Anniversary of the political creation of Madre de Dios region (1912)

According to the newspapers and writings of the time, since the existence of the Inca Empire numerous expeditions were made in the area that today includes Madre de Dios, in order to extract the riches of this Amazonian region. Some legends speak of a place with a lot of gold called Paititi. Most of these expeditions failed. The Incas Sinchi Roca, Inca Yupanqui, as well as Pedro de Candia tried to reach this area.

expeditions One of them was commanded by Colonel Faustino Maldonado, who traveled for the first time in all its extension the Madre de Dios River, until its union with the Madeira River, in Brazil. Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald, in 1894, came to Madre de Dios in search of rubber,

, the first commissioner of the region, Juan Villalta, wrote -with a knife- in a tree “Puerto Maldonado”, thus founding this city on July 10, 1902.

According to a legend that appears in the archives of Father Aza’s Paucartambo (1825 – 1848), the origin of the name of this region is due to the fact that an image of the Virgin Mary was found on one of the banks of the river.

Another delegation that stood out was the representation of the Japanese colony in Madre de Dios. This came to the region in 1923, during the government of Leguía, mainly to work in the extraction of rubber.

Several of these families settled in the communities and the city of Puerto Maldonado, mainly engaged in agriculture, wood carpentry and other manual activities.