Moctezuma

Moctezuma is a municipal seat in the west of the state, at roughly 1,700 metres, amid rolling hills and low ranges (El Durazno to the north, El Jacalón to the southwest). About 5,200 people live in town.

It began as San Jerónimo del Agua Hedionda, "of the foul-smelling water", with 1552 the earliest founding date put forward. Late in the 16th century Tlaxcalan families were brought north to settle among the Guachichil people, and the settlement answered to the Franciscan friary at Venado. For centuries it was simply La Hedionda, until a decree in the 1860s renamed it Ciudad Moctezuma after General Esteban Moctezuma, who was actually born in Alaquines on the other side of the state.

Large haciendas grew up around it, chief among them Cruces, whose lands spilled into today's Venado and Salinas municipalities. Mining had its moment in the late 19th century: a smelting works opened near town in 1899, and mercury veins with names like Bonanza, Vulcano and La Encantada were worked.

The main fiesta honours Santa Ana from 18 to 28 July in the Barrio de Tlaxcala, drawing pilgrims and emigrants home from Monterrey and the United States for matachín dancers, brass bands, fireworks and the regional fair, FEREMOC. San Jerónimo, the patron saint, has his day on 30 September, and on the night of 1 November singers dressed as monks walk the streets with funeral chants. On the table: carnitas, turkey in mole and alma negra, an almond sweet.