Santa Cruz - Culture

Chávez named the new city in honour of his beloved native city in Extremadura, Spain. The city originally lay 220 km east of its current location, on the shores of the Piraí river. But, by the end of the 16th century, the city was moved to its present position, 50 km east of the Cordillera Oriental foothills.

Santa Cruz's transformation from a quiet lowland town to a rapidly growing urban center in less than 50 years has been complete and dramatic. The city continues to grow at extremely high rates. In 1950, just before the popular revolution and land reform, the population of the city of Santa Cruz was approximately 43,000 people. By 1976, the population had grown to about 256,000.1 That represents a growth of six times its original size in just 25 years. This rapid urbanization has not slowed yet. The city continues to increase at a rate near 8% each year as is has since 1976. The city's very dynamic population makes maintenance of up-to-date statistics difficult, but the most recent estimates place the population above 800,000. It has surpassed Cochabamba as the second largest city

Settled in the middle of the tropical plains of Bolivia's Amazon Basin, a vibrant city flourishes. On a street in the city's bustling central business district, a construction crew is building a new high rise while another paves the street where new sewers have just been laid. A street peddler pushes a wheel barrow slowly down the sidewalk. The heavy load of pineapple, oranges, several varieties of bananas and other tropical fruits topples as it bounces over the uneven asphalt. Children and shoppers stop to buy a slice of pineapple or a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. Stylish young Cruceρans cruise down the avenues in their shiny new Land Rovers at the perfect speed to see and be seen while mini-vans and taxis crammed full of passengers speed though the streets. Sounds and smells from the nearby market sail over the central plaza on the strong South winds. In the market, highland women in their traditional Andean dress sell vegetables and contraband Chilean and Brazilian manufactured goods to native Cruceρan women who come to shop with their migrant maids. The smells and sounds of the market float over the government buildings on the Plaza Principal where sloths hang in the palm trees, oblivious to the city that has sprung up around their small square of jungle trapped in the center of ever-expanding urbanization. The sloths' slow, lazy pace is a reminder of the town's previous identity as a sleepy, Spanish colonial town in the middle of the jungle. It is only the last fifty years that have transformed that dusty frontier town into a dynamic boom town whose rapid growth has made it the second largest city in the nation. At this site you can learn more about the urbanization and urban geography of this dynamic city.