Zapotlanejo

Zapotlanejo is the seat of the municipality of the same name, about 35 km east of Guadalajara and now part of its wider metropolitan area, at 1,530 metres above sea level. At the 2020 census it had 33,284 people. It lies on the historic road from Guadalajara to Mexico City and is the gateway to the Altos de Jalisco highlands. What draws people, though, is clothing: the area is known for textile and garment production, and its main street and the streets around it hold more than 2,000 shops and boutiques.

The industry began as a family business making khaki trousers in homes around the main square, sold wholesale from the front door; factories followed, and in the 1980s and 1990s the town made pleated skirts and trousers for big department-store chains in Mexico and the United States. Competition from imports later turned it into a distribution centre for clothes, accessories and homewares, and many of the downtown wholesale warehouses became retail shops. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 to 16:00 the Macro Tianguis del Vestir runs in the Macroplaza on Avenida del Vestir, with more than a hundred local manufacturers. Bring cash, as many shops do not take cards.

The town's history goes back much further. Tecuexe people settled the area around 1218, Cristóbal de Oñate conquered the region in 1530, and in 1532 the town was founded as Zapotlán de los Tecuexes. Close by is the Puente de Calderón, a bridge built in 1670–1672 over the Calderón river and declared a historic monument in 1932. There, on 17 January 1811, Miguel Hidalgo's insurgent army was defeated by Félix María Calleja's troops; a bronze monument to Hidalgo 7 km along the road to Tepatitlán marks the battle, and an inscription on the bridge says that on that day fortune turned against the Father of the Nation.

In the centre stands the parish church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario, with its neoclassical façade; its festival falls two Sundays after 7 October, with a novena, dances, horse races and a fireworks castillo. Local food means birria and barbacoa de borrego.