BY: HERNAN FAJARDO BECERRA
MEMBER OF THE CASANAREÑA ACADEMY OF HISTORY
Yopaleños do not always keep memory of the magnitude of the changes that the municipality has experienced over time. Of course, the speed of change does not let up to stop when reality ends up imposing itself against the impalpable presence of the past.
It means that Yopal, as a town, has been adjusting to modernity for four to five decades, a process that can be understood by reviewing and studying the most important socio-spatial, political, and cultural transformations, as well as the circumstances that caused it.
In the 1970s, the city was like a refuge, we all knew each other, we all knew the history and lineage of our neighbors. The immigrant appeared as an exceptional being slightly lost; Due to the rule of the so-called law of progress, the city’s habits and customs have changed as much as its physical appearance.
Without a doubt, the most important social phenomena in the history of the late 20th century and early 20th century in our city have been the intense urbanization process and the speed of population growth, the causes and effects of such vertiginous Modifications must be studied in the light of the social and economic transformations and the changes that the oil industry and modernization have brought to the region. Also, today, the capital city continues to be further explored, redefined – partly as a result of its growing socio-spatial primacy, but also as a consequence of the dramatic transformation of space and urban life that occurred during the years of discovery, exploration and exploitation of “black gold”, oil.
A reflection on Yopal must consider its constitution as a historical fact, and its development, as a social and political habitat, as main references. An exploration aimed at identifying the meaning and magnitude of change in our very modern capital, is found in a firm guide in the elements that make up the city as a basic unit of the contemporary world and that at the same time transform it: its identity its “memory” and its political, social and economic “agreements” that have historically shaped it.
Also, by considering the city a cultural space, it is being recognized as a place of coincidence for multiple and diverse identities that are expressed in a kaleidoscope of past, present, and future physical images. It is, for all, a plural meeting place for the man who lives with his work, which is what ultimately gives it its conditions and character.
Appealing to the memory of the city is to appeal not only to the presence of the past in what has to do with the constitution of those identities, but also to the consciousness of the collective in the search and construction of a habitable and culturally significant space.
The construction of the city must be understood as the dynamic construction of the social fabric through the different agents that act and overlap in the city, these being the expression and reflection of the social, political, economic, ideological and cultural dynamics that in they unfold. The city considered in this way is then a lively changing scenario, but also dramatic in terms of the tensions generated by its actor-managers: the state, the community and the private sector.
So from the appearance of “black gold” the process of migration to the city accelerated and created
an uncontrollable situation in the city. Invasion neighborhoods were fostered around the city
forming groups of precarious houses and without public services.
The constant process of migration ended up turning the city into a set of urban areas little
communicated with each other or with scarce contacts.
The official institutions also began the production of housing complexes for the class “less
favoured”, in the periphery where neighborhoods arose such as: 20 de Julio, Confaboy, El Triunfo,
Confacasanare, Luis María Jiménez, Covisedca, etc.,
After the discovery of “black gold”, there was a strong migratory offensive, the worker of the plain
leaves the herd and comes to the capital, Yopal becomes for the rest of the country as a place of reference
of work, the oil companies offer jobs, the famous “28-day” contract, a
actual job offer. As a consequence of this, these social groups began to consolidate.
imprecise, alien to the traditional structures, which received the name of malleros. Your presence
I change the ways of life, the physiognomy of the habitat and the ways of thinking. This transformation of
urban environment accompanied by the lack of standards, despite some attempts to overcome it,
would characterize the city from then on. Migrations from the countryside to the city, the explosion
demographics and the industrialization of oil exploration and exploitation in the region produced the
called urban takeoff.
The urgency of planning: Since the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, the concern
for urban planning. The disorganized situation of the city and the need to orient its
growth forced to implement land use plans.
Construction without planning and the highest deficiency of public services became uncontrollable. Was
the result of the urban impact of the migratory force that would not stop even at the end of the
oil exploitation.
Its ability to receive settlers who moved to Yopal, who came from different
corners of the country. Migration became its most serious problem, which was reflected in the need
increasingly growing need to reorganize the city and house in it huge numbers of inhabitants
displaced by the factors of violence and attracted by the labor expectations of the oil process.
In Yopal, two types of settlements were created where popular construction took place: the neighborhoods of
invasion and pirate estates
Such a provincial social system had to fall to pieces hit by the economic process.
When the first multi-story buildings appeared through the air (the Reyes patria hotel, the popular
cooperative (…), the old town began to collapse. The presence of those first buildings
witnessed the end of an era, the bankruptcy of a tradition, the settlement granted to a way of life
slow but parsimonious and, moreover, shaped by the moral order, hitherto of a pattern
traditional.
In Yopal, as in any city, physical actions corresponding to different historical moments, built by various agents or social actors, coexist. This is also a perspective of the way in which it is possible for a certain social or political ideology to be translated into concepts and projects of the city.
The neighborhoods are undoubtedly the basic element of the formation of the current city, and also the main origin of the great problems that Yopal is now facing, the neighborhoods appeared without obeying urban canons, as disjointed nuclei, because the developers had no other objective than the satisfaction of their own economic interest, thereby causing the most serious social and economic inconveniences. If the municipality had had a guideline for its future development since then, it would have avoided its disorderly growth, it would have saved the setbacks it contemplates today.
In fact, when the needs of a city change due to the excessive growth of the population, it is understandable that its economic, political and social organization is altered simultaneously.
On the other hand, a complex web of factors such as housing needs due to incessant migratory flows, difficulties in employment and income, high costs of available land and built housing, weakening of public action, lack of adequate planning , among others, will explain the deepening, persistence and importance of the so-called informal city, which characterized the end of the 20th century. Factors that also caused a progressive deterioration and disorder of the city, the increase in the cost of basic urban services and, consequently, the general decline in the quality of life and the considerable increase in poverty levels, in which there is a large conglomerate of the city.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BIRTHDAY GIRL
“The World Capital City of the llanero”, “is the beating and happy heart of Casanare”, the gateway to discover the immense plain of Casanare, which has its doors open to all who want to visit it, and can taste this beautiful land with its ideal landscape for adventure tourism, safaris and excursions, the land of partying and where the famous “mamona” is savored.
Its festivities: the International Contrapunteo and Voz Recia Tournament: “Cimarrón de Oro”, its Fairs and Festivals, its Agro Industrial Fair, the Coleo Copa América Tournament and very recently the “Casanare Palpita” festivities.
Its museums: Museo Centro Histórico del Oriente, the Museo 8 de Julio, the Historia de Piedra theme park.
Its parks: Santander, the Estancia, the Resurgence, the Ramón Nonato Pérez Passage, in which great cultural activities take place.
Sport: Coliseums: Mauricio Naranjo, July 20, centers of large basketball and indoor soccer tournaments.
The Santiago de las Atalayas stadium, soccer championships, such as the recent professional soccer of the Colombian Women’s League.
THE KIND FACE OF THIS BIRTHDAY GIRL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOPAL!