Hidalgo del Parral

History

The Spanish entered what is now Chihuahua through this region, home to the Conchos people, and silver mines were working at nearby Santa Bárbara by 1567. Around 1629 to 1631, Juan Rangel de Biezma found rich silver veins on the La Prieta hill and registered the mine as La Negrita. That strike was the start of the Real de Minas de San José del Parral. Local legend says he named the hill and mine after a beautiful indigenous woman he met there.

Miners, soldiers, farmers and merchants poured in, and Parral became the most important settlement in the north of New Spain. From 1640 to 1731 the governors of Nueva Vizcaya kept their seat here, and in 1686 the first school in present-day Chihuahua opened in the town. The mines depended on harsh labor, much of it done by indigenous workers drawn from many regions and by enslaved Africans. Grain farms, cattle ranches and ore-processing haciendas spread around the town to keep it supplied.

After independence the name was changed to honor Miguel Hidalgo. In the early 20th century the La Prieta mine was run by the American company ASARCO, which shipped the ore to the United States. When the silver boom ended around 1930 the town declined sharply, though mining continued in surrounding districts. Parral remade itself as a commercial center for southern Chihuahua and northern Durango, and was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2023.