Celaya

Long before the Spanish arrived, the Otomí called this plain Nat-tha-hi, the place of mesquites or the shade of the mesquite. The present name is traced to a Basque word for flat land, and it fits: Celaya is a level city in the heart of the Bajío, the third largest in Guanajuato state, with about 378,000 people in 2020. It was founded under a mesquite tree in what is now the Zapote neighbourhood; the founding decree was issued on 12 October 1570, twenty-seven ranching families received land, and the first town council sat on 1 January 1571. The settlement existed to protect the silver convoys heading to Guanajuato and Zacatecas.

Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians all built convents here, but the name that shapes the old centre is Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras, a local architect, painter and sculptor. He designed the church of El Carmen, rebuilt after a fire in 1802, whose tall, egg-shaped dome earned him the nickname of the Mexican Michelangelo. He also did the dome and tower of San Francisco, the bridge over the Laja River and the 1822 Independence Column, whose eagle he is said to have turned deliberately to face away from the town hall. He is buried in a mausoleum beside San Francisco.

Military history runs deep. On 21 September 1810 Hidalgo took the city without a fight, and the next day his followers proclaimed him Generalísimo of America next to the San Antonio chapel. In April 1915 Obregón defeated Pancho Villa in the battles of Celaya, roughly 30,000 Villistas against 15,000 Constitutionalists. The railway, industry and, since 2012, a Honda assembly plant followed, so modern Celaya is more of a crossroads than a weekend destination.

Its landmark is the Bola del Agua, a riveted spherical tank 12 metres across on a 35-metre tower, built under the German engineer Enrique Schöndube and opened on 15 September 1910. It still supplies water to the centre, though visitors are still told it is full of cajeta. That cajeta, goat's milk cooked down with sugar in copper pots, is the city's other emblem, sold around the centre and along Calzada Independencia with wooden toys, cardboard masks and leather goods.