Tesistán

Tesistán, officially San Francisco Tesistán, is a town in the northwest of Zapopan municipality, part of the Guadalajara metropolitan area. At the 2020 census it had 91,631 people. It sits at about 1,600 metres above sea level. The name is usually traced to Nahuatl Techistlán, "place where the techictli bird is plentiful". Archaeological finds confirmed by INAH in 1985 show the site was inhabited before the conquest, and when the Spanish arrived it belonged to the kingdom of Tonalá.

For a long time people lived almost entirely on what the river, the cornfield and livestock gave them, with little contact with the city. That changed with the highway and electricity: brickmaking took off, small producers lost out to large companies, and many sold their land as Guadalajara crept closer. Housing developments now surround the old centre, where big old houses and grain lofts (trojes) can still be seen near the plaza.

The parish of San Francisco de Asís oversees 15 temples, and a nine-day novena to the patron saint is held each year; the parish feast falls in October. What draws visitors, though, is the Feria del Elote, which fills the main plaza every August with more than 130 stalls of corn dishes: elotes, esquites, corn water, corn aguachile and pan de elote, the local sweet. In 2026 it reached its 30th edition. On Sundays there is a tianguis with corn gorditas, birria and tejuino, and the countryside around invites walking, cycling and horseback rides.