Гватемаланың Эль-Прогресо департаменті

Department of Guatemala

El Progreso (el pɾoˈɣɾeso) is a department in Guatemala. The departmental capital is Guastatoya. The Spanish established themselves in the region by 1551, after the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. El Progreso was declared a department in 1908, but was dissolved in 1920 before being reestablished in 1934. Guastatoya was badly affected by the 1976 Guatemala earthquake. The department is located in northeastern Guatemala. It is bordered by the departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, Jalapa, and Zacapa. The department occupies an intermediate zone between the hot lowlands and the cooler Guatemalan Highlands, and has a generally hot climate. The most important river is the Motagua. To the north, the department is crossed by the Sierra de las Minas mountain range. The main population centres in El Progreso are Guastatoya, Sanarate and San Agustín Acasaguastlán. The CA 9 Atlantic Highway links the department with Guatemala City and the Atlantic port of Puerto Barrios. The vast majority of the population of the department are Spanish speaking Ladinos. The population is growing, but at a rate below the national average. At the same time, the illiteracy rate is falling.

Historically, the area now included in the department of El Progreso was known as Guastatoya or Huastatoya, derived from Nahuatl huäxyötl or huäxin ("calabash") and atoyac ("last"), meaning the last place that calabashes grow, a reference to the change in altitude that occurs in the department, and corresponding climatic change from cold to hot.

The Spanish colonial corregimiento of San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán was established in 1551 with its seat in the town of that name, in what is now the eastern portion of the modern department. In El Progreso it included San Agustín de la Real Corona (modern San Agustín Acasaguastlán) and La Magdalena, but covered a broad area that also included parts of Baja Verapaz and Zacapa. In the 1520s, immediately after conquest, the inhabitants paid taxes to the Spanish Crown in the form of cacao, textiles, gold, silver and slaves. Within a few decades taxes were instead paid in beans, cotton and maize. The region was subject to a strong influx of Spanish colonists due to its location on the route between the colonial capital and the Caribbean Sea, and hence to Spain, resulting in the hispanicisation of the territory. Guastatoya was mentioned as a village in an edict issued in Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, the colonial capital, in 1758. In 1825, various settlements were integrated into the Acasagustlán district that would later be included in El Progreso department. In the 1870s, the territory was divided between the departments of Guatemala, Zacapa and Chiquimula.

The department of El Progreso was created by executive decree on 13 April 1908, to include the municipalities of Acasaguastlán, Cabañas, Guastatoya (which was renamed as El Progreso), Morazán, Sanarate, Sansaria (now known as Sansare), San Antonio La Paz, and San José El Golfo. For a short time from December 1919 to June of the following year, the department was renamed Estrada Cabrera at the request of its constituent municipalities, in order to honour the then president. On 9 June 1920, after the president was overthrown, the department was dissolved by the government. The department was reestablished on 3 April 1934 by the legislative assembly. The terrain is varied, with altitude varying between above mean sea level. The department has a generally hot climate. The main population centres in El Progreso are Sanarate, Guastatoya, and San Agustín Acasaguastlán. The CA 9 Atlantic Highway crosses the department from west to east, en route from Guatemala City to the Atlantic port of Puerto Barrios. Other principal highways are the CA 17 from El Rancho towards Cobán, and the RN 19 from Sanarate towards Jalapa.

According to the 2018 census, the population of El Progreso was 176,632. By 2013 the total population had grown to 163,537. The 2012–2013 population growth rate was 1.73%, below the national average of 2.32%. By gender, 51.9% of the population are female, and 48.1% male. The majority of the population, 59.8%, lives in the rural portion of the department. The predominant language in El Progreso is Guatemalan Spanish.

Agricultural products include coffee, sugar cane, tobacco, maize, beans, cacao, annatto, tomatoes, vanilla, cotton, and a variety of other fruits.