San Ignacio Cerro Gordo

San Ignacio Cerro Gordo is the seat of Jalisco's 125th and newest municipality: the state congress approved it by a decree published on December 30, 2003, and it began operating on January 1, 2007. Until then it belonged to Arandas. It sits at about 2,000 metres in the Altos Sur region and had 10,521 people in 2020, having grown into the neighbouring Rancho La Mora, El Mirador and La Virgencita.

The name joins its patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, with Cerro Gordo or El Picacho, the mountain that rules the skyline and that the municipality shares with Tepatitlán, which holds most of it. The land belonged to the Hacienda de Cerro Gordo, also called La Trasquila ("the shearing") after its sheep; the first baptism register, from 1792 to 1803, already names ranches such as El Buey, La Soledad, La Tuna and Atotonilquillo.

The coat of arms sums up local work: maize, the agave that feeds the tequila industry, the hacienda's sheep and a brick kiln, since brickmaking is one of the main trades. The motto is "Hands that work, hearts that love".