San Miguel

San Miguel is one of the barrios of Ciudad de Libres, a few blocks from the town hall in the photo. Like the town's other outlying barrios, it holds its own festival for the saint venerated in its chapel, separate from the big Saint John's fair on 24 June.

The name Libres is a legacy of the War of Reform. On 9 February 1860 the old San Juan de los Llanos was renamed Villa de los Libres because three years earlier it had been occupied by the liberal forces of General Miguel Cástulo de Alatriste. It became a free municipality in 1894 and was made a city on 22 November 1989. Ciudad de Libres had 18,110 people in 2020 and stands at about 2,380 m. The town even has an unusual local figure: according to INEGI's municipal compendium, Trinidad Alonso Báez built a piano here in a three-year project, using Mexican and imported materials.

The municipality, about 275 km², has two faces. To the east is a former lake-bed plain, the Llanos de San Juan, farmed on a large scale for barley, maize, tomatoes, potatoes and alfalfa; to the west is sierra, with pine, oak and fir woods and small plots watered by streams. About 12 km from the seat, at Rancho Viejo, there are rock paintings. Local cooking includes lamb barbacoa, broad-bean stews and chileatole, and the music runs from corridos to marimba and brass band.