Municipality of Protección
Protección is a municipality in the department of Santa Bárbara in Honduras.
History
It was founded in 1880, with the name El Ocotal. The name is due to the abundance of pine trees found in the area («Ocotal» is colloquially used to refer to a group of pine trees in Honduras). The first inhabitants arrived to graze cattle from the communities of Santiago and San Juan Posta, belonging to the municipality of Naranjito, Santa Bárbara. The first houses, called «toros», were constructed from grass.
Because the workers had to travel a certain distance to graze their cattle, they decided to start building their homes in the area. More permanent residences shaped the new settlement.
The village grew quickly, so residents began meeting with the municipality of Naranjito in 1883 to change the community’s name and give it official stature. After several meetings, the neighbors decided to name their town Protección.
Merchants passing through the settlement called it «protección», as it was a safe place to rest and feed their animals on their way to the markets. The inhabitants thought it would be a good description of the lands that would be protected by God in all aspects.
After the name change, the community grew at a faster pace. People came from San Luis and Naranjito, Santa Bárbara, as well as from the Republics of Guatemala and El Salvador. In 1890, the first school was established in a house built by Florencio Martínez. Mr. Martínez, a native of the municipality of San Marcos, Santa Bárbara, was the first education teacher working in Protección.
In the Land Title of December 26, 1898, the area was named ejidal land. From 1910, the town began negotiations with the government of the capital of the department of Santa Bárbara to become a municipality.
After much effort and trips by the community leaders to Santa Bárbara, the community was granted municipality status on May 15, 1927, with the first communities being La Laguna, Las Crucitas, El Chile, and Las Posas.
The founding fathers were Don Florencio Martínez, Juan Reyes Martínez Bartolomé Reyes Martínez, and Julio Madrid, who worked with enthusiasm for the community’s progress, despite many difficulties characteristic of the era.
Geography
The municipality of Protección has an area of 151.6 km2. Protección is located at the 15.01 north latitude parallel and 248.39 west longitude. Protección is on the western side of the Honduran department of Santa Bárbara, and is bordered to the north by the municipality of Macuelizo, to the south by the municipality of Naranjito, to the east by the municipality of San Luís, and to the west by the municipality of Nueva Arcadia, which belongs to the department of Copán.
A road extends 13.8 km between Protección and Chalmeca, which is connected to the international highway that runs between San Pedro Sula and El Salvador. The road to Protección is gravel and passable at all times. There is also a small network of over 61 kilometers of roads providing access to the communities around Protección. These are mainly passable during the summer. The rains often make the streets impassable during the winter.
The topography of Protección is quite irregular. The average altitude is 980 meters above sea level. The municipality is surrounded by hills.
Population
Protección has 14,272 inhabitants. Of these, 7,205 are men or boys and 7,067 are women or girls. The majority of the population (53.34%) are 18 years old or younger. The population density of the Municipality of Protección is equivalent to 55 people per square kilometer (14,272 inhabitants / 261.6 km2).
The greatest population growth occurs from west to east and currently has a growth rate of 3.1% per year. The population centers are settled in the lower areas of the surrounding hills. The population is grouped into 6 neighborhoods, 19 villages, and 19 hamlets. The following sections list the neighborhoods, villages, hamlets in Protección.
Neighborhoods
The six neighborhoods of Protección encompass the urban and administrative districts of Protección. Its 2,912 inhabitants represent 20.4 percent of the municipality’s population. The range in size of the neighborhoods is from 257 to 1,169 inhabitants. These six neighborhoods are often collectively referred to as «the town of Protección».
- Barrio Nuevo
- El Calvario
- El Centro
- San Cristóbal
- El Edén
- Las Tejeras
Villages
The 8,634 inhabitants of the 19 Protección villages account for 60.5 percent of the municipality’s population. The size range of the villages is from 167 to 935 inhabitants.
- Buenos Aires
- El Chile
- Las Delicias
- El Encanto
- La Laguna
- Loma Encerrada
- Las Naranjas
- Nueva Victoria
- Nuevas Delicias
- Nuevo Corralitos
- Nuevo Porvenir
- El Ocote
- Pueblo Nuevo
- La Reina
- La Ruidosa
- El Triunfo Protección Santa Bárbara
- Las Vueltas
- Zambrano
- El Zarzal
Farmhouses
The 2,726 inhabitants of the 19 Protection hamlets account for 19.1 percent of the municipality’s population. The size range of the hamlets are from 22 to 317 inhabitants.
- Aldea Nueva
- El Anillal
- Copo Helado
- El Frijolillo
- El Güiscoyol
- El Higal
- Los Letreros
- La Libertad
- Monte la Virgen
- Nueva Angostura
- Nueva Ceibita
- Nuevos Horizontes
- La Posona
- La Presa
- San José
- La Tendida
- Tres Cruces
- Viejo Porvenir
- La Virtud
Culture
Like in much of Honduras, the inhabitants of Protección are mostly mestizos, with their lives centered mainly around agriculture. They are characterized by being kind, cheerful, and hospitable, embracing the variety of customs, traditions, and foods that are typical of Honduras as part of their culture.
People are accustomed to using nicknames, for example, Mr. Celso Martínez is called Celso «Caspa,» Mr. Constantino Alvarado is called «Tino Plato,» and Mrs. Victoria Quijada is called «La Avioneta.»
Celebrations
Celebration of the patron saint fair and the anniversary of the municipality’s creation
Like the rest of Honduras, the majority of the population is Catholic, with a growing percentage of evangelicals. As such, Christian holidays such as Christmas and the Holy Week leading up to Easter are observed as times of celebration.
Christmas Eve, like in much of Honduras, is celebrated with a late-night dinner with friends and family, followed by fireworks at midnight. During Holy Week, a procession takes place. Most businesses are closed on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, as they are national holidays.
In addition to Christmas and Easter, other annual festivals and holidays are celebrated, such as the Patron Saint Fair of San Isidro on May 1st (although the patron saint’s day is on May 15th). The population also celebrates national holidays, such as September 15th, which is Independence Day from Spain (Independence Day).
Festivals may include processions, beauty contests, music, food, disco and traditional dances, live music, and fireworks.
Traditional Foods
Corn, used in Protección to make a variety of typical dishes such as tamales, and when green (fresh), it is used to make the famous montucas. Photograph by Darwin Reyes.
The commonly consumed foods in Protección include tamales, ticuco tamales, marquezote (a traditional beverage), cornbread, dulce en leche (milk sweet), mondongo soup, creole chicken soup, sweet pumpkin, tamalitos, montucas, riguas (corn pancakes), and corn atol (typically made with freshly harvested corn), beans, corn tortillas, and fried yucca.
Economy
The economic activities of the municipality include coffee cultivation, subsistence agriculture of corn and beans, small-scale trade, services supporting an agricultural community, including carpentry workshops, construction, metalworking, and mechanical workshops, tailors and dressmakers, hairdressers, and small businesses.
The small towns and villages in the municipality traditionally grow coffee for large-scale sale, and corn and beans for subsistence. Some communities cultivate bananas, pineapples, and vegetables.
Sometimes families are able to produce surplus corn and beans for sale in the urban center of the municipality or in larger communities near the access road to Protección. Buyers sometimes drive their trucks into the villages and hamlets, especially during harvests, to purchase sacks of grains and coffee. Livestock is raised on a small scale.
Coffee accounts for about 30 percent of agricultural production, corn and beans account for about 65 percent, and livestock grazing plays a smaller role. On average, 85 percent of corn and beans are consumed locally or by producers, while 15 percent is exported from the community.
Small amounts of fruits and vegetables are mainly grown for local consumption. Fruits include bananas and plantains, avocados, mangoes, and papayas.
Trade in goods and services primarily occurs in the main neighborhoods of Protección. There are also offices of various public agencies serving the municipality. As of 2012, the working-age population represents approximately 70 percent of the population.
Thirty-eight percent of the working-age population is employed, including 85 percent of paid employment being occupied, although many of them are either part-time or underemployed. The predominant professions include housewives, farmers, laborers, traders, waitresses, construction workers, primary school teachers, carpenters, experts, tobacco workers, mechanics, hat makers, and laundry workers.
Underemployment exists primarily among women. They mainly participate in family activities, assisting with agricultural tasks, especially in coffee picking or taking care of other aspects of coffee production.
Women earn some income from poultry raising, egg sales, sewing, coffee bean sorting, fish farming, pig growing, micro-enterprises, vegetable processing, and running small shops and restaurants.
Climate
The climate in this area is temperate, with an average temperature of 20 °C degrees. The average annual precipitation is 1300 mm per year. Honduras has two seasons. The rainy season is known as winter, and the dry season is summer. Most of the rainfall received by Protección occurs between June and November, with the dry season extending from late January to May.
Land Tenure
Land tenure is always an issue. Thirty-five percent of the population in Protección do not have land, while 65 percent of the population owns land, but ownership remains in the hands of wealthy individuals or corporate entities.
There are some communal lands that resulted from land redistribution efforts, such as the community of La Ruidosa, where farmers work on land parcels but do not have ownership. It should be noted that communities like La Laguna, El Corozal, among others, are located on private lands that have not been authenticated by the inhabitants.
Water Resources
Protección is located within the watershed that encompasses the Chiquilá sub-basin project, which focuses on protecting water sources in the region. The most important water sources for Protección are La Angostura, Cerro Redondo, Copo Helado, and Las Moras, which act as basins that flow into important hydrographic basins in the country. These include the Chamelecón and Ulúa rivers, as well as part of the Jicatuyo. The only river that crosses the municipality is the Río Blanco.
Forest Resources
The area is covered with pine forests. Pinus caribaea is more common at lower elevations, while Pinus maximinoi is more likely to be found above 1,300 m. The understory consists of smaller species such as oaks, nance, encino zarza, grasses, ferns, and chaparro.
There has been extensive deforestation by people moving within the region and along the slopes in search of a land plot to sustain a family. Traditional agricultural methods of slash-and-burn contribute to the deforestation problem, along with cattle grazing, and clearing land for coffee production.
In recent decades, deforestation has occurred throughout the Central American coffee-growing region due to the introduction of higher-yielding coffee varieties that do not require shade.
