Bajío

Heartland of México

Puerto Vallarta, Ixtlán del Río, Tequila, Guadalajara, Querétaro, Peralta,
San Miguel de Allende, Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Tlaquepaque, Puerto Vallarta

Ixtlán del Río

The name of Ixtlán is of “náhuatl” origin, composed of the words “Itz-ittztell” meaning obsidian, and “Tlán”, meaning place where it is found. So the name means "place where obsidian is found", or “place of the obsidian knife”. The land is mainly mountainous with some flat lands near the small rivers where the agricultural lands and settlements are located. The important Río Santiago crosses the eastern edge of the municipality. South of the town lies Los Toriles, one of the most important archaeological site in northwestern Mexico. Here is found the temple of Quetzalcoaltl, from the Toltec culture. The ceramic and gold jewelry extracted here can be seen in the Regional Museum of Ixtlán.

Tequila

The area had been long settled – by Chichimeca, Otomi, Toltec, and Nahua Native Americans – when conquistador Cristóbal de Oñate arrived in 1530. A group of Franciscans founded the town of Santiago de Tequila on 15 April 1530. A large area, stretching between the foothills of the Tequila Volcano and the deep valley of the Rio Grande, is inscribed on the World Heritage List as "part of an expansive landscape of blue agave, shaped by the culture of the plant which has been used since the 16th century to produce tequila spirit and over at least 2,000 years to make fermented drinks and cloth. Within the landscape are working distilleries reflecting the growth in the international consumption of tequila which bears this town’s name.

Guadalajara

Mexico’s second largest city is an excellent introduction to this country, with its vibrant historic center, the art and craft markets, its folkloric ballet and mariachi orchestras. The town of Guadalajara was founded in 1531 by Spanish explorer Cristóbal de Oñate. Then between 1531 and 1542 after few relocations, today’s city of Guadalajara was founded at its current site by Crístobal de Oñate on February 14, 1542, by Royal decree of King Charles V. Guadalajara, it is considered the city that most epitomizes the external concept of Mexico propagated by the international mass media (characterized by charros, tequila, sombreros, and mariachis). Some of the main landmarks in Guadalajara historic center are:

  • Guadalajara Cathedral with an eclectic mix of gothic, neoclassical and palladian architecture.
  • Plaza of the Crosses. Four Plazas shaped like a cross with the Cathedral at the center.
  • Plaza de Armas offers one of the best views of the cathedral and the Governor’s Office. It features a French Ironwork from 1885 and four States on the corners of the place symbolizing the Four Seasons.
  • Plaza de la Liberación features two large cup-shaped fountains and a gigantic sculpture of Miguel Hidalgo, the man who signed the Mexican Declaration of Independency on the current Governor’s Office. It also serves as an atrium for the oldest surviving theatre in the city "Teatro Degollado", also it is an usual spot for massive free concerts.
  • Rotonda de los Jalicienses Ilustres serves as a mausoleum for important men and women born in Jalisco, the park around contrasts with the serious aspect of the Mausoleum itself.
  • Palacio de Gobierno is the historical center of the government of the State of Jalisco. Today it is mostly visited for the murals painted there by José Clemente Orozco. The most famous of these is a huge portrait of Miguel Hidalgo in the vault of the old chambers of the state council.
  • Instituto Cultutal Cabañas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, is a cultural and art center where fresco paintings of Jose Clemente Orozco are exhibited.

Tlaquepaque

San Pedro Tlaquepaque, also known as Tlaquepaque. During the 20th century it was absorbed by the outward spread of the state capital and is now a neighbourhood of the Guadalajara conurbation. The name Tlaquepaque derives from Nahuatl and means "place above clay land". The area is famous for its pottery and blown glass.

Tlaquepaque features El Parián, a large plaza flanked by columned arcades and surrounded by restaurants and bars. The main square in the city centre is known as El Jardín ("The Garden"), the main features are the two important churches, El Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Solitude) and San Pedro (Saint Peter), and the Benito Juárez market.

Peralta

A Pre-Columbian site located in the western part of the Bajío Region. It originally occupied more than 20 hectares and was home to over 22 pyramids and a multitude of terraced agricultural fields. The region was settled around 100 AD, reaching its climax between 300 and 650 AD. The discovery of turquoise, copper bells, seashells, and jade in a nearby site indicate an extensive trade network spanning from Guatemala to the Caribbean to New Mexico. The nearby villagers say the site is enchanted by the spirits of its original inhabitants.

Querétaro

The regal city of Querétaro is known for its beautiful colonial architecture and its significance as the place where the conspiracy for independence from Spain germinated. Querétaro Centro Histórico contains a large area designated as UNESCO World Heritage Site and includes the nearby Cerro de las Campanas where Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg was executed.

The city has become a beautiful place to visit, mainly because of the beauty of the historic center. A walk at night in its narrow streets and alleys is a beautiful experience that makes people remember the long struggle for the Mexican independence that began here, as well as the ancient legends that have spread generation after generation by its very proud inhabitants.

Querétaro, formally Santiago de Querétaro, was founded on July 25, 1531. On this date Spanish Conquistador Hernán Pérez Bocanegra y Córdoba arrived with Otomí Indian Conín, the chief of Jilotepec, to found the town of Querétaro. He is said to have won without resorting to arms after seeing a vision of the Cross and Saint James the Great ("Santiago"), after whom the city was named.
In 1656 the city was re-named "The Noble and Loyal City of Santiago of Querétaro", by Viceroy the Duke of Alburquerque. The title was confirmed in 1712 by King Philip V of Spain. In 1726 an aqueduct was constructed, which furnished the city’s water until the 20th century.

On September 13, 1810, Epigmenio González was taken prisoner after starting an insurrection against the oppressive Corregidor Don Miguel Domínguez and for conspiring against the Viceregal government in cooperation with Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, wife of the corregidor, which is represented in the monument to the right. This is considered to be one of the earliest actions of the Mexican independence movement.

In 1847 Querétaro was made capital of the Republic during the United States of America’s invasion in the Mexican-American War. On May 30 1848, the two nations exchanged their ratifications of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in Querétaro, whereby Mexico ceded to the United States its territories in today US states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

In 1867, during the French intervention in Mexico, the city was the last capital of Emperor Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire. The Liberal Republicans defeated the Imperial Conservative forces here, and on June 19 Maximilian was executed with his Generals Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía on the Hill of Bells "Cerro de las Campanas". It became the de facto capital of the Republic for the third time on February 5, 1917, as the Proclamation of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States was established by President Venustiano Carranza at the Constitutional Congress in the city’s Teatro de la República.

Since the 1980s, the city has changed from a medium-sized city to become one of the wealthiest and cleanest cities of Mexico. In the mid 1990s the city was declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. Today, Querétaro is a wealthy city in Latin America in terms of PPP GDP, similar to that of some European countries. Querétaro in some 2007 rankings is considered the second best place in Mexico to do business, after Monterrey and the fifth best in Latin America. The city is known for its high quality of life, having one of the highest per capita incomes of Mexico and Latin America.

San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende it’s a historic town founded in 1542, located in Mexico’s bajío region, which is a relatively flat region with some rolling hills about 2,000 m (7,000 ft) above sea level surrounded by mountains; it is part of the Mexican altiplano.

The town was founded in 1542 by the Franciscan monk Fray Juan de San Miguel. It was an important stopover on the Antiguo Camino Real, part of the silver route from Zacatecas, Zacatecas. The town featured prominently in the Mexican War of Independence. General Ignacio Allende, one of San Miguel’s native sons, was a leading player in the war against Spain for independence. Allende, captured in battle and beheaded, is a national hero. San Miguel el Grande renamed itself "San Miguel de Allende" in 1826 in honor of his actions.

During the Cristero uprising in Mexico, when clergy and their families were persecuted, the grandchildren of Gen. Mariano Escobedo came to San Miguel de Allende, which was conveniently in a secluded condition while verging on being a ghost town.

Declared a national historic monument in 1926 by the Mexican government, development in the historic district is restricted in order to preserve the town’s colonial character. San Miguel de Allende was also named a Pueblo Mágico in 2002. In 2008, San Miguel was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Over the last 50 years, it has become an attractive tourist destination for Mexico City residents and has a large American and Canadian expatriate community composed primarily of retirees.

As of 2006, San Miguel de Allende government officials based on the Mexican census bureau and from US consulate were using the following figures: 80,000 residents within the urban area, 60,000 residents within the several surrounding villages that are a part of San Miguel Municipality and 11 to 12,000 foreign residents at any one time.

Of these foreign residents, 70% are from the United States, 20% are from Canada, and the remaining 10% are from 31 other countries. If the 12,000 foreign residents who live in SMA at any one time are considered as a percentage of the SMA urban population, foreigners make up 15% of the SMA population. San Miguel has a great selection of fine restaurants, good handicraft shops, galleries and numerous art and language schools.

Dolores Hidalgo

Dolores Hidalgo (in full, Dolores Hidalgo Cuna de la Independencia Nacional) is a city at an elevation of about 1980 meters (6480 feet) above sea level. Dolores Hidalgo was named a "Pueblo Mágico" in 2002.

The city was a small town known simply as Dolores when Father Miguel Hidalgo uttered his famous cry for the independence of Mexico (the "Grito de Dolores") there in the early morning hours of September 16, 1810 in front of his parish church. After Mexico achieved independence, the town was renamed "Dolores Hidalgo" in his honor. On September 28, 1810, Hidalgo’s forces killed more than 500 Spaniard and Creole loyalist soldiers during the battle for Dolores; 2,000 Indigenous Mexicans died in the fighting.

The central square of the town, in front of Fr Hidalgo’s historic church, is popular on weekends for the unusual flavors of locally-made ice cream, such as shrimp and tequila, sold by vendors from small barrows. Interred in the towns cemetery one will find

José Alfredo Jiménez, one of Mexicos most beloved singers, as well as her most prolific songwriter and popular composer. Today Dolores Hidalgo is known primarily for its ceramics industry, which provides income to well over half the town’s population. The inexpensive and mass-produced output of the town is marketed throughout the Americas.

Guanajuato

Guanajuato’s narrow, winding streets, many for pedestrians only, mirror a fascinating system of subterranean roads that were once rivers and mines. Steeped in history, it was one of Mexico’s richest cities thanks to its silver mines. The historic town and adjacent mines are a World Heritage Site. Guanajuato was founded in 1554. It is located in one of the richest silver mining areas of Mexico, and is well known for its wealth of fine colonial era Spanish architecture.

The Spanish name "Guanajuato" comes from Quanaxhuato (or Kuanasiutu in a different orthography), meaning "Hill of Frogs" in the local indigenous P’urhépecha language (a large rock formation outside the town looks remarkably like a frog). In the native religion of the P’urhépecha the frog represented the god of wisdom.
The city played a major role in the Mexican War of Independence since it is the capital of the state of Guanajuato in which Miguel Hidalgo started the independence movement. The statue of El Pípila and the Alhóndiga de Granaditas still remind of that time. The city of Guanajuato was the birthplace of artist Diego Rivera, whose house is now a museum.

The city was originally built over the Guanajuato River, which flowed through tunnels underneath the city. Later, engineers built a dam and redirected the river into underground caverns. The tunnels were lit and paved with cobblestones, today this underground road network connected to some old mines carries the majority of cars driving through the city. It is one of the most notable features of the city.

During the final week of July, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende are co-hosts to the Expresión en Corto International Film Festival, a large competitive film festival and one of the most prestigious of its kind in Latin America. The internationally renowned festival is free to the public and screens over 400 films from 10 am until 4 am each day in 16 venues, which include such unusual locations as the subterranean streets and tunnels of Guanajuato, the Guanajuato Mummy Museum and Municipal graveyard or Panteones.

Each October the city holds the Festival Internacional Cervantino, an international arts festival named after Miguel de Cervantes. The festival is a popular draw for students from across central Mexico, as well as participants and spectators from around the world.
Cristo Rey del Cubilete (Christ the King Shrine) is one of Mexico’s most important religious monuments, and is said to mark the geographic center of Mexico. The 65-foot statue atop Cerro del Cubilete is the destination of an annual cabalgata (pilgrimage) every January to celebrate the Epiphany, when thousands of mostly horse-ridding pilgrims ride to the shrine.

In the Panteón catacombs to the west of the city is a famous cemetery noted for the natural mummies produced by unknown means. About 1 in 100 bodies buried here experience natural mummification. In the late 1800s the town instituted a "burial tax" for the families of the deceased. When some of the poorest families were unable to pay the tax, their relatives were dug up and placed on public view in a purpose-built museum. The museum holds 111 corpses resting on velvet pillows and the proceeds from the museum help fund the city’s coffers to a considerable degree.