Santa María del Oro

Santa María del Oro is the seat of a municipality in southeast Jalisco, beside the Michoacán border. At the 2020 census the town had 666 residents and the whole municipality only 1,815, making it the least populous in the state. The name comes from its mining past: before the conquest the region belonged to the Purépecha, defeated in the Saltpetre War of 1510, and in 1523 Alonso de Ávalos subdued the peoples of the area.

According to the official historical account, the site began as a ranch called La Teja and, from the mid-18th century, became the Real Hacienda de Beneficio del Río del Oro. More than twenty mines were being worked, and the Real del Oro had furnaces where silver and gold ore was refined; the bars left in caravans for Mexico City. North of the town the La Jarana sugar mill also ran. In 1812 insurgent forces under Francisco Guzmán surprised and beheaded 42 Spaniards on the spot now occupied by the parish church. At the Las Minas ranch, 6 km to the east, yácatas and ruins mark the oldest workings.

The settlement of Santa María de Guadalupe became a municipality in 1938 under the name Manuel M. Diéguez, honouring the revolutionary and governor; the name Santa María del Oro was restored for the town in 1997 and for the municipality in 1999. Surviving architecture includes the Templo Viejo, and the surroundings take in the forests of Cerro El Encamizado, La Mesa del Valle and Las Águilas, the landscapes of Las Bufas and Llanos de Zipoco, and three hot springs in the municipality.

The feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe is held here in January rather than December: the priests of the old chaplaincy could not serve two towns at once, so the dates were shifted a month. Local dishes include goat birria, pozole, briado and tejuino; the typical craft is huaraches.