Country Venezuela Shiretown El Callao Website Official website | State Bolívar Time zone VST (UTC-4:30) Area code 0288 | |
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The El Callao Municipality is one of the 11 municipalities (municipios) that makes up the Venezuelan state of Bolívar and, according to the 2011 census by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, the municipality has a population of 21,769. The town of El Callao is the shire town of the El Callao Municipality.
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Demographics
The El Callao Municipality, according to a 2007 population estimate by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, has a population of 24,013 (up from 18,530 in 2000). This amounts to 1.6% of the state's population. The municipality's population density is 10.8 inhabitants per square kilometre (28/sq mi).
Government
The mayor of the El Callao Municipality is Jesús Coromoto Lugo Larreal, re-elected on October 31, 2004 with 43% of the vote. The municipality is divided into one parish; Capital El Callao.
Gold mines
The gold mine at El Callao, started in 1871, was for a time one of the richest in the world, and the goldfields as a whole saw over a million ounces exported between 1860 and 1883. The gold mining was dominated by immigrants from the British Isles and the British West Indies, giving an appearance of almost creating an English colony on Venezuelan territory.
Calypso culture
The Trinidadian immigrants brought the music of Calypso with them, which later became very popular in the city. The folk music is a mixture of Venezuelan and Caribbean genres and is sung in Spanish and/or Caribbean English. It is closely associated with the Carnival festival, a tradition also brought by the West Indian people.
In the carnival months, Calypso is performed with competitions, where the winners are crowned Calypso King and Queen. Calypso or as the town's people call it "Calipso" is one of the most popular cultural tradition that the city is well known for in the rest of the country. Popular instruments used in the performance of the music are the drums, cuatro, maracas, guitar, bandolin, violin and the steel drum.