Coquimatlán

Coquimatlán is the seat of the municipality of the same name, in the middle of Colima state, a short way southwest of the capital. The name comes from Nahuatl and means roughly 'place where wood pigeons are caught'. The first settlement stood between the Comala stream and the Armería river until a flood on the stream wiped it out and the town moved to its present site; the Spanish renamed it San Pedro Coquimatlán.

The railway made the town. A narrow-gauge line arrived in 1889 and the standard-gauge line to Guadalajara in 1908; the tracks still run along the east side of town, now for freight only. A four-lane road has linked it to Colima since 1987, and at the town's entrance a University of Colima campus holds the schools of chemistry, mechanical and electrical engineering, civil engineering and architecture. The farmland around grows limes, maize and rice, and raises cattle.

Local faith centres on the Señor de la Expiración, a crucified Christ also known as the 'Travelling' or 'Pilgrim' Christ. Its pilgrim replica tours the municipality's villages every year, with a novena and a fiesta in each, and since the early 1980s it spends two months with emigrants in Los Angeles. The tour ends on the Tuesday after January 6, when the image is carried from the town to its sanctuary at Lo de Villa with dance troupes, nativity plays and a fair. At the table, the local pride is river prawns in garlic or in soup, along with tamales of chigüilín (a river fish), menudo and pepena.