Arque Province

Location of Arque Province within Bolivia
General Data
Country	Bolivia Bolivia Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
Departament Departments of Bolivia Bolivia is divided into nine departments . Each of the departments is subdivided into provinces , which are further subdivided into municipalities ....	Cochabamba Department Cochabamba Department Cochabamba is one of the nine component departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the "granary" of the country because of its variety of agricultural products due to Cochabamba's geographical position. It has an area of 55,631 km². Its population, in the 2007 census, was 1,750,000...
Capital	Arque Arque Arque is a location in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. It is the seat of Arque Province and Arque Municipality. Arque is situated at an elevation of 10,735 ft on the northern bank of Arque River....
Municipalities Municipalities of Bolivia Municipalities in Bolivia are administrative divisions of the entire national territory governed by local elections. Municipalities are the third level of administrative divisions, below departments and provinces. Some of the provinces consist of only one municipality...	2
Cantons Cantons of Bolivia ||On the level below municipalities, Bolivia is divided into cantons ....	4
Area Area Area is a quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional surface or shape in the plane. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat...	1,077 km²
Elevation Elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....	3,000 m - 4,500 m
Population Population A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...	23,464 (2001)
Density Density The mass density or density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ . In some cases , density is also defined as its weight per unit volume; although, this quantity is more properly called specific weight...	21.8 inhabitants/km² (2001)
Sub-prefect	Angel Novillo
Language Language Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication... s	Quechua Quechua languages Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably... , Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... , Aymara Aymara language Aymara is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over three million speakers. Aymara, along with Quechua and Spanish, is an official language of Peru and Bolivia...
ISO 3166-2 ISO 3166-2 ISO 3166-2 is part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , and defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1...	BO.CB.AQ
Cochabamba Department

Arque is a rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

 in Cochabamba Department

Cochabamba Department

Cochabamba is one of the nine component departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the "granary" of the country because of its variety of agricultural products due to Cochabamba's geographical position. It has an area of 55,631 km². Its population, in the 2007 census, was 1,750,000...

 in the eastern cordillera

American cordillera

The American Cordillera is a cordillera that consists of an essentially continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica. From north to south, this sequence of overlapping and parallel ranges begins with the...

 of the South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

n state of Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

. Quechua

Quechua languages

Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...

 is the most commonly used language of this region.

Geography

The province is located in the Bolivian Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 at an elevation between 3,000 and 4,500 metres and about 250 km west of Cochabamba

Cochabamba

Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the fourth largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people...

, the capital of the department. The landscape is deeply fissured. Arque

Arque

Arque is a location in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. It is the seat of Arque Province and Arque Municipality. Arque is situated at an elevation of 10,735 ft on the northern bank of Arque River....

, the capital of the province, is situated on the northern bank of the Arque River

Arque River

Río Arque is one of the headwaters of Río Grande and Mamoré River in Bolivia.Río Arque has its source in the Cordillera Tres Cruces on the western slope of Cerro Huaylluma at , 50 km northeast of the mining city Oruro and 65 km southwest of Cochabamba.The river flows 50 km in a...

, an affluent of the Río Grande

Río Grande (Bolivia)

The Río Grande in Bolivia rises on the southern slope of the Sierra de Cochabamba, east of the city of Cochabamba, at . At its source it is known as the Río Rocha and crosses the Cochabamba valley basin in a westerly direction...

.

The province is surrounded by the provinces Tapacarí

Tapacarí Province

Tapacarí is a province in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. Its capital is Tapacarí. The province is located at a turnoff from the major highway that links Cochabamba and Oruro. It has traditionally been amongst the poorest in the department...

 in the north-west, Quillacollo

Quillacollo Province

Quillacollo is a province in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia.It is known for its festival in August where people from all over Bolivia come and pay homage to the Virgin of Urqupiña...

 in the north-east, Capinota

Capinota Province

Capinota is one of sixteen provinces in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. Its capital is the city of Capinota. The province has a population of 25,582 inhabitants .- Subdivision :...

 in the east, Bolívar in the south and the departments Oruro

Oruro Department

Oruro is a department in Bolivia, with an area of 53,588 km². Its capital is the city of Oruro. At the time of census 2001 it had a population of 391,870.- Provinces of Oruro :...

 in the west and Potosí

Potosí Department

Potosí Department is a department in southwestern Bolivia. It comprises 118,218 km² with 709,013 inhabitants . The capital is the city of Potosí....

 in the south-east.

Climate

The rainy season covers the months from December to April. The precipitation can occur in the form of devastating hailstorms which may even destroy the planted seeds of field crops and the harvests.

Subdivision

Arque Province is divided into two municipalities

Municipalities of Bolivia

Municipalities in Bolivia are administrative divisions of the entire national territory governed by local elections. Municipalities are the third level of administrative divisions, below departments and provinces. Some of the provinces consist of only one municipality...

 (Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

: municipio, sección or sección municipal): Arque Municipality (first section) and Tacopaya Municipality (second section). The two municipalities with one mayor each are further subdivided into four cantons

Cantons of Bolivia

||On the level below municipalities, Bolivia is divided into cantons ....

 and supervised each of them by a corregidor: Arque Canton and Colcha Canton in Arque Municipalitiy and Tacopaya Canton and Ventilla Canton within Tacopaya Municipality. The province is managed by a sub-prefect (subprefecto).

Section	Municipality	Inhabitants	Capital	Inhabitants
1st	Arque Arque Municipality Arque Municipality is the first municipal section of the Arque Province in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. Its seat is Arque. At the time of census 2001 the municipality had 11,806 inhabitants. It has the lowest HDI of Bolivia with 0.311.- Cantons :...	11,806	Arque Arque Arque is a location in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. It is the seat of Arque Province and Arque Municipality. Arque is situated at an elevation of 10,735 ft on the northern bank of Arque River....	487
2nd	Tacopaya Tacopaya Municipality Tacopaya Municipality is the second municipal section of the Arque Province in the Cochabamba Department in Bolivia. Its seat is Tacopaya. At the time of census 2001 the municipality had 11,658 inhabitants.- Cantons :...	11,658	Tacopaya Tacopaya Tacopaya is a village in the Cochabamba Department in central Bolivia. It is the seat of the Tacopaya Municipality, the second municipal section of the Arque Province.-External links:*...	137

Arque Municipality is situated in the eastern part of the province and Tacopaya Municipality is located in the west.

The People

Arque Province has the lowest Index on Human Development

Human Development Index

The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...

 (0.311) within Bolivia. Of all the 314 municipalities in Bolivia Arque was on the last position (HDI

Human Development Index

The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...

 0.311) in the year 2001 and Tacopaya was on rank 308 (HDI 0.361). However, in recent years many measures particularly done in the field of education and health have been taken in order to improve the social situation. In 2005 92 % of the population of Arque including larger and smaller communities had access to potable water according to reports from Arque Municipality. Only seven communities still remained without water supply at that time .

The province has a rural character. Most families rely on subsistence farming for their livelihood. The peasants cultivate maize, wheat, barley and potatoes on the stark, steep slopes. The population with a high number of indigenous

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 citizens of Quechua

Quechuas

Quechuas is the collective term for several indigenous ethnic groups in South America who speak a Quechua language , belonging to several ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Argentina.The Quechuas of Ecuador call themselves as well as their...

n and Aymara descent mostly lived or still lives in humble houses with earthen floor, adobe

Adobe

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...

 walls, roofed with thatched material. Often these houses only consist of one single room where the meals are prepared on open fire so that the smoke can cause infections of the eyes. The roofs bear a deadly danger which comes overnight: the blood-sucking assassin bugs, common to the zone, locally called vinchuca, which cause the Chagas disease

Chagas disease

Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. T. cruzi is commonly transmitted to humans and other mammals by an insect vector, the blood-sucking insects of the subfamily Triatominae most commonly species belonging to the Triatoma, Rhodnius,...

. During the day the insects hide in crevices in the walls and roofs made of straw. The bugs emerge at night, when the inhabitants are sleeping. One measure to reduce the risk of acquiring the disease is the renovation of houses by using tiles and the construction of houses that are resistant to the entry of the bug.

Some data :

Arque Province
Municipality	Arque	Tacopaya
Nacional ranking (out of 314)	314	308
Human Development Index (2001)	0.311	0.361
Index of life expectancy	0.412	0.428
Index of education	0.338	0.473
Life expectancy (years)	49.7	50.7
Literacy of adults (% of 15 years old and more)	42.7	57.4
Average years of schooling	1.7	2.1
Population 2001	11,496	11,968
Percentage of rural population	100.0%	100.0%

The latest results about the ethnic-linguistic composition of the population are as follows:

Ethnic group	Arque Municipality (%)	Tacopaya Municipality (%)
Quechua Quechuas Quechuas is the collective term for several indigenous ethnic groups in South America who speak a Quechua language , belonging to several ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Argentina.The Quechuas of Ecuador call themselves as well as their...	93.5	95.4
Aymara	0.9	1.7
Guaraní, Chiquitos Chiquitos Chiquitos means "little ones" in Spanish. The Spanish Conquistadores chose this name for the people living in the rain savannas of what is now the eastern parts of the Santa Cruz Department in Bolivia, when they found the small doors of the Indian huts in the region.Today, this area is called Gran... , Moxos Moxos people The Moxos, also known as the Mojos, are an indigenous people living around the head-waters of the Madeira River in northern Bolivia, particularly on both banks of the Mamore River. They submitted to Inca domination, but in 1564 gallantly repulsed the Spaniards. A century later, however, the Jesuits...	0.2	0.1
Not indigenous Indigenous peoples of the Americas The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...	5.4	2.8
Other indigenous groups	0.1	0.1

Ref.: obd.descentralizacion.gov.bo

Languages

The languages spoken in the Arque Province are mainly Quechua

Quechua languages

Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...

 and Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

. The following table shows the number of those belonging to the recognized group of speakers.

Language	Arque Municipality	Tacopaya Municipality
Quechua Quechua languages Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...	10.793	10.766
Aymara Aymara language Aymara is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over three million speakers. Aymara, along with Quechua and Spanish, is an official language of Peru and Bolivia...	107	123
Guaraní Guaraní language Guaraní, specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guaraní , is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupí–Guaraní subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay , where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and half of...	3	3
Another native	2	132
Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...	2.185	3.309
Foreign	13	9
Only native	8.778	7.552
Native and Spanish	2.052	3.236
Only Spanish	134	74

External links

• Map of Arque Province