Chupícuaro

Chupícuaro, in the municipality of Acámbaro, has about 2,600 residents and sits at 1,937 metres, according to the 2020 census. The name, though, is older than the village you can visit. The original settlement stood on the Lerma River where the Coroneo (or Tigre) joins it, and the burial grounds found there gave their name to the Chupícuaro culture, a Late Preclassic pottery tradition of west and central Mexico. Its figurines, with angular female forms and geometric decoration, now sit in museums such as the Museo Amparo in Puebla and the Louvre.

The Solís dam, built in the 1940s, covered most of that ground. The exact year is given as 1946 or 1949, but the order of events is clear: INAH managed to excavate some tombs before the flooding, and the villagers had to move. The new village, Nuevo Chupícuaro, was founded in 1946. The name comes from Purépecha chupicua, a morning-glory (Ipomoea) used for blue dye, plus ro, place: roughly "place of little bells" or "blue place".

What is left of that past is small and mostly in the village itself. In 2013 the reservoir dropped low enough for the towers of the old church to be recovered and brought to Nuevo Chupícuaro. To see the archaeology, go to the local museum in Acámbaro, the municipal seat; the original site is still under the reservoir.