San Luis de la Paz

San Luis de la Paz is the municipal seat that Mineral de Pozos belongs to, and one of the oldest towns in Guanajuato. It was founded on August 25, 1552, the feast of Saint Louis King of France, as a defensive settlement on the Silver Route that carried ore from Zacatecas to Mexico City. The "de la Paz" in its name recalls the peace agreed here between the Otomí allies of the Spanish and the Chichimeca peoples who had fought fiercely to keep these lands.

Today it is a working town of about fifty thousand people at roughly 2,000 meters above sea level, with a lively center around the Parroquia de San Luis Rey and the Santuario de Guadalupe, which draws huge pilgrimages in early December with folk dances and processions. Its biggest celebration is the Feria Regional del Norte de Guanajuato, held around the town's anniversary on August 25.

San Luis de la Paz is also the gateway to the Chichimeca community of Misión de Chichimecas, just outside town, and to the canyons and semi-desert of the Sierra Gorda to the east. It is where people from Pozos come for banks, markets and errands, and it makes a good half-day of history and street life.