San Cristóbal de la Barranca

San Cristóbal de la Barranca is the seat of the municipality of the same name in north-central Jalisco, right against the Zacatecas border. The town lies at about 844 metres above sea level inside the canyon (barranca) of the Santiago River, which gives it its name; at the 2020 census it had 843 inhabitants. Because it is at the bottom of the canyon the climate is very hot: summer temperatures commonly pass 40 degrees, and the vegetation is dry tropical forest with prickly pear and cactus.

Before the conquest the area answered to the chief of Xochitepec. Cristóbal de Oñate, of Nuño de Guzmán's army, arrived in 1530; the inhabitants rose up in 1538 and in 1540 took part in the Mixtón War. Through the colonial period it was a corregimiento. The present town dates from 1875, when a strong earthquake attributed to the Ceboruco volcano left the earlier settlement in ruins on the night of 11 February and the town was founded again on the same spot.

At the centre are the church of San Cristóbal, the municipal palace and the plaza with its bandstand. At the entrance to town a hand-painted arch welcomes visitors. From 24 to 30 January the patron saint is celebrated with a novena, bell-ringing, fireworks, pilgrimages, dances and the burning of castillos, and from 14 to 17 September the independence festivities. The municipality has hot springs and geysers, among them those of the Parque Ecológico Los Hervores on the Patitos River, between San Cristóbal and Teúl.