José María Linares is a 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 the eastern parts of the 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...

n department

Departments of Bolivia

Bolivia is divided into nine departments . Each of the departments is subdivided into provinces , which are further subdivided into municipalities ....

 of 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....

. Its capital is Puna.

Location

José María Linares province is one of sixteen provinces in the Potosí Department. It is located between 19° 30' and 20° 16' South

Altitude

Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...

 and between 64° 43' and 65° 53' West

Longitude

Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....

. It borders Cornelio Saavedra Province

Cornelio Saavedra Province

Cornelio Saavedra is a province in the north-eastern parts of the Bolivian Potosí Department. The capital of the province is Betanzos with 4,168 inhabitants in the year 2001....

 in the north, Tomás Frías Province

Tomás Frías Province

Tomás Frías is a province in the northern parts of the Bolivian Potosí Department. Its capital is Potosí which is also the capital of the department. The province is named after the former president Tomás Frías Ametller.-Location:...

 in the northwest, Antonio Quijarro Province

Antonio Quijarro Province

Antonio Quijarro is a province in the central parts of the Bolivian Potosí Department situated at the Salar de Uyuni. Its seat is Uyuni.-Location:Antonio Quijarro province is one of sixteen provinces in the Potosí Department...

 in the west, Nor Chichas Province

Nor Chichas Province

Nor Chichas is a province in the Eastern parts of the Bolivian Potosí Department. Its seat is Cotagaita.-Location:Nor Chichas province is one of sixteen provinces in the Potosí Department. It is located between 20° 01' and 21° 08' South and between 65° 13' and 66° 17' West...

 in the south, and Chuquisaca Department

Chuquisaca Department

Chuquisaca is a department of Bolivia located in the center south. It borders on the departments of Cochabamba, Tarija, Potosí, and Santa Cruz. The departmental capital is Sucre, which is also the constitutional capital of Bolivia.-Geography:...

 in the east. The province extends over 120 km from east to west and 85 km from north to south.

Division

The province comprises three 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...

 which are further subdivided into cantons

Cantons of Bolivia

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

.

Section	Municipality	Seat
1st	Puna Municipality	Puna
2nd	Caiza "D" Municipality	Caiza "D"
3rd	Ckochas Municipality	Ckochas

Until August 15, 2006, when Ckochas Municipality was created, its three cantons, Turuchipa, Duraznos and Esquiri, belonged to the Puna Municipality.

Population

The main language of the province is 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...

, spoken by 80 %, while 44 % of the population speak 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 population dropped from 52,535 inhabitants (1992 census) to 50,899 (2001 census), a decrease of 2.1 %.

90 % of the population have no access to electricity, 89 % have no sanitary facilities. 69 % of the population are employed in agriculture, 0.5 % in mining, 11 % in industry, 20 % in general services. 88 % of the population are Catholics, 10 % Protestants.

The people are predominantly 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 descent.

Ethnic group	Puna Municipality and Ckochas Municipality (%)	Caiza "D" Municipality (%)
Quechua	95.1	94.5
Aymara	0.1	0.3
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...	0.0	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...	4.6	5.1
Other indigenous groups	0.1	0.0