Its history goes back to the etymology of its name "GUALACEO", a canary word modified from the Chibcha word Gualaca meaning “macaw’s settlement”, it was a Cañari settlement for long time, belonging to the Kingdom of Quito until it was conquered by the Incas.
In the year of 1531 - 1532, the Inca Empire of Tahuantinsuyo arrives to its end, with the death of the last monarch Atahualpa, in the hands of the conquerors that came from the old world, Sebastián de Benalcázar with its presence marks the start of the Spanish colonization.
With the arrival of the Spaniards begins the phase of the colony. The conquerors get to all the corners of the Kingdom of Quito, and Sebastián of Banalcázar assisted by the caciques (overlords) Llivicura (Gualaceo) and Duma (Sigsig) and other cañaris, they explored the valley of the Tomebamba and they rose for the slopes of Dotaxí, Cristo Rey and they arrived to Gualaceo, marvelous place by their landscapes and rivers that hallucinated for the shine of gold.
This happened in the month of April 1534, in which Benalcázar raises with their troop the first camp of mining settlement at the edges of the wider river, which is named Santa Barbara, Benalcázar also named the tributaries San Francisco and San José while the other 2 tributaries still conserve their canary name: Guaymincay and Shío.
The Spaniards remained in the valley of Gualaceo for many years, since 1534 until 1549 does not exist documents that describe Gualaceo as an organized population, but was a mining camp.
210 years since the first mining settlement passed, until July, 1757 where Gualaceo is elevated to ecclesiastical parish of Cuenca, governed by a party judge lieutenant Manuél Dávila Chica and its vicar José Villavicencio.
Manuel Dávila Chica, in his quality of leader of that region contributed for the independence of Cuenca, with men, horses, wood of cedar and walnut and food.
The
