Paracho

History

A popular legend says Paracho was founded by migrants fleeing Nuño de Guzmán's conquest around 1530, but the documents point to older roots. The Relación de Michoacán lists Paracho among the towns conquered by the Purépecha rulers Hiripan, Hiquíngare and Tangáxoan in the 15th century, and it may have been a Chichimec settlement before that. In 1524 Antonio de Caravajal, surveying Michoacán for Hernán Cortés, passed through and described a small village on a bare hillside, subject to Erongarícuaro. By 1528 it was part of the encomienda of Juan Infante.

Tradition credits Bishop Vasco de Quiroga with assigning each village a craft; Paracho, surrounded by pine forest, was given stringed instruments. Luthiers kept their own methods, carving while seated, and for generations took apart foreign guitars to learn from them. By 1754 San Pedro Paracho headed a parish of nine towns.

Paracho became a municipality in 1831 and a villa in 1862, adding the name of the insurgent Sixto Verduzco. Part of the town was burned in 1917. The highway and electricity arrived in 1930, the first National Guitar Fair was held in 1972, and in the 1980s master luthiers from Spain came to teach. It was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2020.