La Mesa Redonda

La Mesa Redonda is the flat-topped hill rising from the Río Lagos valley southwest of the city of Lagos de Moreno, in the Altos de Jalisco. Its summit reaches 2,080 metres above sea level, about 235 metres above the valley floor, and the top is an oval plateau of some 38.7 hectares stretched north to south. It is made of basalt laid down in the Tertiary and Quaternary, and the cliffs around the rim stand out from far away. The nearest settlement is Paso de la Mesa.

The area was settled by the Spanish in 1565, when Pedro de Anda founded the nearby Hacienda El Jaral, and the camino real used by pilgrims walking to the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos ran along the foot of the hill. For generations it was known as the Mesa Redonda de los Villalobos, after the family that held the estate from shortly after 1700 until the late 19th century; today the land is split among several owners and former haciendas such as Lo de Ponce and Churintzio.

Its best-known moment is the battle of the Mesa Redonda, during the second Cristero uprising. From 20 to 22 October 1935, though some accounts date it to 1932, a band of Cristeros led by Martín Díaz dug in on the summit. The army came up with infantry and cavalry while two small aircraft strafed the mesa; the defenders rolled rocks down the slopes and held out for about 36 hours before slipping away at night amid a stampede of horses through the only way down. A photograph from the time shows more than 15 rebels killed in those days, and the story lives on in a corrido about Captain Martín Díaz.

Today the mesa is a hiking and pilgrimage spot, with open-air masses that draw dozens of worshippers, and the whole Río Lagos valley spreads out below the summit. The top holds tropical woodland with colorín (Erythrina coralloides), prickly pears, Stenocereus columnar cacti and the pincushion cactus Mammillaria polythele, several of them considered threatened. Litter and fires left by some visitors have led Lagos de Moreno residents to form clean-up and ecological rescue brigades.