Calabozo

The plains around Calabozo were home to indigenous peoples who hunted, fished and farmed the river banks. In 1723 Andalusian Capuchin missionaries organised mission villages here, gathering Guaiqueríes, Mapoyes, Tamanacos, Otomacos and other groups, and on 1 February 1724 a cross was raised to found a Spanish town beside them. Disputes over land between the town, the missions and the cattle owners lasted for decades, until a royal decree of 1774 confirmed the Villa de Todos los Santos de Calabozo. By 1780 it had about 3,400 inhabitants and was a centre of the cattle, mule and horse trade with Caracas.

In 1800 Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland stayed here and recorded the electrical instruments built by the self-taught local inventor Carlos del Pozo y Sucre. In the independence war the town changed hands several times; the royalist José Tomás Boves led plains horsemen from Calabozo in 1814, and on 12 February 1818 Bolívar and Páez attacked the royalist army there, forcing it to withdraw two days later. Calabozo became the first capital of Guárico in 1848 and the seat of a bishopric in 1863, and the German physician Carl Sachs studied the electric eels of the llanos here in 1877–78.

The state capital moved to San Juan de los Morros in 1934. The Generoso Campilongo Dam, completed in 1956, and the Guárico irrigation system turned the savanna into rice fields, and the population grew from about 4,700 in 1950 to more than 130,000 by 2011. The historic centre was protected in 1979.

Calabozo's identity is llanero: rooted in cattle, horses and the plains, and in the music of harp, cuatro and maracas that the region regards as its own. Toros coleados, in which riders chase a bull and topple it by the tail, and horse racing are held at local festivals, and baseball, traditional in the region, has its own stadium in the city.

The town is proud of its literary and scientific history. Francisco Lazo Martí, the 19th-century poet and physician of the plains, is the town's own poet, and a cultural house in the historic centre bears his name. The stories of del Pozo's electrical experiments and of Humboldt's visit are part of the local sense of the past, and the city has its own anthem, "Villa Heroica".

The Catholic Church has shaped the town since the Capuchin missions: Calabozo has been a bishop's seat since 1863, and its cathedral and colonial churches are the heart of religious life. The plains' tradition of ghost stories, such as La Sayona and El Silbón, is part of the shared culture here as across the llanos.

Calabozo is the most populous city in Guárico, with more than 130,000 inhabitants in 2011. Growth came with migration from the countryside and the arrival of the industries that process the region's crops.

Rice is the backbone of the economy. The irrigation system fed by the reservoir was designed to serve about 60,000 hectares, making Calabozo Venezuela's main rice-producing centre, and the city's mills and storage silos are among the most visible features of its skyline. Cattle raising, food processing and commerce add to it, and a campus of the Rómulo Gallegos university trains students in health, agriculture and social sciences.

The national crisis has been felt sharply: in 2018 lootings hit local businesses, and fuel shortages stop tractors and trucks, while long power cuts disrupt work and home life. Days start before dawn, when the air is coolest, slow down in the midday heat, and pick up again in the evening around the squares.

Calabozo eats like the rest of the plains, with beef at the centre. Carne en vara is beef skewered on stakes around an open fire and roasted slowly. Pisillo, the emblem of Guárico, is shredded, salted and sun-dried meat or fish fried with garlic and sweet peppers, and it is also made with chigüire, the capybara, whose meat is traditionally eaten during Lent and Holy Week.

As the country's rice capital, the town puts rice on most plates. Gallopinto, a dish of rice and black beans similar to pabellón, sits alongside pabellón criollo, the national plate of shredded beef, black beans, rice and fried plantain. Fresh cheeses such as queso de mano, a soft stretched cheese, are eaten with cachapas, sweet fresh-corn pancakes, and the rivers and reservoir supply fish.

Coffee is drunk strong and black through the day, and sweets are made from milk and papelón, the raw cane sugar of the region.