La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico

History : Spanish discovery | Hernán Cortés arrival in California | Geography | Economy | Transport : Road | Cuisine | Demographics | Education | Health

🇲🇽 La Paz is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur and an important regional commercial center. The city is the most populous city in the state. Its metropolitan population is somewhat larger because of the surrounding towns, such as El Centenario, Chametla and San Pedro. The population of La Paz has grown greatly since the 2000s.

History: Spanish discovery The first European known to have landed in Baja California was Fortún Ximénez. In 1533, shortly after the conquest of Tenochtitlan, Hernán Cortés sent two ships, Concepción, under the command of captain and commander of the expedition, Diego de Becerra and San Lázaro under Capt. Hernando de Grijalva, to explore the South Seas of the Pacific Ocean. The ships set out 30 November 1533, to travel north along the coast of New Spain from present-day Manzanillo, Colima, in search of two ships that had been lost without a trace on a similar voyage the previous year. By 20 December the ships had separated; San Lázaro, which had gone ahead, waited three days for Concepción and after no sighting of its companion vessel, Capt. Grijalva dedicated himself to exploring the region and discovered the Revillagigedo Islands. On board the Concepción, Ximénez, the navigator and second in command, led a revolt in which Capt. Becerra was killed in his sleep by Ximénez. Also the crewmen loyal to the murdered captain were attacked and later rebel sailors abandoned both the wounded navigators and the Franciscan friars accompanying the expedition on the coast of present-day Michoacán.

Ximénez sailed to the north-west following the coast and at some point turned west and reached a bay that is now the port of the city of La Paz. Ximénez thought that he had found an island, and never knew that it was a large peninsula. There he met natives who wore few clothes and spoke an unknown language; their culture was very different from that of the inhabitants of the Mexican highlands. The crews of his ships saw the “scantily-clad” women and raped them. The Spaniards soon became aware of the large pearls that the natives extracted from the pearl oysters abounding in the bay, and proceeded to plunder the people and rape the women.

The abuse of the Indian women by the crew and their looting caused a violent confrontation with the natives that ended in the deaths of Ximénez and some of his companions; the survivors withdrew, and sailed erratically for several days until they reached the shores of the present-day Jalisco, where they encountered a subaltern of Nuño de Guzmán, who requisitioned the ship and took them prisoner.

Hernán Cortés arrival in California Having sponsored two exploratory voyages in the South Seas just with some giant pearls samples, Cortés decided to lead a third exploration himself. Annoyed that his enemy, Nuño de Guzmán, had requisitioned one of his ships during the first expedition, Cortés decided to confront Guzmán on his own ground and from there set up the third expedition; consequently he prepared a large force of infantry and cavalry to march on the province of New Galicia (Nueva Galicia), of which Guzmán was governor.

The viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, warned Cortés on 4 September 1534, "not to confront he who had requisitioned his ships", a warning which Hernán Cortés ignored, claiming that he had been designated to conquer and discover new territories, and that he had spent more than 100 thousand gold ducats of his own fortune. The feared confrontation between the armies of Cortés and Nuño de Guzmán did not occur.

In Chametla, (Sinaloa), after crossing the present-day states of Jalisco and Nayarit, territory then known as part of New Galicia, Cortés and his entourage embarked the ships Santa Águeda and San Lázaro with 113 crewmen and 40 cavalrymen with their horses and gear, leaving 60 riders on land, as reported to the Real Audiencia and Governor Nuño de Guzmán. Cortés then sailed north-west, and on 3 May 1535 arrived at the bay he named Bahia de la Santa Cruz (Bay of Santa Cruz), currently the port of La Paz, where he confirmed the death of his subordinate, Fortún Ximénez, at the hands of the natives. Once Cortés had taken possession of the bay, he decided to establish a colony and summoned the soldiers and arms he had left in Sinaloa. The transport ships were lost in a storm, however, and only one ship, carrying a load of fifty bushels of corn, returned. This was insufficient to feed the population, so Cortés left to personally secure food, but was unable to procure enough, so he decided to return to New Spain with the intention of supplying the new colony from there.

Francisco de Ulloa was in command of the town of La Paz, but complaints by relatives of those who had stayed on the peninsula caused the viceroy to order the population to abandon the colony and return to New Spain. Following the failure of Cortés' third expedition to establish a colony in the newly discovered lands that belonged to him by royal decree, an enemy of Cortés, whom a writer of the time cites as Alarcón, applied the name "California", drawn from a contemporary novel, to the abandoned territory, perhaps in order to insult Cortés. The Baja California peninsula, the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez), and the states of California, Baja California and Baja California Sur, bear the name today.

From 10 January 1854, to 8 May 1854, La Paz served as the capital of William Walker's Republic of Sonora. The project collapsed due to lack of US support and pressure from the Mexican government to retake the region.

Geography La Paz is located on the Baja California peninsula on the Bay of La Paz, 210 km (130 mi) south of Ciudad Constitución, municipality of Comondú, and 202 km (126 mi) north of Cabo San Lucas, municipality of Los Cabos. It is located 81 km (50 mi) north of the town of Todos Santos. Its geographical coordinates are 24°08′32″ N and parallel 110°18′39″W, it has an altitude of 0 to 27 meters above the sea level. It is one of the three state capitals of Mexico that are on the coast of the sea.

Economy Eco-tourism is by far the most important source of tourism income in La Paz. Tourists also visit the city's balnearios. There are some 900 islands and inlets in the Gulf of California with 244 now under UNESCO protection as World Heritage Bio-Reserves and the Isla Espíritu Santo group, which borders the north-east portion of the Bay of La Paz, the primary tourist destination of the area.

Industries include silver mining, agriculture, fishing and pearls. Tourism is also an important source of employment for this coastal community.

When Aero California existed, its headquarters were in La Paz.

Transport La Paz is served by Manuel Márquez de León International Airport with flights to Mexico's 3 largest cities and the main cities of north-west Mexico on Aeroméxico Connect, Volaris, VivaAerobus, Calafia and TAR airlines; and American Airlines seasonal service to its hubs in Dallas and Phoenix. Two ferry services operate from the port of Pichilingue outside the city, connecting the Baja California peninsula to the mainland at Mazatlán and Topolobampo, near Los Mochis.

Transport: Road Running along the coast in front of La Paz is 5 km (3.1 mi) long Malecon Road. The main purpose of this road is to allow easy movement across the city. However, it quickly became the focal point of tourist related activities with a large number of bars, restaurants and shops opening along its length. Since 2004 extensive development has taken place which included a large sidewalk which offers safety for large numbers of people to walk along the coastal front of La Paz.

In September 2011, a bicycle lane was added to Malecon Road, providing cyclists protection from cars and pedestrians.

La Paz is served mainly by two highways; Mexican Federal Highway 1 that links the south of the state from Cabo San Lucas to the north of the peninsula to Tijuana, and Mexican Federal Highway 19, that connects La Paz with the population of the south pacific towns such as Todos Santos and El Pescadero. It is also served by two secondary roads, the Los Planes highway (286) that connects La Paz with towns such as La Ventana, Ensenada de los Muertos and Los Planes. The other is the Pichilingue highway which links La Paz with its maritime port.

Cuisine Local specialties are characterized by seafood dishes, especially of lobster, sole, clams and shrimp. Oregano is frequently used as a spice, and damiana, an ingredient in a traditional liqueur, is widely regarded as an aphrodisiac and brewed as a tea.

Regional cuisine also includes traditional dishes such as machaca, made from beef that has been well-cooked, shredded, and then cooked in its own juices, fresh cheeses and the typical flour tortillas. Abundantly available clams are prepared in various ways such as pickling, breading and frying, or stuffing. Shrimp are plentiful also, and eaten grilled, fried, or baked as in the regional specialty, filete imperial de camarones. Other popular seafood dishes include callo garra de león, made with scallops, fish tatemado, and ceviche.

Regional sweets are represented by fruits such as guava, mango and pitaya, green papaya and fig in syrup, as well as dehydrated regional fruits such as white fig and mango. Cheese empanadas (empanadas de queso) and empanadas made with sweet beans are also popular.

Demographics The city is the most populous city in the state. Its metropolitan population is somewhat larger because of surrounding towns, such as El Centenario (pop. 6,068), Chametla (pop. 1,731 as of 2010) and San Pedro. Its surrounding municipality is the fourth-largest municipality in Mexico in geographical size.

Education La Paz is the state capital and centre of commerce, as well as the home of the three leading marine biology institutes in Latin America (UABCS, CIBNOR & CICIMAR), largely because it sits on the Gulf of California, which is home to exceptional marine biodiversity. It also supports several other university-level institutes of learning, such as the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California Sur.

La Paz is the headquarters of several higher education centres, the main ones being: • Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur (UABCS) • Universidad Tecnológica de La Paz (UTLP) • Instituto Tecnológico de La Paz (ITLP) • Universidad Mundial (UM) • Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR) • Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste (CIBNOR) • Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE) Campus La Paz • Benemérita Escuela Normal Urbana Prof. Domingo Carballo Félix (BENU) • Escuela Normal Superior del Estado de Baja California Sur (ENSBCS) • Universidad Internacional de La Paz (UNIPAZ) • Universidad de Tijuana Campus La Paz (CUT) • Tecnológico de Baja California • Universidad Católica Campus La Paz • Universidad del Desarrollo Profesional (UNIDEP) Plantel La Paz • Universidad Intercontinental • Instituto Mar de Cortés • Instituto Cultural Tecnológico Cuincacalli (ICTEC) • Centro de Capacitación para el Trabajo Industrial (CECATI 39) • Escuela Superior de Cultura Física para Baja California Sur (ESCUFI)

Health La Paz has several medical centers; the Secretariat of Health operates the Juan María de Salvatierra general hospital, which has medical specialists and an exclusive area for pediatric oncology, as well as a unit that provides medical care under the national health insurance program, as well as a hemodialysis unit, a blood bank, a mental health division, health centres and other units. The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) provides a family clinic and an ambulatory medical unit in which ambulatory surgeries are performed. There is also a new ISSSTE hospital, the Naval Sanatorium, and the Secretariat of National Defense hospital, which offers external consultation services, hospitalization and medical specialists.

Reflecting high national rates, there are similarly high local rates of diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, and renal insufficiency, as well as of automobile accidents resulting in injury, despite public health dissemination programs and driver education programs.

According to the Baja California Sur State Development Plan 2005-2011, during 2006 there were 24 deaths due to cervical cancer in the state. The health sector seeks to reduce cervical cancer mortality by providing timely treatment to women aged 25 to 64 years, and improving the efficiency of diagnostic laboratories and the monitoring of patients.

As of 1 March 2021, the municipality reported 11,558 recoveries, 577 active cases, and 436 deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico.

La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico 
<b>La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico</b>
Image: Cvmontuy

La Paz has a population of over 250,141 people. La Paz also forms the centre of the wider La Paz Municipality which has a population of over 292,241 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for La Paz see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities La Paz has links with:

🇺🇸 Alexandria, USA 🇺🇸 Clearwater, USA 🇩🇪 Düsseldorf, Germany 🇲🇽 Ensenada, Mexico 🇺🇸 Redondo Beach, USA 🇲🇽 Rosarito, Mexico 🇫🇷 Saint-Tropez, France 🇲🇽 Tijuana, Mexico 🇲🇽 Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Mexico 🇪🇸 Vigo, Spain
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to La Paz is: 69.684,-24.15

Locations Near: La Paz -110.316,24.15

🇲🇽 San José del Cabo -109.711,23.06 d: 136  

🇲🇽 Colonia del Sol -109.917,22.9 d: 144.8  

🇲🇽 Cabo San Lucas -109.926,22.894 d: 145.2  

🇲🇽 Ciudad Constitución -111.68,25.048 d: 170.3  

🇲🇽 Los Mochis -108.989,25.793 d: 226.4  

🇲🇽 Guamúchil -108.081,25.457 d: 268.3  

🇲🇽 Culiacán -107.394,24.807 d: 304.6  

🇲🇽 Navojoa -109.433,27.067 d: 336.2  

🇲🇽 Ciudad Obregón -109.933,27.483 d: 372.6  

🇲🇽 Guaymas -110.908,27.911 d: 422.4  

Antipodal to: La Paz 69.684,-24.15

🇲🇺 Mahébourg 57.7,-20.407 d: 18714.3  

🇲🇺 Centre de Flacq 57.718,-20.2 d: 18707.6  

🇲🇺 Rivière du Rempart 57.633,-20.05 d: 18693.2  

🇲🇺 Curepipe 57.517,-20.317 d: 18692.8  

🇲🇺 Vacoas-Phoenix 57.493,-20.3 d: 18689.8  

🇲🇺 St Pierre 57.517,-20.217 d: 18688.8  

🇲🇺 Moka 57.496,-20.219 d: 18686.9  

🇲🇺 Quatre Bornes 57.479,-20.266 d: 18687.1  

🇲🇺 Mauritius 57.499,-20.162 d: 18684.8  

🇲🇺 Port-Louis 57.496,-20.165 d: 18684.7  

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