Irapuato

Irapuato is the second-largest city in Guanajuato, with 452,090 people at the 2020 census, spread across the middle of the Bajío at the foot of Cerro de Arandas between the Silao and Guanajuato rivers. Downtown streets follow a tangled 'broken plate' layout that opens out into modern boulevards. The city's nickname comes from its fields: strawberries have been grown here since 1852, when a resident named Nicolás Tejeda brought in two dozen French plants. Once the Central railway arrived, the fruit was shipped to Mexico City, and later freezing and packing plants grew up around the crop.

The city keeps 15 February 1547 as its founding date, when it was the Congregación de San Marcos de Irapuato. Local tradition credits Vasco de Quiroga, the first bishop of Michoacán, with its first church, and the Templo del Hospitalito dates from that period. It was built for a hospital serving Tarascan people and holds a Christ figure modelled in maize paste. In 1810 Miguel Hidalgo passed through on his way to attack Guanajuato and was joined by the Dragones del Príncipe regiment stationed here. Soon after, Agustín de Iturbide ran the Bajío military command from the town. Irapuato became a city in 1893. In 1915 its railway yard was Álvaro Obregón's staging point in the campaign against Pancho Villa. In August 1973 three dams upstream on the Silao River burst and flooded the city, knocking down hundreds of houses. The La Purísima and El Conejo dams now hold back the floodwater.

Today the economy runs on agribusiness, car and chemical plants and services, and the city hosts the yearly Expo Agroalimentaria farm show. For visitors the draw is a walkable centre: the Plaza de los Fundadores, the cathedral of the Limpia Concepción facing the dancing-water fountain, the Dolphin Fountain that Emperor Maximilian donated in 1864, and churches such as San Francisco, with paintings attributed to Tresguerras. The Strawberry Fair in March draws hundreds of thousands of people, and on 5 January a parade of floats for the Three Kings crosses town. Strawberries and cream are sold all over the city.