Iguala

Iguala de la Independencia is a hot lowland city in northern Guerrero, about 190 km from Mexico City on Highway 95, and the third-largest city in the state; the municipality had 154,173 people in 2020. Its place in Mexican history comes from 1821. On 24 February Agustín de Iturbide, with the insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero, proclaimed here the Plan de Iguala, which ended the long War of Independence, and the local tailor José Magdaleno Ocampo made the first national flag, the green, white and red banner of the Three Guarantees. On 2 March the Ejército Trigarante formed up on the old Plaza de Armas, today's zócalo, to swear allegiance to the plan and the flag, and Iguala calls itself the birthplace of the flag. When Guerrero state was created in 1849, Iguala was designated its first capital.

The centre is shaded by tamarind trees, 32 of them planted around the main square in 1812, which earned Iguala the nickname 'la ciudad tamarindera'. Local legend says one of them is a female 'tamarinda', and couples who kiss beneath it are bound to marry. Beside the square stands the neoclassical Parroquia de San Francisco de Asís, vaulted from 1850 with help from a wealthy resident of the Juanacate barrio, and the Museo de la Bandera y Santuario de la Patria, opened in 1982, displays replicas of every historic Mexican flag, Trigarante uniforms and copies of the Plan de Iguala and Morelos's Sentimientos de la Nación. A pink-stone flag monument dates from 1942, and the Franciscan church of Santa María de la Asunción from around 1539. On Cerro Tehuehe above the city, the monumental flagpole, raised in 1998, is 113.10 m tall and flies a flag of 55 by 31.43 m. Iguala is also a centre of gold jewellery, a craft that began here in the 1920s.

The Feria de la Bandera runs from the second week of February into early March, opening with a parade through the historic centre and fireworks, and offering a livestock show, a cockfighting palenque and concerts. On 4 October, the feast of St Francis is marked by the 'día de los locos' parade of costumed characters. The city is hot all year, above 30 °C every month and up to 37–39 °C in April and May, with rain from June to October. Iguala is also known for the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers' college here in September 2014, which led to years of protests.