Parácuaro

Parácuaro is the seat of the municipality of the same name in Michoacán's Tierra Caliente, at 381 metres and about 200 km from Morelia. It had 3,898 people in 2020 and lives from crops and cattle. Its name has two readings: "where fields are tilled" and "place with good poles for roofs".

Nahua peoples lived here before the area fell under Purépecha rule. In colonial times haciendas such as La Guadalupe, El Valle and La Perla grew up around it. It was a dependency of Apatzingán from 1831, became a municipality in November 1861, and in 1862 its seat was made a villa, Villa de Parácuaro de Morelos. On April 21, 1913 the Plan of Parácuaro was signed here and Colonel Cenobio Moreno Bucio, born in the town, took up arms against Victoriano Huerta. In 1917 the bandit Luis Gutiérrez, "El Chivo Encantado", burned it. In 1942 Nueva Italia, by then the larger town, split off to form its own municipality.

Alberto Aguilera Valadez, the singer Juan Gabriel, was born here on January 7, 1950. His family moved to Ciudad Juárez when he was a child, but he later bought the house where he was born, which carries a plaque in his honour, and his mother, Victoria Valadez, has lain in the municipal cemetery since 1974. When he died in 2016 neighbours covered the street in flowers, and anniversaries of his death have brought a mass, flowers and music. Actress Elpidia Carrillo and actor Agustín Bernal also come from Parácuaro.