Latacunga

The plateau was the land of the Panzaleo people before the Inca, and ruins of an older native town nearby are said to date from Inca times. The Spanish town was founded by the first encomendero in September 1534 as the Asiento de San Vicente Mártir de Latacunga, and formally refounded on 27 October 1584. Land and Indigenous labour were shared out through encomiendas and the mita, and Indigenous people were put to forced labour in the textile workshops, and marquisates were established around the town. The Jesuits founded its first school in 1643.

Latacunga has suffered repeatedly from nature. Latacunga was destroyed four times by earthquakes between 1698 and 1798, and Cotopaxi's eruptions of 1744 and 1768 destroyed the colonial town; in the great eruption of 1877 lahars swept down the valleys, and the town was levelled again by mudflow deposits. The Virgin of Mercy, believed to have stopped the 1742 eruption, was declared advocate and patron of the volcano.

Local patriots helped prepare Quito's revolt of 1809, and Latacunga declared its own independence from Spain on 11 November 1820, confirmed by the Battle of Pichincha in 1822. In 2015 Cotopaxi came back to life with steam and ash eruptions in August, and a new eruption began on 21 October 2022, described as ongoing as of June 2023.

The Mama Negra, also called the Santísima Tragedia, is Latacunga's great festival and one of the best known in Ecuador. It mixes Indigenous, Spanish and African influences and is held twice a year. In late September the traders of the La Merced and El Salto markets organise it in honour of the Virgin of Mercy; in November the city holds it again for the anniversary of its independence, with officials, the army and the clergy taking part. Both feature a long parade of costumed characters, ending with the Mama Negra, a figure with a blackened face who rides a horse and sprays the crowd with milk, while home-made spirits are passed around freely.

Catholic devotion runs deep, focused on the Virgin of Mercy and the city's churches, and the countryside around Latacunga is home to Kichwa-speaking Panzaleo communities whose markets at Saquisilí, Pujilí and Zumbahua are central to local life. The Kichwa people of Tigua, a community on some routes of the Quilotoa loop, are known for paintings on sheepskin.

Latacunga also celebrates Carnival with parades such as the Carnaval de las Rosas and the Mashcarnaval. Two universities, the Technical University of Cotopaxi and the military forces' ESPE, bring students to the city, and football follows Flamengo at the Estadio La Cocha.

At the 2022 census Latacunga had about 77,300 people, largely mestizo and Indigenous. It is the capital and commercial centre of Cotopaxi province and a busy stop on the Pan-American Highway.

The economy depends on agriculture, flower-growing and trade. Flower farms around the city grow flowers for export, and broccoli is another export crop. The volcanic soils have also left pumice deposits, which are mined, and natural sparkling water, bottled under the San Felipe brand. Tourism adds guesthouses and agencies serving climbers and walkers bound for Cotopaxi and Quilotoa.

Life is shaped by the plateau's cold, windy climate and by the volcano on the skyline. On a clear day Cotopaxi is visible from the city, a reminder of the eruptions that destroyed it in the past and of the activity that resumed in 2015 and 2022. Markets set the rhythm of the week in the surrounding towns, with Thursday at Saquisilí and Saturday at Zumbahua.

Latacunga's most famous dish is chugchucaras, a heavy plate of deep-fried pork, boiled mote hominy, potatoes, fried plantain, sweet empanadas, popcorn and pork crackling. Most of the restaurants that serve it are found on Quijano y Ordóñez street. Tostado, a type of toasted maize, is another local staple.

Food is often eaten with ají, a chilli sauce that can be mild or very hot depending on how it is made, and the central market building has plenty of stalls serving cheap traditional lunches, as well as fruit and vegetables. The village markets around the city, especially Saquisilí's Thursday market, serve traditional food to the highland people who come to trade.

The wider highland diet of potatoes, maize and pork is everywhere: hornado, whole roast pig, fritada and llapingachos, fried potato-and-cheese patties. On cold, windy nights, canelazo, sugarcane spirit with hot cinnamon water, often with naranjilla juice, is the drink of choice. Latacunga's own San Felipe sparkling mineral water is a product of the area's volcanic activity.