Chumbivilcas Province


Chumbivilcas is a province in the Andes in South Peru. The Inca called it "Chumpiwillka". The seat of the province is Santo Tomás. Officially Chumbivilcas was founded on June 21, 1825.

Geography

Some of the most important rivers of the area are Velille River, Qañawimayu and Sinqa Wayq'u which are springs of the Apurímac River.
The Wansu mountain range traverses the province. Some of the highest peaks of the province are listed below:

Population

According to the Peru 2005 Census 77,721 inhabitants live in an area of 5,371.08 km². There are about 77 rural communities. Chumbivilcas is looked upon as one of the poorest regions of the country. Half of the population is younger than 16 years. In the rural communities families with eight and more children are not unusual.

Ethnic groups

The people in the province are mainly indigenous citizens of Quechua descent. Quechua is the language which the majority of the population learnt to speak in childhood, 8.62% of the residents started speaking in Spanish.
Because of the migration of a high number of rural people to the towns the Spanish language is getting more and more influence. School children are taught bilingually by law.

Political division

Chumbivilcas is one of 13 provinces of the Cusco Region. It is divided into eight districts: