Río Grande

Río Grande calls itself "the Granary of the Nation": it is the largest town in the bean belt shared by Zacatecas and Durango, and more beans are bought and sold here than anywhere else in Mexico. With 35,050 people it is the state's fifth city, and its grain warehouses, farm-supply shops and three public markets (Juárez, Río Grande and Hidalgo) serve shoppers from Nieves, Sombrerete, Miguel Auza and Saín Alto.

Local tradition dates the Spanish settlement to August 18, 1562, the feast of Saint Helena, which gave it its first name, Santa Elena del Río Grande. The "big river" is the Aguanaval, which runs on into the Laguna region. The founder was Alonso López de Lois; his son-in-law, Captain Francisco de Urdiñola, made peace with the Guachichil chief Nimanea, went on to govern Nueva Vizcaya and came back to die here in 1618. The Audiencia of Guadalajara recognised the town in 1689. A decree of 1861 renamed it Villa Ortega, a name residents simply ignored, and it was made a city in 1968.

Downtown has the main plaza and its bandstand, the Alameda, the Santa Veracruz parish church and the station on the old Cañitas-Durango railway, listed as railway heritage. Two local dances, the Pardos or Matlachines and the Caballitos, are on Mexico's intangible heritage inventory. The dish to look for is reliquia, wedding-style asado served with pasta "sopas" and cooked over mesquite wood; the region also makes gorditas de horno, sweet flour panochas with cinnamon, and quince paste.