Socha is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the Valderrama Province, which is a subregion of Boyacá. It borders

Socotá Socotá is a town and municipality in the Valderrama Province, part of the Colombian department of Boyacá. The municipality is situated in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The urban centre is at an altitude of at a distance of fro ...

in the east,

Sativasur Sativasur is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the subregion of the Northern Boyacá Province. It is approximately 132 km from Tunja, the capital of the department. Sativasur borders the municipalities Sa ...

in the north,

Tasco Tasco (also known as Tasco Worldwide) sells consumer telescopes. Tasco mainly imports telescopes for amateur astronomers but has expanded into other optical products, such as spotting scopes, microscopes, binoculars, telescopic sights, and other ...

in the south and in the west Paz de Río.

Geography

The village is located in the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leag ...

at altitudes between and .Official website Socha
– accessed 06-05-2016 Socha is the largest municipality in the Natural National Park Páramo de Pisba. The Chicamocha River forms the northern boundary of Socha.

History

Before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca on the

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The altiplano corresponds to the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Alt ...

, Socha was inhabited by the

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

Pirgua and Boche tribes, belonging to the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

. Simón Bolívar passed through Socha in his march for the independence of Colombia. The town center was moved in 1870 due to a landslide. Close to the Boche waterfall in the municipality petroglyphs have been found. The name Socha is derived from the

Chibcha The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan lan ...

words ''So'' ("Sun";

Sué Sué, Xué, Sua, Zuhe or Suhé was the god of the Sun in the religion of the Muisca. He was married to Moon goddess Chía.Ocampo López, 2013, Ch.4, p.33 The Muisca and their confederation were one of the four advanced civilizations of the Ameri ...

) and ''Cha'' ("Moon"; Chía), "Land of the Sun and the Moon".Etymology Socha
– accessed 06-05-2016

Economy

Main economical activity of Socha is

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

. To a lesser extent also

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

farming and

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

are executed.

Born in Socha

Fernando Soto Aparicio Fernando Soto Aparicio (October 1, 1933 – May 2, 2016) was a Colombian poet, storyteller, playwright, novelist, librettist, and screenwriter. He was born in Socha, in the Department of Boyacá. Fernando Soto Aparicio spent his childhood in ...

, Colombian poet

References

{{coord, 6, 00, N, 72, 40, W, display=title, region:CO_type:adm2nd_source:GNS-enwiki Municipalities of Boyacá Department 1540 establishments in the Spanish Empire