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Tungurahua

(Encyclopedia)Tungurahua [Quechua,=throat of fire], snow-capped volcano, 16,479 ft (5,203 m) high, central Ecuador, c.85 mi (135 km) SE of Quito. Its eruptions typically occur at intervals of 80 to 100 years. In th...

New Granada

(Encyclopedia)New Granada grənäˈdə [key], former Spanish colony, N South America. It included at its greatest extent present Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Between 1499 and 1510 a host of conquerors ...

Olmedo, José Joaquin

(Encyclopedia)Olmedo, José Joaquin hōsāˈ wäkēnˈ ōlmāˈᵺō [key], 1780–1847, Ecuadorian statesman and poet. An ambassador to Paris and London after Ecuador's independence, Olmedo gained renown for his o...

panama-hat palm

(Encyclopedia)panama-hat palm, perennial herb (Carludovica palmata) growing wild from Central America south to Bolivia. Despite its frondlike leaves it is not a true palm. The leaves are used to weave Panama hats, ...

Latacunga

(Encyclopedia)Latacunga lätäko͞ongˈgä [key], city (1990 pop. 39,882), capital of Cotopaxi prov., N central Ecuador. A town of the ancient Incas, it is in a high mountain basin between the E and W Andean cordil...

Loja

(Encyclopedia)Loja lōˈhä [key], city (1990 pop. 94,305), capital of Loja prov., S Ecuador, on the Zamora River, at the terminus of the Ecuadorian section of the Pan-American Highway. It is a commercial center fo...

Alfaro, Flavio Eloy

(Encyclopedia)Alfaro, Flavio Eloy fläˈvyō āloiˈ älfäˈrō [key], 1867–1912, president of Ecuador (1897–1901, 1907–11). Regarded as a champion of liberalism, Alfaro introduced legal and economic reforms...

Maryknoll

(Encyclopedia)Maryknoll, headquarters of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, near Ossining, N.Y. A Roman Catholic community of priests (the “Maryknoll Fathers”) are there especially trained for for...

Rocafuerte, Vicente

(Encyclopedia)Rocafuerte, Vicente vēsānˈtā rōkäfwārˈtā [key], 1783–1847, president of Ecuador (1834–39). Rocafuerte headed (1833) the opposition to Juan José Flores. Leader of a revolt at Guayaquil (1...

Jívaro

(Encyclopedia)Jívaro hēˈvärō [key], linguistic stock of Native South Americans in Ecuador. The peoples, N of the Marañón River and E of the Andes, engage in farming, hunting, fishing, and weaving. They have ...

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