Juventino Rosas

The long name, Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas, is a political compromise. The town began as Santa Cruz de Comontuoso: in September 1717 house plots were handed to the Otomí tenants of the Comontuoso hacienda, a viceregal decree of 1718 authorised an Indian town, and the formal founding took place on Sunday 3 May 1721, Holy Cross Day, the hacienda's patron feast. Its limits were marked with stone crosses 600 varas from the centre in each direction. It became a villa in 1886 and a city in 1912 under the name Santa Cruz de Galeana. In 1939 the state legislature renamed it Juventino Rosas after the musician born here, but many residents would not give up the Holy Cross, and in 1956 the two names were joined.

José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas was born in the town on 25 January 1868 to an Otomí family. In 1888 he wrote a waltz he called Junto al manantial, which went around the world as Sobre las olas (Over the Waves); he sold the rights for 45 pesos to pay off debts. He died in Batabanó, Cuba, in 1894, aged 26, and since 1939 his remains have rested in the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons in Mexico City. In the arcaded main square, the bandstand and a statue honour him.

The parish church of the Holy Cross dominates the centre. It is built of pink stone, neoclassical outside and Ionic inside; work began in 1798, stopped in 1822, resumed in 1824 and ended in 1842. The plans are attributed to Tresguerras on grounds of style, though no document proves it. In the atrium, a fountain and the Holy Cross monument mark the spot where the town was founded. To the north is the Guadalupe sanctuary, begun in 1894 and finished after the Revolution. About 8 km away, near El Naranjillo, Cerro del Indio holds the looted remains of two Postclassic Otomí pyramids. The town is known in the region for its herbal medicine. In May, the Holy Cross feast fills the streets with flower-decked crosses, processions and dances.