Cali

Cali is a department capital in southwestern Colombia, situated along the Cali River in the Cauca River valley. The settlement took its name from an indigenous language spoken in the river basin. Dancers gather each year for the World Salsa Festival, an international competition featuring rapid footwork and live salsa orchestras.

Sebastián de Belalcázar founded the settlement in 1536 during his march across the southwestern Andes. The Spanish crown incorporated the town within the Province of Popayán, where farming estates supplied grain and livestock to highland mining camps. Coffee cultivation along the cordillera stimulated regional commerce in the late 19th century. Departmental reorganizations established Cali as the capital of Valle del Cauca in 1910. The departmental assembly and supreme magistrates handle regional administration from the central government palace. A rail corridor to the seaport of Buenaventura opened in the 1910s, speeding exports across the Pacific.

Sugar mills across the flat valley floor extract sucrose and fuel ethanol from irrigated cane fields. Carvajal, established locally in the early 20th century, manufactures corrugated cardboard packaging and commercial printing papers. Colombina makes wrapped fruit candies, chocolate confectionery, and fruit preserves. Tecnoquímicas formulates generic prescription antibiotics and therapeutic skin care ointments. Laboratorios Baxter produces intravenous therapy solutions and dialysis equipment. Freight warehouses around the northern boundary transfer goods between the maritime terminal at Buenaventura and Andean commercial centers.

Cristo Rey stands 26 m (85 ft) above the western ridges on the summit of Cerro de los Cristales, sculpted by Alfeo Paoletti from reinforced concrete. Iglesia de la Ermita presents neo-Gothic spires and Italian marble altars completed in the 1940s to replace an earlier sanctuary destroyed by tremors. Universidad del Valle maintains laboratories for engineering and agronomy across its southern campus grounds. The Caliwood Museum preserves vintage cinematographic projectors, movie cameras, and historic film reels from Colombian productions.