronghold.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pro-govt-forces-attack-nicaraguan-rebel-city-masaya-165742100.htmlThe town of Masaya y el Volcano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvEvATBiQ5ULA RÉBELLION EST ACCENTUÉ PAR UN SENTIMENT DE FAIM.
LE PEUPLE AIME LA DÉMOCRATIE ET LUTTE CONTRE LE FOUET :
L’ÂME.
TAY
SENTIMENTS
DU
CITOYEN TIGNARD YANIS
Accueil 