Santa Cruz de Mao, Valverde Province, Cibao Region, The Dominican Republic

History | Economy

🇩🇴 The Dominican city of Santa Cruz de Mao, or simply Mao, is the head municipality of the Valverde province, in the north-west of the country.

It is the largest city of the Dominican north-west and the centre of the region. Its name, a Taíno word, comes from the River Mao, near the city. Its nickname is Ciudad de los Bellos Atardeceres (English, "City of the Beautiful Sunsets"); this was given by Juan De Jesus Reyes, renowned poet and Dominican literary icon. There are no mountains to the west of the city and it is common to see a "red" sky at sunset; it is a very dry region and there is much dust in the air which gives the sky a red color.

History For most of its history, the region was called "El Despoblado"; that means a region without any population, because it is a very dry region and agriculture was not possible.

When the governor of the Spanish colony gave the order in 1606 that everybody living on the northern coast had to move inland, some people came to live around the present Mao. They had cattle that were raised in hatos. "Hato" means a large farm for raising cattle (a ranch), and so the names of many places around Mao derive from the word: Hatico, Hato del Yaque, Hato Nuevo, Hato Viejo, Hato del Medio.

The town of Mao was built close to where the River Mao flows into the River Yaque del Norte. The first Catholic church was built in 1869.

The town was made a Puesto Cantonal (an old category similar to the present Municipal District under a military government). Mao was elevated to the category of municipality in 1882, and in 1904 its official name was changed to "Valverde" after José Desiderio Valverde, former President of the Dominican Republic. Because the name Mao was known by everybody and Valverde was a new name, people called the city "Valverde (Mao)", and it is still common to say so.

When the province was created in 1959, Mao was made its head municipality and provincial capital.

Economy The main economic activity of the province is agriculture; the main products in the municipality are rice, bananas and plantain.

Santo Domingo Time 
Santo Domingo Time
Image: Photo by Haniel Espinal on Unsplash

Santa Cruz de Mao has a population of over 207,818 people. Santa Cruz de Mao also forms part of the wider Valverde Province which has a population of over 217,026 people. For the location of Santa Cruz de Mao see: Mao.

To set up a UBI Lab for Santa Cruz de Mao see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Santa Cruz de Mao is: 108.917,-19.567

Locations Near: Santa Cruz de Mao -71.0833,19.5667

🇩🇴 Mao -71.083,19.567 d: 0  

🇩🇴 Mejia de Navarrete -70.867,19.55 d: 22.8  

🇩🇴 Bisonó -70.867,19.55 d: 22.8  

🇩🇴 San Ignacio de Sabaneta -71.35,19.483 d: 29.4  

🇩🇴 Sabaneta -71.35,19.483 d: 29.4  

🇩🇴 Santiago -70.704,19.461 d: 41.4  

🇩🇴 Santiago de los Caballeros -70.695,19.459 d: 42.5  

🇩🇴 Puerto Plata -70.683,19.8 d: 49.3  

🇩🇴 San Felipe de Puerto Plata -70.683,19.8 d: 49.3  

🇩🇴 Sosúa -70.517,19.75 d: 62.7  

Antipodal to: Santa Cruz de Mao 108.917,-19.567

🇮🇩 Cilacap 109,-7.733 d: 18699.2  

🇮🇩 Selogiri 111.05,-7.917 d: 18699.4  

🇮🇩 Wonogiri 111.05,-7.917 d: 18699.4  

🇮🇩 Yogyakarta 110.35,-7.8 d: 18697.6  

🇮🇩 Pangandaran 108.657,-7.697 d: 18694.9  

🇮🇩 Tulungagung 111.9,-8.067 d: 18696.5  

🇮🇩 Parigi 108.533,-7.683 d: 18693.1  

🇮🇩 Purworejo 110.03,-7.722 d: 18692.6  

🇮🇩 Blitar 112.15,-8.1 d: 18693.3  

🇮🇩 Kebumen 109.661,-7.671 d: 18689.9  

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