Bello (, ) is a town and municipality in Antioquia Department, Colombia and is a suburb of Medellín, the department capital. Bello is part of The Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley in the department of Antioquia. It is bordered on the north by the municipality of San Pedro de los Milagros, on the east by the municipality of Copacabana, on the south by the municipality of Medellín and on the west by the municipalities of Medellín and San Jerónimo. It is the center of the development in the north of the Aburrá Valley (), and as a member of the Metropolitan Area of Aburrá Valley, or AMVA (), some public services are regulated for the Metropolitan Area. There are several nicknames for the municipality: Imperio del Cacique Niquia (Cacique Niquia's Empire), Cuna de Marco Fidel Suárez ("Marco Fidel Suárez's cradle"), "Ciudad de los artistas" ("Artist's city"). History Meaning "Beautiful" in English, Bello was founded in 1676 as "Hato Viejo" to later change its name in honor to Andrés Bello becoming a city in 1913. The city is also known as the "City of Artists" in Colombia. Its current mayor is Carlos Alirio Muñoz López. In July 1541, troops under the command of Jerónimo Luis Tejelo (Deputy Marshal to Jorge Robledo) found the wide valley of Los Aburrá inhabited by indigenous farmers who had "a habitat organized in groups with scattered houses, forming clusters of houses". This was especially true in the town of Niquías, which occupied the territory now called Bello. In 1574, the Spanish subject Gaspar de Rodas requested a land grant for the Aburrá Valley from the town hall of Santa Fe de Antioquia in order to establish therein "herds of livestock and agricultural plots", in order to provide food for the conquest. He was awarded the territories from the hill or "Asientos viejos de Aburrá" – an area which is now occupied by the Medellin town center – down, including the Niquía territory. In 1576, the captain of Rodas came to exercise control over the area from the Spanish Crown, permitting the use of the territory for corrals, ranches and flocks. From 1613 onward, the area began to be called Hatoviejo instead of Hato de Rodas or Hato de Aburrá to distinguish it from later herds. In this context the colonizers exercised their chivalry, understood as "that noble philosophy that reacted against innovations." Thus they endowed