Jilotlán de los Dolores

Jilotlán de los Dolores is the seat of a municipality of more than 1,500 km² in southeast Jalisco, right against Michoacán, at about 760 metres above sea level. At the 2020 census the town had 1,639 inhabitants and the municipality 9,425. The Nahuatl name translates as "place where jilotes abound", the tender young corn, and the site is said to have been dedicated to Xiloléote, protector of the corn flower; it was also known as San Miguel de Jilotlán.

The history is long. It was an important indigenous lordship covering 22 villages, with a chief named Xicoténcatl subject to Tamazula; the Spaniards conquered it in 1523 and the town was founded in 1532. Between the present town and Tepalcatepec the cut-stone walls of a ruined temple still stand on the site of the original Jilotlán, now called Pueblo Viejo. It passed from Michoacán to Nueva Galicia in 1795; in 1832 the parish moved to the spot called Dolores, which gave the town its present name, and in 1849 it became a municipality.

Local work includes huaraches, cowhide stools and hand embroidery. Places of interest include the church of San Miguel Arcángel, the Pueblo Viejo temple, the Hacienda de Guachinanguillo, the rock inscriptions at La Loma and the spots of El Soyatal, Huapala and La Muralla. The San Miguel festivities run 1 to 8 May and those of the Virgin of Guadalupe 3 to 12 December.