Jerécuaro

Jerécuaro, seat of the municipality of the same name, has 8,011 people (2020) and stands at 1,967 m in southeastern Guanajuato, close to the borders with Querétaro and Michoacán. Its Purépecha name translates as place like a nest, which fits: the town nestles among hills of the Sierra de los Agustinos, and three quarters of the municipality is ridges and mesas.

Local tradition dates its Purépecha founding to 23 September 1523, a day marked with a parade since 1994. Around 1526 the area was brought under Spanish rule by the Otomí chief Nicolás de San Luis Montañez, and the town was formally founded in 1572 under Bishop Juan de Medina Rincón. The Franciscans gave it Saint Michael the Archangel as patron. The first church was the Templo del Hospital; then came San Miguel, rebuilt in 1847, and in the 20th century the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Calvario hill, begun in 1919 and finished in 1947. Jerécuaro depended on Acámbaro's church for centuries and only became a parish in 1985. Its first road, to Acámbaro, opened in 1954 under governor José Aguilar y Maya, a native of the town.

Since December 2011 the skyline has been dominated by the Cristo de la Misericordia on top of Cerro del Sombrerete: a figure about 30 m tall and 12 tonnes, made of steel plates by local artist Daniel Rico Patiño, showing Christ stepping down from the cross and blessing with three fingers. A niche at its foot fills with candles and offerings. Near town, the Las Adjuntas reservoir, also called Fray Ángel Juárez after the Franciscan who started it with alms money, irrigates the farmland and is a favorite picnic spot.

Local food includes semitas, corundas, fresh requesón cheese, lamb barbacoa and sweets such as charamuscas, quince paste and black-corn pinole; the town's own pastry is the enatolada, puff pastry topped with clotted cream.