San Francisco del Oro

San Francisco del Oro is the seat of one of Chihuahua's smallest municipalities, at the far south of the state close to the Durango line. The town spreads over low hills at 1,942 meters in the Parral valley, ringed by the Santa Bárbara, El Astillero and La Sauceda ranges, and the creeks that cross the municipality are among the first headwaters of the Parral River. About 4,400 people live here.

The place began as a mine. In 1658 a Spanish miner named Francisco Molina struck the vein that the settlement grew around, and the town carries his first name. For close to three centuries it was governed from Santa Bárbara, until it became a municipality in its own right in 1927. On July 11, 1934, Section 20 of the national miners' union was founded here, and the date still anchors the local calendar: the Feria Minera runs from July 11 to 18. Mining never stopped; the mine is one of Minera Frisco's producing units today, and the municipal coat of arms shows its two main mines, Francisco and Clarines, along with the buckets that carry the ore.

What visitors notice first is the aerial cableway that runs right over town, its buckets carrying metal from the mine above the rooftops. In the center stands the parish church of San Francisco de Asís, whose saint is honored on October 4, and the first week of November brings an autumn festival. This is a baseball town: its team, Frisco, has stood out in regional, state and national tournaments and produced players such as Abraham Pérez Villegas and Alfredo "Indio" Mejía.

Food follows northern mining-town lines: beef barbacoa, frijoles charros stewed with chorizo, bacon, ham and sausage, beef puchero, tamales, enchiladas and burritos. Local crafts include stone and wood carving, embossed aluminum, little baskets made from eggshell, macramé and sugar figures. The climate is temperate, averaging 16 °C, with summer highs that can touch 39 °C and winter frosts down to −12 °C.