7 cities in America that owe their name to the Virgin Mary

On August 15, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. On the occasion of this holiday, we offer you a brief tour of the Latin American capitals that bear the name of the Mother of God.

1. Assumption

The current capital of Paraguay was founded in 1537. Its original name was “The Very Noble and Loyal City of Our Lady Santa María de la Asunción”.

The Spanish Domingo Martínez de Irala, who would be governor of the town, was the one who gave the city its name.

2. Buenos Aires

The capital of Argentina was founded in 1536 and its name was originally “Real de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre”.

Pedro de Mendoza was the Spaniard who chose that title in honor of the patron saint of sailors from Seville, Our Lady of Buen Ayre, also called Buen Aire or Bonaira.

In 1580, Juan de Garay renamed Buenos Aires “City of the Trinity”, a name that it kept until 1996, the year in which it received its current name: Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA).

3. Bogota

The Spanish Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada founded the current capital of Colombia in 1538 and called it Our Lady of Hope.

A year later, in 1539, its title was changed to Santa Fe.

The name Santa Fe de Bogotá was not official during the colonial era, but its use became common due to the need to distinguish this Santa Fe from other homonymous cities, Bogotá being the indigenous name of the region.

Over time this would become the official name.

4. Guatemala City

This capital, which has the same name as the country, was founded by the Spanish in 1776.

The official title of this Central American city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción.

5. Panama

The capital of Panama was founded on August 15, 1519 as “Our Lady of the Assumption of Panama”, on the day the Church celebrates the Mother of God.

The Spanish Pedro Arias Dávila was the one who named it that way.

6. Peace

Although the constitutional and historical capital of Bolivia is Sucre, the seat of government is currently located in La Paz.

La Paz was founded on October 20, 1548 by the Spanish conquistador Alonso de Mendoza, with the name of Our Lady of La Paz, due to the pacification of the civil wars in the Viceroyalty of Peru.

The city was later moved to its current location in the Chuquiago Marka valley.

7. Los Angeles

Although Los Angeles is not the capital of the United States, it is the second largest city in the country and has nearly 50% Latino inhabitants.

Father Juan Crespí, a Spanish Franciscan missionary, found a river in the area of ​​the current city that he called “The River of Our Lady The Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula” and advised that a mission for evangelization be established in that territory. .

On September 14, 1781, according to local history, 44 residents of the area, accompanied by two priests and a military squad, arrived at the place suggested by Father Crespí to start a city and founded the “Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula”, inspired by the name of the river.

Los Angeles later became part of the Spanish kingdom, within the viceroyalty of New Spain. After the independence of New Spain in 1821, the city was annexed to the territory of Mexico.

After the Mexican-American War in the mid-19th century, Los Angeles and other territories became part of the state of California.

This news was originally published on August 15, 2018.