Extremadura
Extremadura is an
autonomous community of
Spain. It includes the
provinces of
Cáceres and
Badajoz.
Some important cities are
Cáceres,
Badajoz,
Plasencia and
Mérida, the capital of the autonomous community. For other municipalities, see lists by province:
*
List of municipalities in Badajoz*
List of municipalities in CáceresExtremadura borders
Portugal to the west. It is an important area for wildlife, particularly with the major reserve at
Monfragüe.
Badajoz and Cáceres are, respectively, the
largest and second-largest provinces of Spain.
Lusitania, an ancient
Roman province approximately including current day
Portugal (except for the northern area today known as
Norte Region), and a central western portion of the current day Spain, covered in those times today's Autonomous Community of Extremadura.
Mérida (capital of Extremadura), became the capital of the Roman Lusitania province, and one of the most important cities in the
Roman Empire.
Extremadura was the source of many of the most famous Spanish conquerors ("
conquistadores") and settlers in America.
Hernán Cortés,
Francisco Pizarro,
Pedro de Alvarado,
Pedro de Valdivia were all born in Extremadura and many towns and cities in America carry a name from their homeland:
Mérida is the name of the administrative capital of Extremadura, and also of important cities in Mexico and Venezuela;
Medellín is now a little town in Extremadura, but also the name of the
second largest city in Colombia;
Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico and its name is due to a transcription mistake of
Alburquerque, another town in Extremadura. The two (to date) Spanish
astronauts,
Miguel López-Alegría and
Pedro Duque, also have family connections in Extremadura. King
Ferdinand V died in the village of Madrigalejo,
Cáceres in
1516.
Pedro de Valdivia founded numerous cities in
Chile with names from small villages in Extremadura, such as
Valparaiso,
Valdivia and
La Serena. The capital
Santiago de Chile was founded as "Santiago de Nueva Extremadura" (Santiago of New Extremadura).
Extremadura should not be confused with
Estremadura, a historical province of
Portugal. During the
Reconquest, "Extremadura" was the word used to name the land bordering the Christian frontier opposed to
Moorish resistance, so for a time Extremadura was the name for the present province of
Salamanca. (The present
Cáceres was called "Transierra Leonesa", and the present
Badajoz was a Moorish kingdom with the same name.)
Extremadura is the poorest region in
Spain.
The Extremadura Regional Government has authored its own
Linux distribution,
gnuLinEx. Following the last board meeting of the Government held
June 25,
2006, the councillor for Infrastructures and Technological Development, Luis Millán de Vázquez de Miguel,
announced (
spanish) that a version of gnuLinEx, adapted for the public administration, will be established as the obligatory operating system in workplaces of the civil servants of the
Junta and that the
operating system will be gradually introduced to all administrative organizations of the Junta de Extremadura.
: "...possesses a marked aspiration for
f h, and employs
i u for
e o as finals; while modifying variously medial unaccented vowels as
andaluz also does. The region is sparsely populated for various reasons: it was much thinned by the emigration to America...the language also shows remarkable archaisms. To the north of Cáceres in Plasencia, Coria and Garrovillas, the medieval distinction between voiced
z and voiceless
ç remains perceptible...Extremeño is in other respects a dialect of transition between andaluz and the patois of southern
León.":
Source: Entwistle, William J.
The Spanish Language. (pp. 223–224)
See also: Extremaduran language*
Music of Extremadura
