Arandas

Arandas is the seat of the municipality of the same name in the Altos Sur region of Jalisco, at about 2,050 metres above sea level. At the 2020 census the town had 59,648 people, roughly three quarters of the municipality's population. This is blue agave and tequila country: the town's coat of arms shows a primitive still distilling agave juice, and distilleries around it include La Alteña, founded in 1937 and the maker of Tapatío and Tequila Ocho. The town motto, "poor land, hard-working people", says a lot about how it sees itself.

Arandas was born out of a dispute. Around 1760 two families, the Hernández Gamiño of the Santa María ranch and the Camarenas of the Ramblazos settlement, each wanted the new village founded on their land, and the Royal Audiencia of Guadalajara ruled that it should be built at an equal distance from both. By tradition the founding took place on 12 December 1761 on land of the Santa Ana Apacueco hacienda, under the name Santa María de Guadalupe de los Arandas, after the Aranda family who lived on the site. It got its own town council in 1844 and became a city in 1969. Since 1976 a crater on Mars has carried its name.

The building that dominates the main square is the church of San José Obrero, begun in 1879 in neo-Gothic style and pink stone, with two towers of pointed windows and a large rose window; work stopped several times and it has never been fully finished. Beside it stands the Reina del Silencio (Queen of Silence), a bell of about 15 tonnes cast from 1969 in Carlos Arteaga Jiménez's foundry in Guadalajara, using gold, silver and money donated by residents. It is said to be the largest bell in Latin America, but it was taken down from the tower for fear the structure would not hold its weight. The parish church of Santa María de Guadalupe, an 18th-century Baroque building with a stone portal, is the oldest church in town.

The big festival is the fair of the Virgin of Guadalupe, 4–12 January, with pilgrimages, floats, cockfights, horse races and funfair rides; on 11 January the "absent sons" who have moved away come home. Local food means carnitas, chicharrones and Arandas-style birria, plus sweets such as cocadas, jamoncillos and cajeta.