EL BANCO

city, Magdalena departamento, northern Colombia, at the junction of the Magdalena and Csar rivers. The conquistador Gonzalo Jimnez de Quezada arrived at the site in 1537 and found the Indian village of Sompalln; he called it Barbudo (Bearded One) because of its bearded chief. In 1544 Alonzo de San Martn renamed it Tamalameque (now the name of a town a few miles to the southeast). In 1749 Jos Domingo Ortiz, a freed black slave carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary, led a group of settlers to the locality that became known as Nuestra Seora de la Candelaria de El Banco (Our Lady of Candlemas of the Riverbank). Fishing and stock raising are the chief occupations, although small factories produce mattresses and brooms. Pop. (1985) 23,807.