Jamay

Jamay is the seat of the municipality of the same name in Jalisco's Ciénega region, at the eastern end of Lake Chapala, about 1,530 metres up and close to the Michoacán line. It had 18,607 people at the 2020 census, nearly three quarters of the municipality. It sits on the road between Ocotlán and La Barca, amid flat maize and wheat fields.

The origin of the name (Xaiman, Xamayan) is debated: some translate it as "place of King Xama", others as "place where adobes are made". A report from 1585 says the town was settled by people from Xocotitlán and that its earlier inhabitants were mostly traders; local tradition holds that the lord of Cuitzeo sent families here to watch for Purépecha raids along the Lerma, Zula and Santiago rivers. In the 17th century it answered to the alcaldía mayor of Poncitlán and the Augustinian friars of Ocotlán, and its people lived by fishing the lake and river. Once a dependency of Ocotlán, it became a municipality on 6 April 1914. José Guadalupe Zuno, governor of Jalisco from 1923 to 1927, came from here.

Jamay's signature piece stands in the middle of the main plaza: a cylindrical lime-and-stone monument about twenty metres tall, built between 1875 and 1879 at the initiative of the priest José María Zárate in memory of Pope Pius IX. Its six tiers carry figures of Victory in niches, eagles, cherubs, the papal arms, swans, lion heads and ships' prows, and the top holds the pope himself, quill in hand. The same plaza has a stone sundial given by the Augustinians in 1766 and busts of Madero, Cuauhtémoc, Hidalgo and Juárez by the sculptor Rafael Sahagún Ortega from 1954. Nearby are the ruins of the old church, whose tower keeps a carved window with a Franciscan cord and the date 1766.

The lake shapes daily life and the menu. A renovated malecón opened in February 2022, with walkways, gardens, an open-air restaurant area and boat landings. The stretch of road between Jamay and Ocotlán is lined with lakeside restaurants and botaneros serving carp birria, charred carp, caldo michi, charales, ceviche and tilapia al mojo or a la diabla. The local drink is the faustina, tequila with cola, citrus and salt, garnished with arrayán berries. Two lookouts give views over the lake and town: the Cerro de la Santa Cruz and the chapel of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Petates were once woven from lake reeds, and today local workshops carve cedar and pine furniture with flowers and animals in relief.