A Very Short History of Cajicá

The small pueblo of Cajicá sits on the high plain of the Sabana region, north of Bogotá, Colombia. The town originally belonged to the Muisca Confederation, one of the four great indigenous civilizations of Central and South America, who controlled a very large area of land in what is now central Colombia. At the time of its discovery by the Spanish, the population of Cajicá and its surrounding lands consisted of several hundred Muisca villagers, although anthropologists believe humans have lived in the area for over 12,000 years. When Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and his small, beleaguered band of men arrived in the area in 1537, he subjugated the Muisca Confederation to Spanish rule and founded a small Roman Catholic mission chapel in Cajicá.

The Spanish colonists replaced the mission with a larger stone church in 1598 to consolidate the Muisca living in the area, who at that time lived scattered throughout the surrounding countryside. With the initiation of this construction project, Cajicá became an official Spanish settlement. Due to structural damage incurred during an earthquake, the archbishop ordered the church torn down and rebuilt again in the 19th century. The second church remains to this day and, as in many other small towns in Latin America, it is the most important building in the town square. The rail line that runs through Cajicá was built to connect Bogotá to cities in the Sabana plain north of the capital. The arrival of trains contributed to the town’s economic growth, bringing outside goods, transportation infrastructure, and customers to purchase goods like wool coats that have been produced here for centuries. The train station became a notable landmark in the city center and focus of economic activity. The rail line and train station still offer transport to tourists and students traveling in and out of Colombia’s capital to this day. Cajicá is the birthplace of Pompilio Martinez Navarrete, a medical doctor who performed the first open heart surgery in Colombia. While today it is a quiet town that seems overshadowed by the capital a mere thirty-one kilometers away, this appearance is deceiving; Cajicá itself has played a surprising, if small, role in Colombia’s history.