Angangueo () is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
located in far eastern
Michoacán
Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...
state in central
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
noted for its history of mining and its location in the
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve
The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve ( es, Reserva de Biosfera de la Mariposa Monarca) is a World Heritage Site containing most of the over-wintering sites of the eastern population of the monarch butterfly. The reserve is located in the Tra ...
. The municipal seat is the Mineral de Angangueo. It is located in high rugged forested mountains, with the town in a small canyon.
The town was officially founded shortly after a large mineral deposit was discovered in the area in the very late 18th century. The mines gave out in the 20th century, but promotion of the area due to its proximity to two butterfly sanctuaries has brought in some tourism.
The town
![FacadeInmConAngan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/FacadeInmConAngan.JPG)
The town of Angangueo is officially called Mineral de Angangueo to distinguish it from the rest of the municipality.
Like most mining towns, Anguangueo has an irregular layout of its streets and blocks, which has remained the same since colonial times.
There is one main road, which is called both Nacional and Morelos. This road leads up the canyon and ends at the Plaza de la Constitución.
Most of the houses around the town are made of adobe with wood details and red tile roofs. There are also balconies which contain pots with flowers in the summer.
Like a number of other mining towns from the same epoch, there are a number of tunnels that connect buildings, like the one that connects the Casa Parker with the Inmaculada Concepción church.
The main plaza is flanked by two churches: the parish of San Simón and the Inmaculada Concepcíon.
The clocks on the two churches often show different times.
The Inmaculada Concepción church was built by a single family, in pink stone in
Gothic style
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
to imitate in miniature the
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The main altar was made of marble from Italy, with images of
Saint Joseph
Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers of ...
and the Virgin Mary from Paris. The tabernacle contains the “chalice of Angangueo,” an important example of
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
silverwork.
The San Simon parish is smaller, built with blue-grey stone. Other chapels include Santa Maria Gorita, Misericordia and Jesus Nazareno.
The Casa Parker was an old train station.
In the mid-20th century, it became the home of Bill and Joyce Parker, and English/American couple. Bill was the last mine administrator of the American Smelting and Refining Company before the mines were nationalized. The couple became part of the community and eventually their house was preserved and made into a historical museum.
Another museum in the area is the El Molino.
The Monument to the Miner is located on a lookout over the town and the Señor del Rescate Chapel, which is now the site of municipal offices.
While residents in and around the town still extract some lead and silver from the hillsides,
the town is best known for being in middle of much of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, with two sanctuaries open to the public nearby: Sierra Chincua and El Rosario.
The town's association with the butterflies came when magazines such as
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
and
México Desconocido began promoting it, along with neighboring
Ocampo.
The town hosts an annual monarch butterfly festival each year in February to bid goodbye as the insects head north again. The festival consists of artistic and cultural events as well as those related to the region's traditions and customs.
Another annual cultural event is the Day of the Miner on 11 July, which is held to honor a way of life that many in the town do not wish to lose.
The rest of the municipality's annual festivals are religious including the feasts of Santa Cruz on May 3, San Simon on October 28 and the Immaculate Conception on December 8.
There is bus service between Angangueo and
Zitácuaro
Zitácuaro, officially known as Heroica Zitácuaro, is a city in the Mexican state of Michoacán. The city is the administrative centre for the surrounding municipality of the same name, which lies at the extreme eastern side of Michoacán and bor ...
.
The municipality
![ButterfliesChincua11](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/ButterfliesChincua11.JPG)
As municipal seat, the town of Angangueo is the local government for about thirty other communities, which together make up a territory of 85.64km2.
About half of the municipal population of 9990 (2005) lives in the town proper
Other important communities include Colonia Independencia, Jesús Nazareno, Catingón and La Estación.
It is located in the far northeast of the state and is part of the Tlalpujahua region.
It is bordered by the municipalities of
Senguio
Senguio is a municipality in the Mexican state of Michoacán, located approximately east of the state capital of Morelia.
Geography
The municipality of Senguio is located at an elevation between in the Sierra de Mil Cumbres mountain range in no ...
, Ocampo and
Aporo with the
State of Mexico
The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...
to the east. It is mostly rural with just over 2,000 housing units and some public sports facilities in the seat and several other communities. It is directly connected by road to neighboring municipalities of Aporo and
Tlalpujahua
Tlalpujahua (; formally Tlalpujahua de Rayón) is a town and municipality located in the far northeast of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. It is a former mining town, home of the Dos Estrellas Mine, which was the leading producer of gold ...
.
The municipality has preschool, primary, middle and vocational schools. The latter two are mostly provided by distance education.
Public schools in the municipality include 11 de Julio pre school, 25 de Abril preschool, Benito Juarez preschool, Carmen Serdan preschool, Cbtis 18 vocational highschool, Educacion y Patria primary school, Patito Feo preschool, Emiliano Zapata primary, Escuela Primaria primary, Escuela Telesecundaria Estv 16 314 middle school, Escuela Telesecundaria Estv 16 735 middle school and Escuela Secundaria Tecnica 2 middle school. There is one private primary school called Corregidora.
Geography
It is very mountainous terrain with an average altitude of . Its geography is part of the
Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt
The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt ( es, Eje Volcánico Transversal), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks h ...
and the Sierra de Angangueo. Two rivers pass through, the Puerco and the Carrillos along with several arroyos. Angangueo has a spring like climate. Some areas receive rains only in the summer and other all year round. It is mostly covered in forests of conifers with pines,
oyamel
''Abies religiosa'', the oyamel fir or sacred fir, (known as in Spanish) is a fir native to the mountains of central and southern Mexico (Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Sierra Madre del Sur) and western Guatemala. It grows at high altitudes of in ...
and juniper as well as mixed forests of conifers such as cedar with broad-leafed trees. Wildlife include weasels, rabbits, squirrels, skunks, deer and various birds.
Much of the municipality is part of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, especially Cerro de las Papas, which contains a major colony of the butterflies each winter.
Economy
Tourism related to the butterflies accounts for over one quarter of the municipality's economy, however it is mostly limited to the municipal seat, which makes most of its living from tourism and commerce. Most of the rest of the land is used for forestry, both legally and illegally.
Much of the
illegal logging
Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a pro ...
is done on biosphere lands and by organized groups, which have fought back against the operations mounted against them by state and federal authorities.
Another quarter of the economy is from agriculture with corn and wheat as the principal crops, along with barley, beans and fava beans. Other crops include apples, peaches,
pulque maguey, pears, and
capulin
''Prunus serotina'', commonly called black cherry,World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the g ...
. Livestock such as cattle, pigs, sheep and domestic fowl accounts for about five percent. It is the major source of income for a number of communities. There is still some very limited mining of copper, zinc, lead, iron, silver and gold, with some food processing and metal products.
According to the 2005 census, there were sixteen people in the municipality who spoke an indigenous language, mostly
Mazahua Mazahua may refer to:
* Mazahua people, an indigenous people of Mexico
* Mazahua language
The Mazahua language ( maz, Jñatrjo) is an Oto-Pamean language spoken in the central states of Mexico by the ethnic group that is widely known as the Ma ...
and
Mixe. The dominant religion is Catholicism.
History
There is no agreement as to the origin of the name. It has been translated as “entrance to the cave,” “very high thing” and “inside the forest.”
The municipality has its own coat of arms divided into three sections. One has symbols referring to mining, the second with a representation of a
monarch butterfly
The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. It ...
and the third with mountains and the sun representing the terrain.
When
Nuño de Guzmán
Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán (c. 14901558) was a Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain. He was the governor of the province of Pánuco from 1525 to 1533 and of Nueva Galicia from 1529 to 1534, and president of the first Royal ...
arrived to the area in 1550, he described it as a “no-man’s land” with no indication of the riches that were underneath the mountains and forests here. The lands were awarded to
Gonzalo de Salazar
Gonzalo de Salazar (Granada, Castile – , New Spain) was an aristocrat, and leader of several councils that governed New Spain while Hernán Cortés was traveling to Honduras, in 1525−26.
Early life
Though born into a family which was o ...
by viceroy
Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco (, ; 1495 – 21 July 1552) was a Spanish colonial administrator who was the first Viceroy of New Spain, serving from 14 November 1535 to 25 November 1550, and the third Viceroy of Peru, from 23 September 1551, ...
as part of a larger area encompassing Zitácuaro and Taximaroa shortly thereafter.
Some mining and settlement began in the mid-16th century, but it remained relatively unpopulated until the very late 18th century, when large deposits of minerals were discovered on what is now called the former hacienda of Angangueo.
These minerals included gold, silver, copper and more and brought a rush of people into the area.
The town of Angangueo was officially founded in 1792 and it became a municipality in 1831.
During the struggle between
Conservative and Liberal forces in Mexico in the 19th century, possession of the town changed hands. In 1865, General Régules took the town plaza for Conservative forces but Liberal forces retook the town the following year. The Temple of the Inmaculata Concepcion was begun in 1882.
In the middle of the 19th century, mining rights were assigned to an English company called Negociación Minera de las Trojes. In the 20th century, it was then conceded to the U.S. company American Smelting and Refining Company,
the last foreign concern to have mining rights. In 1953, an accident in the Dolores Mine claimed twenty five miners and the federal government expropriated the area. It was then managed by the Impulsora Minera de Angangueo, which continued mining here until 1991, when it was decided that the exploitation of the mines was no longer economically feasible.
From then to the present, there have been disputes between the shareholders in the Impulsora and former miners and the state of Michoacan over the right to continue mining. The mines are considered to be part of the butterfly reserve.
In the mid-20th century, the town had a population of 10,000, its own newspaper and even a mint. However, it has steadily declined since then as the mines gave out. The town gained a new source of income with tourism with the establishment of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve and the promotion of the butterfly colonies located very near the town by magazines such as
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
and Mexico Desconocido, beginning in 1980. This has promoted the opening of hotels and restaurants near the butterfly sites, and small transport services thereto. However, this has not brought the town back to its former size.
Environmental concerns
On 5 February 2010, heavy rains and hail caused flooding and mudslides in the region, with Angangueo being hard hit.
Landslides on two of the hills surrounding the town buried sections and blocked roads. The week prior a smaller slide had killed three miners. The slides forced the evacuation of hundreds, due to the danger of more slides.
The
Topos de Tlatelolco
The Brigada Internacional de Rescate Tlatelolco A.C, commonly known as the Topos de Tlatelolco or Los Topos, is a professional non-profit Mexican rescue team.
Composition
Their specialty is searching for victims under the debris of collapsed b ...
assisted with the search for survivors and bodies. At least 1,000 persons were made homeless and moved to a shelter in
San José del Rincón
San José del Rincón is a municipality in the State of Mexico. Its inhabitants are referred to as ''monteros''.
Geography
San José del Rincón is located in the western part of the State of Mexico on its border with Michoacán. From north to s ...
, Mexico State.
Many houses built on the riverbanks were swept away.
At least thirty were killed by the event in the town alone. Bodies were found in the municipal seat and in smaller communities such as Salitre.
2,500 people lost everything in the disaster.
President Calderón
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
visited the disaster area and toured some of the attractions, both on the ground and by air.
He was accompanied by Michoacan's governor
Leonel Godoy
Leonel Godoy Rangel (born June 5, 1950 in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán) is a Mexican lawyer, politician, and former Governor of Michoacán. He is a former president of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Political career
Leonel G ...
to survey the damage.
As an alternative to mining, Calderón suggested developing tourism in Angangueo as a
Pueblo Mágico
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
. However, residents demanded the assurance that the town would not disappear, and that jobs would be available.
According to the director of the Forest Commission of Michoacan, Alejandro Méndez, deforestation from legal and illegal logging contributed to the landslides in 2010. In addition, cleared areas on hillsides were used to build homes.
The landslides in Angangueo and in other areas such as Zamora have prompted studies by government authorities as to the causes of these events as well as the emergency responses.
Later in February, federal authorities announced that no new residents could move into the town and that the current population would be relocated. The decision was made with the rationale that the landslides create too big a hazard for people to live in the current location and a “New Angangueo” would be built. However, local residents were against the plan.
Efforts to relocate the town were officially begun in June 2010, with a projected 600 homes in a location called Barrio Sustentable Monarca. The construction was halted by September of the same year, with only a layout traced on the site and no new homes started.
As tourism is being exploited, the
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve
The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve ( es, Reserva de Biosfera de la Mariposa Monarca) is a World Heritage Site containing most of the over-wintering sites of the eastern population of the monarch butterfly. The reserve is located in the Tra ...
runs higher risks of being disturbed as thousands of tourists walk the trails around the forest habitats of the butterfly each year. While the resident population demands other sources for economic stability, the government is implementing methods to boost tourism. No efforts have been made to officially moderate the physical establishments, entertainment, noise and vehicles which are prominently growing in the biosphere area.
References
{{Michoacán
Municipalities of Michoacán
Mining communities in Mexico
Pueblos Mágicos
Populated places established in 1792