Santa Marta
—  City  —
El Rodadero Beach
Flag
Nickname(s): America's Pearl (La Perla de America)
Location in the Department of Magdalena. Municipality (dark gray) City (red)
Santa Marta Location in Colombia
Coordinates: 11°14′31″N 74°12′19″W / 11.24194°N 74.20528°W / 11.24194; -74.20528Coordinates: 11°14′31″N 74°12′19″W / 11.24194°N 74.20528°W / 11.24194; -74.20528
Country	Colombia
Region	Caribbean Region
Department	Magdalena
Foundation	July 29, 1525
Founder	Rodrigo de Bastidas
Named for	Martha
Government
• Mayor	Carlos Eduardo Caicedo Omar (Liberal)
Area
• City	2,393.35 km2 (924.07 sq mi)
• Urban	55.10 km2 (21.27 sq mi)
Elevation	6 m (20 ft)
Highest elevationAt Pico Cristóbal Colón	5,775 m (18,947 ft)
Population (2005)[1]
• City	415,270
• Density	170/km2 (450/sq mi)
• Urban	385,122
• Urban density	6,989.5/km2 (18,106.3/sq mi)
	DANE
Time zone	Colombia Standard Time (UTC-05)
Twin cities
• Miami Beach	United States
Website	santamarta-magdalena.gov.co

Santa Marta is the capital city of the Colombian department of Magdalena in the Caribbean Region. It was founded in July 29, 1525 by the Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas, which makes it the oldest remaining city in Colombia (Santa María la Antigua del Darién was founded earlier, but abandoned soon after). Located between the Santa Marta Mountains and the Caribbean Sea, the city is a popular tourist destination due to its history, colonial architecture, beaches and nearby nature reserves.

Simón Bolívar died at an estate named Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino on the outskirts of Santa Marta on December 17, 1830. The city has been affected to some extent by the Colombian Armed Conflict.

History[link]

Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino in Santa Marta.

Prior to the Arrival of Spanish explorers, the area where Santa Marta lies was inhabited by Amerindians from the Tairona culture, and its subsequent families: Arhuacos and Koguis, among others.

The city was founded on July 29, 1525 by Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas, accompanied by some two hundred of his men and a few Amerindians. He named the city after the Catholic day for Saint Martha, which in Spain was celebrated with festivities. However, many historians argue that he named it after the Spanish city of Santa Marta de Astorgas, which he had visited.^[2] With its foundation, the Spanish colonization also started the conquering of lands from this region, and the set up of administrative functions for the colony, including a maritime port and the construction of defenses to prevent pirate raids.

During the Colonial times the city started losing its importance as maritime port to nearby city port of Cartagena.

During the mid-19th century, French, English and North American immigrants along with some locals started to introduce industrial ways of productions and founded trade associations among industrials and the farmers. As a result they built railways which would connect productive networks.

In 1871, the University of Magdalena was founded, initially with two faculties: law and medicine.

During the 20th century the city served as a main port for massive exports of bananas and coal, produced inland with the assistance of major multinational corporations.

In 1968 the government decentralized the Port Authority, leaving Santa Marta with its own Port Authority (Capitania de Puerto).^[3]

In recent years, Santa Marta has attracted large numbers of people displaced by the paramilitary groups operating in the area. The warm climate and the possibility of occasional work serving the tourist industry has increased the city's population drastically.

Geography and climate[link]

Climate[link]

Temperatures in the city of Santa Marta ranges from 27 to 35 degrees Celsius at sea level, but the Municipality of Santa Marta stretches up to the highest snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and each 100 meter of higher altitude means 1 Celsius lower temperature. Rainfall in this region varies from 12 to 975 mm per month.

Economy[link]

Tourism[link]

Tourism has its peak during December 15 to January 15 and another peak during the Easter week. The district of Rodadero is a favorite resort of Colombians together with Cartagena and San Andres. The recently renovated downtown of Santa Marta with its blend of colonial and republican architecture attracts many visitors among them several cruise ships a week. Downtown Santa Marta is also building its own international marina, planned for completion in 2011. In this way Santa Marta hopes to attract international sailing boats, especially during the hurricane season, since Santa Marta is protected from hurricanes by the surrounding mountains. Las Fiestas del Mar (The Festival of the Sea) is an annual celebration during the midyear vacation period. One of the main events in the festival is the jetski show organized by Santa Marta Esqui. There are beauty pageants, parades and parties in the city. The Festival's slogan is "Santa Marta, la magia de tenerlo todo" ("Santa Marta, the magic of having it all").

• Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino: Built in the 17th century, was the last home of Simon Bolivar, today it is a house/museum in his honor.

Port of Santa Marta one of Colombia's most important maritime ports.

• The Cathedral: it is a national monument built in 1766, it held the remains of Simon Bolivar until 1842.

Santa Marta's Cathedral

• La Casa de la Aduana (Customs House): it is the oldest house of America, built in 1530. Today it is the Tayrona Museum.
• Madame Agustine House: a jewel of colonial architecture.
• San Fernando Fort: built by Spanish conquerors to protect the city from the pirates, it is a fine sample of colonial military architecture.
• Tayrona National Natural Park: located 34 km north of Santa Marta, it is the most important ecological reserve in Colombia. It has camping zones, virgin beaches and tropical forest. The park also has its own archeological site, Pueblito (also known as Cahirama); it is one of the 200 pre-Columbian cities discovered near Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
• Quebrada Valencia: a majestic waterfall emerging in the middle of the rain forest.
• Taganga: an authentic fishing town, a popular destination for scuba diving, with beautiful beaches nearby.
• The Mamancana Natural Reserve: a wildlife reserve and a venue for practising extreme sports such as paragliding, downhill, rock climbing, and canopying.
• Rodadero Sea Aquarium and Museum: an aquarium with a small dolphin and sea-lion show.
• Aracataca: an hour and a half south of Santa Marta one can find the birthplace of Garcia Marquez which is also the prime matter of his large legacy of writings including; One Hundred Years of Solitude. Places to visit include his birthhouse turned museum and several monuments to characters from his 'imaginary town' Macondo.

Añadir una leyenda aquí

Sister cities[link]

Santa Marta has one sister city:^[4]

• Miami Beach, United States

Sports[link]

The town has a football (soccer) team, Unión Magdalena, nicknamed El ciclón bananero (The Banana Cyclone).

Santa Marta is the birthplace of Colombia's most famous football player, Carlos Valderrama, as well as Radamel Falcao and Swiss international Johan Vonlanthen.

It is also the birthplace of Grammy Award-winning singer, actor and songwriter Carlos Vives.

See also[link]

• Santa Marta Massacre

Notes[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Santa Marta

• (Spanish) Santa Marta in analitica.com
• (Spanish) UNIMAGDALENA
• (Spanish) Bank of the Republic, economic history of Santa Marta

External links[link]

• Santa Marta Travel Guide
• (Spanish) Santa Marta official website
• (Spanish) The Samarian Agenda Project
• Wikitravels tourist guide of Santa Marta
• Santa Marta is Ready for Tourists - slideshow by The New York Times

v t e Municipalities in the Magdalena Department Algarrobo Aracataca Ariguaní Cerro San Antonio Chibolo Ciénaga Concordia El Banco El Piñón El Retén Fundación Guamal Nueva Granada Pedraza Pinto Pijiño Pivijay Plato Pueblo Viejo Remolino Sabanas de San Angel Salamina San Sebastián de Buenavista Santa Ana Santa Marta San Zenón Sitio Nuevo Tenerife Zapayán Zona Bananera

Marta may refer to:

• Marta (footballer) or Marta Vieira da Silva (born 1986), a Brazilian women's football forward
• Marta Estrella, a recurring fictional character from Arrested Development
• Marta Suplicy (born 1945), a Brazilian politician and psychologist
• Marta (given name), a given name for females
• Marta (river), an Italian river that flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea
• Marta, Lazio, a comune in the Province of Viterboin the Italian region Lazio
• Marta, Nepal, a village development committee in Kalikot District in the Karnali Zone of north-western Nepal
• Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, the principal rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area
• Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority, the third largest regional transit agency in San Bernardino county
• Marta is the dubbed English name for Martel of Fullmetal Alchemist
• Marta (film), a 1971 Spanish film

See also[link]

• Martha

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

Jesse Cook
Background information
Born	1964
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Narada Productions

Jesse Cook is a Toronto-based guitarist, born in Paris to Canadian parents. Like other guitarists of his style of music, he incorporates funky jazz, latin & world music into his playing. Cook is also well known for the energy of his live shows. He has contributed to the Afro Celt Sound System album Seed, and often has other popular recording artists contribute vocals on his own albums. He has recorded on the Narada label.

Biography[link]

Born in Paris on 29 November 1964 to photographer and filmmaker John Cook and television director and producer Heather Cook, Jesse Cook spent the first few years of his life moving between Paris, Southern France and Barcelona. As a toddler he was fascinated by the guitar and tried to emulate the sound he heard coming from his parents' recordings of Manitas de Plata, a famous Gypsy guitarist from the region of Southern France known as the Camargue.

After his parents separated, Cook and his sister accompanied his mother to her birth country, Canada. Cook first wemt to a public school in Toronto, then attended and graduated from the Toronto Waldorf School^[1]. Recognizing the musical aptitude of her son, he took lessons at Toronto’s Eli Kassner Guitar Academy. Kassner's other famous pupil was classical guitarist Liona Boyd.

While Cook was still a teenager, his father retired to the French city of Arles in the Camargue where his neighbor just happened to be Nicolas Reyes, lead singer of the flamenco group the Gipsy Kings.

During frequent visits to Arles, Jesse Cook became increasingly fascinated by the “Camargue sound”, the rhythmic, flamenco-rumba approach that could be heard on many corners and cafés in the “gipsy barrio”.

Back at home, he continued his studies in classical and jazz guitar in some of North America’s most prestigious music schools, including the legendary Berklee College of Music in Boston^[2]. He has often quipped that he later attempted to unlearn it all while immersing himself in the oral traditions of Gypsy music. This helped him widen his range of musical tastes.

Cook in 2006

The 1995 Catalina Jazz Festival was a turning point in his career. His debut album 'Tempest' had been independently released in Canada. Within a month, a deal with American company Narada allowed them to be booked at the Catalina Jazz festival. Originally the band was to perform during the twenty minute intermissions in a little bar downstairs from the main stage. His performance was well appreciated, so appreciated in fact that Cook was invited to give a performance on the main stage. Shortly afterwards, Tempest entered the American Billboard charts at #14.

Cook has recorded seven studio albums, two live DVDs and has traveled the world exploring musical traditions that he has blended into his style of rumba flamenco. In addition to headlining concerts and festivals, he has opened for such legends as B.B. King, Ray Charles and Diana Krall. He has performed with Welsh soprano Charlotte Church on the Tonight Show and toured with legendary Irish band, The Chieftains.

His music has been featured on several episodes of Sex in The City, The Chris Isaac Show and several Olympic Games.

In 2001, Cook won a Juno Award in the Best Instrumental Album category for “Free Fall.” In 2009, he was Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Player's Choice Award silver winner in the Flamenco category (gold went to Paco de Lucia). He is a three-time winner of the Canadian Smooth Jazz award for Guitarist of the Year and numerous other awards.

Discography[link]

Studio Albums[link]

• Tempest (1995)
• Gravity (1996)
• Vertigo (1998)
• Free Fall (2000)
• Nomad (2003)
• Frontiers (2008)
• The Rumba Foundation (2009)

Live Album[link]

• Montreal (2004)

Compilation[link]

• Ultimate Jesse Cook (2005)

Other compilation appearances[link]

• Narada Smooth Jazz
• The Next Generation - Narada Sampler
• Narada Film and Television Music Sampler
• Gypsy Passion: New Flamenco (Narada, 1997)
• Gypsy Soul: New Flamenco (Narada, 1998)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jesse Cook

• Guitarist Jesse Cook - his official website.

Carlos Vives
Carlos Vives at a concert in Boston.
Background information
Born	August 7, 1961 Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia
Genres	Vallenato, cumbia, porro, champeta, rock, pop latino, bambuco
Occupations	Recording artist, composer and actor
Years active	1986–present
Associated acts	Rafael Escalona Juanes Hora Local Aterciopelados Bloque de Búsqueda (banda) Sidestepper
Website	www.carlosvives.com

Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo (born August 7, 1961 in Santa Marta, Magdalena) is a Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award winning-Colombian singer, composer and actor.

Biography[link]

Carlos Vives was born on August 7, 1961.^[1] in Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia, where he spent his first 12 years of life. At that age, he and his family moved to Bogotá in search of a better life. They lived with Diego Martinez and his family. In Bogota, he acquired a taste for rock, getting involved in the local music scene, and started playing in bars and cafés around the city.

1982-1989[link]

In 1982, Vives began acting in in a number of shows and telenovelas including "Pequeños Gigantes" (Little Giants - 1983) and "Tuyo es Mi Corazón" (Yours is My Heart - 1985). He finally found notoriety in 1986 by playing the title role of Gallito Ramírez (which told the story of a Colombian Caribbean coast boxer who falls in love with an uptight girl, who was portrayed by his first wife, Margarita Rosa de Francisco). (1986). That same year, he released his first album, Por Fuera y Por Dentro. The album, primarily made of ballads, failed to gain any success. In 1987, he released his second ballad album, No Podrás Escapar de Mí. Though the title track reached #30 on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks, the album did not sell well. His next album, Al Centro de la Ciudad, would become his last album to feature synthesizer-romantic ballads. Some of the songs got some attention being featured in telenovelas, but the album, just as its predecessors, failed to gain success.

In 1989, he was offered an acting job in Puerto Rico, and upon moving, he took a break in his music career. There, he is remembered for his leading roles in the soaps La Otra and Aventurera.^[1] There he married Herlinda Gómez,^[1] his second wife (they have since divorced). Vives would spend his time between Colombia, Miami and the city of Mayagüez, Herlinda's hometown, during his marriage to her.

Since 1991[link]

Upon his return to Colombia in 1991, he was offered a TV role that would change his life forever. He was cast in the leading role of a fantasy series based in the life of vallenato composer Rafael Escalona called, not surprisingly, Escalona.^[1] He sang the composer's songs in the series, and that's when he retooled his career towards vallenato,^[2] gaining national success with the release of the Telenovela's two soundtrack albums, Escalona: Un Canto a la Vida and Escalona: Vol. 2.

In 1993, backed by the band "La Provincia", Vives released the album Clásicos de la Provincia in which he started fusing Vallenato with rock,^[1] pop and other Caribbean Colombian ethnic rhythms. This fusion scandalized Vallenato purists. This style of vallenato was a huge success not only in Colombia but all over Latin countries, and the albums' lead single, La Gota Fría, became a hit all over Latin America. Clásicos de la Provincia, won the Billboard Latin Music Awards Best Album and would become a timeless classic in Colombian and Latin American music, introducing Vallenato to both Colombia and the rest of the world.

The follow-up album, La Tierra del Olvido would mark a further step in Vives' desire to fusion rock, funk and pop music with traditional Colombian genres. The album gave Vives classic hits such as the title track, and the up-tempo opening track Pa' Mayte.

His subsequent releases, Tengo Fe (1997), El Amor de Mi Tierra (1999), Déjame Entrar (2001) and El Rock de Mi Pueblo (2004), were all commercially successful and were well-received by the critics. In 2001 Carlos Vives' album "Déjame Entrar" won him his first Grammy award for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.

In 2009 he released the album Clásicos de la Provincia II, which was sold exclusively in Colombian supermarket chain "Almacenes Éxito." The album saw Vives' return to covering famous Vallenato songs in his own style. It sold massively and the single Las Mujeres received wide radio airplay in all Colombia.

His hits include "Matilde Linda", "La Hamaca Grande", "La Gota Fría", "Alicia Adorada", "Pa' Mayte", "La Tierra del Olvido", "Tu Amor Eterno", "Fruta Fresca", "Déjame Entrar", "Luna Nueva", "Carito", "Papadio", "Como Tú" and "Décimas Del Parecido" (this last one a tribute to Guillermo Martínez, a Cuban-born radio host who resides in Mayagüez, and for whose program Vives was an occasional master control technician).

Personal life[link]

Vives was married to the famous Colombian actress Margarita Rosa de Francisco in a relation that was closely followed by the national media. Herlinda Gómez was his second wife.^[3] He's now married to former Miss Colombia Claudia Helena Vásquez and has 2 children,^[1] : Lucy Vives, his first daughter and his son from his marriage with Herlinda Gómez. He spends his time between Miami and Colombia, mainly Santa Marta and Bogotá.^[1]

Discography[link]

Carlos Vives

Ballads period

• Por Fuera y Por Dentro (1986)
• No Podrás Escapar de Mí (1987)
• Al Centro de la Ciudad (1989)

Vallenato/Ethnic fusion period

• Escalona - Un Canto A La Vida (1991)
• Escalona: Vol. 2 (1992)
• Clásicos de la Provincia (1993)
• La Tierra del Olvido (1995)
• Tengo Fe (1997)
• El Amor de Mi Tierra (1999)
• Déjame Entrar (2001)
• El Rock de Mi Pueblo (2004)
• Clásicos de la Provincia II (2009)

Melodic period

• Romántico (2005)

Filmography[link]

• La estrategia del caracol (José Antonio Samper Pupo), 1993
• Escalona (Rafael Escalona), 1992
• La Tele, 1995
• La mujer doble (Mateo Escontria), 1992
• LP loca pasión (Sammy), 1989
• Gallito Ramírez (Javier "Gallito" Ramírez), 1986
• Tuyo es mi corazón, 1985
• David Copperfield, 1983
• Pequeños gigantes, 1980's

Awards[link]

See also[link]

• List of singer-songwriters/Colombia
• Pop Latino

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carlos Vives

• (Spanish) Official site

v t e Vallenato Musicians Renowned vallenato musicians Alejo Durán • Alfredo Gutierrez • Diomedes Diaz • Fonseca • Colacho Mendoza • Rafael Escalona • Emiliano Zuleta • Jorge Oñate • Iván Villazón • Kaleth Morales • Silvestre Dangond • Carlos Vives • Juancho De la Espriella • The Children of Vallenato

Sergio Vargas is a Dominican merengue singer. He has been a member of the bands La Banda Brava and Los Hijos del Rey.^[1]

References[link]