Cortazar

The Otomí called this village Yah Hiú Degnó and the Nahuas called it Amolli, both after the amole, a soapy plant that no longer grows here. That became San José de los Amoles, the town organised by Franciscan friars in the early 18th century: local tradition puts its founding on 5 May 1721, though records in the Franciscan archive at Celaya point to 1718, and the parish's oldest baptism records date from 1711. On 16 March 1821 Lieutenant Colonel Luis Cortazar y Rábago joined Iturbide's Plan of Iguala here, the first declaration of independence on Guanajuato soil, and in 1857 the state legislature renamed the town after him. It became a city in 1928.

With some 69,000 residents, the town hugs the Laja River. The centre is laid out around the Plaza de la Constitución, with its garden and arcades; facing it is the parish church of San José, whose present building was begun in 1874, and a few blocks away is the Guadalupe parish with its bell tower. Over the river hangs the suspension bridge opened by President Álvaro Obregón in 1922; during the opening ceremony one end sagged a foot or two under the weight of the crowd. It was dismantled and restored in 2020-2021 and is now for pedestrians only. A statue of Cortazar y Rábago stands at the Centro Cultural.

What sets Cortazar apart are two crafts brought by the Franciscans. One is flaked wax: starting on the Thursday of Corpus Christi and for nine days, each trade guild parades at night with towering candles covered in wax figures, which are then offered at the San José church. The other is alfeñique: at the All Saints fair, which opens on 1 November, artisans fill the main square with moulded, hand-painted sugar-paste lambs, along with little skulls and hens. Local dishes include roast kid, red enchiladas, crisp stuffed gorditas and peanuts pickled in vinegar.