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Heredia
It is located at 10°00'N 84°12'W,
at an elevation of 1,140 metres (approx. 3,730 ft) above sea level. In 2004 it
had a population of some 42,600 people.
The city was founded in the
1570s as Cubujuquí. It later changed its name to Villavieja before
adopting its current name in 1763. For a brief period in the 1830s, Heredia
served as the national capital.
Heredia is a sister city of Marietta,
Georgia in the United States. Heredia also is home to one of Costa Ricas
largest colleges, the National University of Costa Rica, that accepts a lot of
international students.
Heredia is known as "La ciudad de las flores",
mistranslated as "the city of flowers". The real meaning derived from some
pretty girls whose last name was Flores and thus Heredia became known as "The
city of the Flores girls".
Also, "Heredianos", as its citizens are
known, are nationally known as the ones who "walk in the middle of the street".
No historic reference has been found to this matter, although the state of
their sidewalks/pavements is a very good reason why it's safer to rather walk
on the street.
Heredia is also where a group of youths once known
simply as "home" were born and got together in their teens (and early twenties)
and decided to use the small city streets, walls and public property as their
canvas for their artistic outlets, be it recreational skating, comic book
publishing, fanzine creation, music performances (with the following groups
attached to "home studios": botas de hule, complot, sirope, cuarto oscuro),
collaboration with magazines (of which the most famous article is by proxy at
the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame) or simply killing time at the now mythical and
inaccesible "Omar's Corner" . "home" has nowadays evolved into "El Bunker",
"Los Aliados", "Home Photo and Design" and "Home Totaldominion".
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