Apatzingán

Apatzingán de la Constitución lies at only 324 m in the broad, hot valley of Michoacán's Tierra Caliente, with the Sierra Madre del Sur to the west. With about 102,000 people (2020 census) it is the largest city of the region and the fourth-largest in the state. Franciscan and Augustinian friars founded the town in 1617, and it was officially made a city in 1883. Its name is a Purépecha place name usually explained as the place of the temple of the god Apahtzï, a weasel linked with death, though other authors read it as 'place of weasels' or 'place of little reeds'. The climate is semi-arid and very warm, and the irrigated valley grows limes, papayas, grapefruit and starfruit, much of it for export.

The city's place in history was fixed on 22 October 1814, when the insurgent congress gathered by José María Morelos signed here the Decreto Constitucional para la Libertad de la América Mexicana, known as the Constitution of Apatzingán, Mexico's first constitution. The house where it was signed, at Avenida Morelos 2 in the centre, is now the Casa de la Constitución museum, with paintings, engravings, flags and historical documents, including works by Roberto Cueva del Río. Every October the city celebrates the anniversary with a long fair of livestock, farm and crafts shows, jaripeos, bands, fireworks and a big civic parade on the 22nd.

The centre runs along Avenida Constitución, with the Plaza de los Constituyentes, the municipal palace and the modernist cathedral built in 1953. The region's culture is cowboy and ranching culture: the Cuerudos de Apatzingán, horsemen in deerskin suits descended from the rural defence corps, appear at civic events, and the conjuntos de arpa grande play the valonas and sones of Tierra Caliente. Local food includes chavindecas, carne seca cooked as aporreadillo with chilli and egg, cecina enchiladas and iguana broth, and craftsmen make parota-wood furniture and equipales. Less than 20 minutes up into the pine hills, the village of Acahuato has a lookout over the valley and draws thousands of pilgrims to its Virgen de la Candelaria on 2 February.