Pericos

Pericos is the largest town in Mocorito municipality, though not its seat, with 6,244 people at the 2020 census. It lies on the valley floor, 60 m above sea level, between two broad streams, one to the east and one to the west; the old stagecoach road ran to the north, and the Camainera lagoon lay to the south. Today the Pericos valley is irrigated by the Humaya dam, and Highway 15 runs straight through town between Culiacán and Guamúchil.

The town grew out of a hacienda. Local accounts say that in 1769 Francisco Peyroo Gramon, from Aragón in Spain (the press spells it Payró Grammon), founded the hacienda of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias for crops and cattle, drawing hundreds of Indigenous laborers. Early in the 19th century it began making a wine known as vino periqueño, and later a mezcal brandy sold under the El Periqueño label. Henequen came next, its plants brought with difficulty from Yucatán; the Arretes and Peiro haciendas grew up around it, and Pericos became a busy trading town that shipped fiber beyond Mexico. The press also credits the hacienda with founding the first bank in northwest Mexico.

What survives is the main house, the church and the factory chimney. The state and Mocorito governments restored the house, which became the Casa Peiro cultural center in 2006. It has a library, a computer room, an audiovisual classroom, an air-conditioned studio for folk dance and jazz and a central courtyard, and runs free workshops for children, teenagers and adults, along with talks, book launches, theater, festivals, art shows and guided tours. Pericos makes an easy stop on the way to the Pueblo Mágico of Mocorito, about 50 km away as the crow flies.