Guayaquil

Guayaquil (ɡwaʝaˈkil; Wayakil), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the second largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is located on the west bank of the Guayas River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Guayaquil. The origin of the name of the city of Santiago de Guayaquil has been much discussed, although historians agree that it is pre-Hispanic. Since the founding of the city in 1534, it is linked to the name of Santiago in memory of its patron saint, Santiago, apostle of Christ, who is also patron saint of several other Spanish American colonial cities, such as Santiago de Chile, as he is of Spain itself. One of the theories, based on a romantic legend, transmitted orally from one generation to another, attributes the origin of the name Guayaquil to the joining of the name of a leader named Guayas and of his wife Quil, symbols of the local resistance that — according to local tradition — chose to fight to the death (and as a final act, set fire to the town), rather than surrender to the Spanish conquerers. The existence of a town with a name similar to Guayaquil, located near the city of Durán (Autopista Durán-Boliche km. 23), has brought investigations by archeologists and historians, who agree that the town, when it was conquered, was ruled by a man named Guayaquile. What was not decided was whether the name was given by the man to the town, or the town to the man. But the researcher Ángel Véliz Mendoza, in his book on the man Guayaquile, states that there are at least seven references to the toponym in pre-1543 documents. It is believed that the name Guayaquil is taken from the population's final home, in lands of the chief Guayaquile. This region was occupied by the "chonos" people whose archeological name is :es:cultura Milagro-Quevedo. After several location changes and fires, the city was finally founded in 1547, and named the "Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil" ("Very noble and very loyal city of Santiago de Guayaquil").