During the pre-Columbian period, the area currently occupied Cúcuta was populated by indigenous Motilones Chitareros and belonging to the Chibcha linguistic family and Caribbean descent. The tribes were characterized by nomadic customs and practiced agriculture and handicrafts. These indigenous people settled on the banks of the rivers Zulia, Tarra, Sardinata, Catatumbo, Pamplonita and Tachira.
During the early seventeenth century much of the valleys of Cucuta were owned by Captain Cristóbal de Araque Ponce de Leon. The land passed by inheritance to his son Fernando de Araque Ponce de Leon, who owned all the territory between the Valley of Cucuta to the town of San Jose, jurisdiction of the city of San Faustino. These fields had been donated to the master Araque by the Governor of the Province of Mérida New Cries of the (local authority as part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada) by means of vouchers issued the September 9, 1630.
The constant hostility of the Indians of the town of Cucuta Motilones against the inhabitants of the valley and their economic ambitions, were key factors in the past requested the construction of a parish that had the name of San Jose and dwell in the kingdom if they obtained license Spain.
Whereas white neighbors to the people of Cúcuta would request the erection of a parish and they had chosen Guasimal site on the banks of the river Pamplonita, Juana Rangel de Cuellar won the June 17, 1733 average stay in cattle ( 782 hectares) on the site Tonchala, which had a value of 50 patacones, [20] for the construction of a church and a place for Spanish families to settle in what is now the Barrio San Luis. It was the seat stay most notably agricultural and livestock Rangel de Cuellar, a prominent family descended from Captain Alonso Pamplona Rangel, founder of the Palmas Salazar in 1583.
