thumb|200px|Santiago Sacatepéquez kite festival, 2007

Santiago Sacatepéquez () is a town, with a population of 24,100 (2018 census), and a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Sacatepéquez. It is well known for a kite festival held here annually on November 1.

History

Santiago Sacatepéquez is located in a valley that the Spanish conquistadores called "de Sacatepéquez" (English: Valle of Sacatepéquez) in the 1520s. That valley was bordered by the valley of Xilotepeque on the West, those of Mixco and las Vacas on the North, and by the Chiquimula province and the South and East. The town was described as a rich town with several hundred families and as having "cold climate" by Irish friar Thomas Gage in his 1648 book about his travels through America in the 1620s and 1630s.

In the 1540s, bishop Francisco Marroquín split the ecclesiastical administration of the central valley of Guatemala between the Order of Preachers and the Franciscans, assigning Sumpango's curato to the former. In 1638, the Dominicans separated their large doctrines in groups revolving around six convents:

{| class="wikitable"

|+Order of Preachers convents and doctrines in 1638

|-

!Convent

!Doctrines or curatos

!Convent

!Doctrines or curatos

|-

!style="background:lemonchiffon;" rowspan=3|Guatemala

|rowspan=3|

  • Chimaltenango
  • Jocotenango
  • Sumpango
  • San Juan Sacatepéquez
  • San Pedro Sacatepéquez
  • Santiago Sacatepéquez
  • Rabinal
  • San Martín Jilotepeque
  • Escuintla
  • Milpas Altas
  • Milpas Bajas
  • San Lucas Sacatepéquez
  • Santo Domingo neighborhood

!style="background:lemonchiffon;"|Amatitlán

|

  • Amatitlán
  • Petapa
  • Mixco
  • San Cristóbal

|-

!style="background:lemonchiffon;"|Verapaz

|

  • Cahabón
  • Cobán
  • Chamelco
  • San Cristóbal
  • Tactic

|-

!style="background:lemonchiffon;"|Sonsonate

|

  • Nahuizalco
  • Tacuxcalco

|-

!style="background:lemonchiffon;"|San Salvador

|

  • Apastepeque
  • Chontales
  • Cojutepeque
  • Cuscatlán
  • Milpas Bajas
  • Tonacatepeque

!style="background:lemonchiffon;"|Sacapulas

|

  • Sacapulas
  • Cunén
  • Nebaj
  • Santa Cruz
  • San Andrés Sajcabajá
  • Zacualpa
  • Chichicastenango

|}

Ecclesiastic historian Domingo Juarros wrote that in 1754, by virtue of a royal order of the borbon reforms of king Carlos III all curatos and doctrines of the regular clergy were moved on to the secular clergy. Also, in 1766 the Chimaltenango and Sacatepéquez municipalities tried to join, but it did not work out and they remained split until after independence from Spain in 1821.

Education

{| class="wikitable" align=center style='font-size:0.9em'

|+Education percentages

|-

!Level

!Male

!Female

|-

!style="background:lemonchiffon;"|Preschool

|52.2 % ||51.7 %

|-

!style="background:lemonchiffon;"|Elementary

|93.1 % ||93.5 %

|-

!style="background:lemonchiffon;"|Junior high

|33.9 % ||28.0 %

|-

!style="background:lemonchiffon;"|High school

|1.6 % ||1.2 %

|}

{| class="wikitable" align=center style='font-size:0.9em'

|+Illiteracy by gender

|-

!Male

!Female

|-

| 89.8% || 73.8%

|}

{| class="wikitable" align=center style='font-size:0.9em'

|+Illiteracy human settlements

|-

!Urban population

!Rural population

|-

| 25% || 53%

|}

Climate

Santiago Sacatepéquez has a subtropical highland climate (Köppen: Cwb).

Geographic location

thumb|200px|Santiago Sacatepéquez qualitative map.