Parras

History

Parras was founded on February 18, 1598, by Captain Martín Antón Zapata together with the Jesuit priest Juan Agustín de Espinosa, as the mission of Santa María de las Parras. A year earlier, in 1597, Lorenzo García had established the San Lorenzo winery, and in 1599 the viceroy ordered a group of Tlaxcalan families moved here from Saltillo to settle the valley. Captain Francisco de Urdiñola set up the first Spanish estate, later the Hacienda El Rosario.

Religious orders had asked the Crown for permission to grow grapes for sacramental wine, and parish records show wide vineyards and small wineries in the valley by the early 1600s. Wine, brandy and spirits became the town's trade. Parras belonged to Nueva Vizcaya until 1785, when it passed to the province of Coahuila.

In the 19th century, textiles joined wine. The La Estrella mill, opened in 1854, was bought in 1870 by Evaristo Madero, who also took over the San Lorenzo estate, known as Casa Madero since 1893. European technicians and winemakers settled here. Parras became a city in 1868. Evaristo's grandson Francisco I. Madero, born here in 1873, led the uprising against Porfirio Díaz and served as president from 1911 to 1913. The center was declared a Zone of Historic Monuments in 1998.