Xichú

Xichú sits in the far northeast corner of Guanajuato at 1,302 metres, in a municipality that lies entirely inside the Sierra Gorda de Guanajuato Biosphere Reserve. Before the Spanish arrived the area was called Maxichú, a name usually rendered as "my grandmother's brotherhood", a nod to the Chichimec people who lived here. The town itself counts 1,738 residents and the municipality 11,143 across 80 localities, so Xichú works as the service centre for the whole sierra.

What sets it apart is its music. The huapango arribeño, a variant of the huapango that began taking shape in the 18th century, is played and sung here with improvised verse. The big event is the topada: two groups of huapangueros challenge each other in rhymed stanzas while the crowd dances. At the year-end festival the topada starts at midnight on 31 December, with the New Year fireworks, and runs well into the morning of 1 January. Los Leones de la Sierra de Xichú, led by Guillermo Velázquez, have spent more than thirty years carrying the tradition across Mexico and abroad.

The December festival honours the older huapangueros and marks the founding of the town; it has included a procession to the cemetery, blessing of offerings and a "Diálogo de Tradiciones" of improvised poetry. The other date in the calendar is the patron saint's feast of San Francisco de Asís on 3 October. His parish church, with an octagonal dome and artwork inside, is the most recognisable building in the centre, and the main square is named for Fernando Rosas.

The terrain is pure sierra: the municipality ranges from roughly 826 to 2,400 metres, with a semi-dry temperate climate, summer rain, hot afternoons in May (recorded highs up to 38 °C) and cold early mornings in January.