Jaumave

Jaumave lies in a valley on the far side of the mountains behind Ciudad Victoria, in southwestern Tamaulipas. It is a town of about 6,300 people and the seat of a mountainous municipality: nearly 60 per cent of its land is Sierra Madre Oriental, and at its northwestern corner, in the Sierra Los Borregos, rises the second-highest point in the state at 3,240 metres. The valley itself sits in a rain shadow. It gets less than 500 mm a year, mesquite, barrel cactus, columnar cactus, prickly pear and lechuguilla agave grow everywhere, and the Chihue and Guayalejo rivers only flow in the rainy season. It is the northwestern entrance to the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, to which the municipality contributes more land than any other.

Written history starts in 1607, when Friar Juan Bautista de Mollinedo travelled through; in 1617 he founded the mission of San Juan Bautista de Jaumave, abandoned in 1680 because of attacks by the Janambre people. There were further attempts in 1714 and 1725, until in 1743 eight Spanish families led by Antonio de los Ríos Carrillo arrived, and on 19 May 1744, during José de Escandón's visit, the Villa de Jaumave was founded as San Lorenzo de Jaumave, watered by the spring now called Media del Pueblo. In the early 20th century there were 18 haciendas and about 1,400 workers producing ixtle fibre: Jaumave's was considered the finest, and tonnes left every day for Tampico and on to Europe. In May 1913 the revolutionary Alberto Carrera Torres took the town with 150 men.

Lechuguilla fibre still goes into ropes, handbags, shoulder bags and scrubbing brushes, alongside clay griddles and pots. Local dishes include goat cooked in its own blood, nopales in pipián sauce, squash blossoms, stewed chochas, jacubes cactus and cecina, with sweets of candied squash, barrel cactus, chilacayote and piloncillo, plus maguey syrup. The town celebrates its refounding on 19 May, and in the first half of December a cultural week brings lechuguilla-carving contests, coleadero bull-tailing, horse races and the local dance troupe. To cool off, the Los Nogales river, where the Los Nogales spring meets the Guayalejo, has clear water, palapas, barbecue grills and space to camp.