El Quelite

El Quelite is a small farming village in the rural north of the municipality of Mazatlán, about 30 to 37 km from the port along the federal highway to Culiacán. It lies in low country only about 36 meters above sea level, beside the river of the same name, and had 1,455 inhabitants at the 2020 census. That is fewer than at its peak of 1,810 in 1990, but more than double the 657 counted in 1900. The Sinaloa state tourism ministry has named it a Pueblo Señorial, the state's label for towns with a well-kept historic look, and it is one of the easiest of these to reach from Mazatlán.

The village is a pleasant grid of cobbled lanes, brightly painted houses with deep porches, potted plants and wide patios, and a shaded plaza with a garden. Its church is dedicated to Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe; sources disagree on its age, with one dating it to the 17th century and another to the 19th. Beside it is a covered space where the whole village gathers for the patron feast of San Juan on June 24, with music, dancing and singing. At the entrance to town stands a statue of a player of the pre-Hispanic ball game, and a lookout above the village takes in the old Camino Real and the Quelite River.

Most people come to eat. El Quelite is one of the main dairy producers in this part of Sinaloa, and its creameries sell queso fresco along with jocoque, natas, requesón, cream and semi-aged cheeses. The best-known table is the Mesón de los Laureanos, opened in 1992 by local doctor Marcos Osuna to bring visitors and income to the village; it serves chilorio, birria, machaca, frijoles puercos and colachi with tortillas made by hand on the comal, in a rustic yard with chickens, birds and iguanas. The name recalls the Laureanos, armed men of the Independence era who held up travelers on the roads around El Quelite to raise money for the insurgent cause.