Mazamitla () is a town and municipality of the Mexican state of Jalisco. It is located 124 km south of Guadalajara in the Southeast Region and is a popular resort destination for travelers from Guadalajara and nearby urban centers. Its name comes from the Nahuatl and means "place where arrows are made to hunt deer"; its area is 177.18 km². According to Count II Population and Housing, the municipality has 11671 inhabitants who are devoted mainly to the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

. For its natural environment is considered by the federal

Secretariat of Tourism The Mexican Secretary of Tourism ( es, Secretaría de Turismo, ''SECTUR'') is the government department in charge of the nation's tourism promotion and development. The Secretary is appointed by the President of the Republic and is a member of th ...

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 ...

Etymology

The name comes from the Nahuatl language and is the union of the words "Mazatl" (deer), "Mitl" (arrow) and "tlan" (place). Its meaning has been interpreted in different ways: * "Where deer are hunted with arrows" * "Where deer hunting arrows are made" * "Deer-hunting fletchers' place" * "Where fuentes are hunted with arrows"

History

Mazamitla was founded by the Aztecs in 1165. It belonged to the manor of Tzapotlán and paid tribute to the chieftain of Tamazollan. In 1481 the area was invaded by the Purépecha so that they could take the Laguna de Sayula. Purépecha held the area for only a few years until they were defeated at the end of the Salitre War in 1510. The place was conquered by Cristóbal de Olid together with Juan Rodríguez Villafuerte in early 1522. Their party had been sent by Cortés to explore the region of western Mexico. Upon the conquest, the people of Tzapotlán were awarded to Hernán Cortés who appointed Anton Salcedo as ''

encomendero The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military ...

''. Being named president of the Audiencia of Mexico, Nuño de Guzmán moved these parcels to Cortés. It said that when he was priest of this area,

Miguel Hidalgo Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or Miguel Hidalgo (), was a Catholic priest, leader of the Mexican ...

, held mass in Palo Gordo. He used the trunk of an oak that is now saved as a relic to serve as the altar for mass. Insurgent clashed in 1812 in the slope of Zapatero. Francisco Echeverria was their captain, who despite having emerged victorious was seriously injured, dying in Mazamitla. During the

French intervention This is a list of wars involving France and its predecessor states. It is an incomplete list of French and proto-French wars and battles from the foundation of Frankish Kingdom, Francia by Clovis I, the Merovingian dynasty, Merovingian king who uni ...

, the invaders burned files. After the French intervention the Mexican locals of Mazamitla captured a French officer named Jonny Fuentes who was hanged in the year 1815 in the town square. Since 1825 the town had belonged to the 4th canton of Sayula until 1878, when it became a 9th canton of

Ciudad Guzmán Ciudad Guzmán (also known as simply Guzmán) is a city in the Mexican state of Jalisco. It is south of Guadalajara, at a height of above sea level. Its population totaled 97,750 in the 2010 census, ranking as the eighth-largest city in the st ...

. On April 19, 1894 the place was declared a town by decree of the state congress. After the battle of 1878, the population of Mazamitla has largely increased over the years. The chief operating officer Alexis ceja demanded that the pueblo increase its tourism and created the idea of making cabins for future residents and guests of Mazamitla.

Physical geography

Location

Mazamitla is located in the south-central area of Jalisco, south of

Lake Chapala Lake Chapala ( es, Lago de Chapala, ) is Mexico's largest freshwater lake. It lies in the municipalities of Ocotlán, Chapala, Jocotepec, Poncitlán, and Jamay, in Jalisco, and in Venustiano Carranza and Cojumatlán de Régules, in Mich ...

at coordinates 19º47'30" to 19º59'00" north latitude and 102º58'35" to 103º10'45" west longitude, at an altitude of 2200 meters above sea level. On the north the town abuts the town of La Manzanilla de La Paz, the state of Michoacán and the town of Valle de Juárez, on the east by the town of Valle de Juárez, on the south by the municipalities of Valle de Juárez and of Tamazula de Gordiano; on the west by the municipalities of

Concepción de Buenos Aires Concepción de Buenos Aires is a town and municipality, in Jalisco in central-western Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the ...

and La Manzanilla de La Paz.

Orography

Its surface is composed of hilly areas (35%), with hills occupied by forests, with heights ranging from 2200 to 2800 meters. Land semiplane (40%) are hills and slopes, with heights ranging from 2000 to 2200 meters above sea level and flat areas (25%), with elevations ranging from 200 to 1800 meters above sea level. The maximum heights are in Cerro El Jackal and Cerro del Tigre.

Floor

The territory is made up of land belonging to the

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

period. The land is hilly and broken, its composition is prevalent types luvisol, feozem háplico and litosol. The municipality has a land area of 17718 hectares, of which 3495 are used for agriculture, livestock in 3095, 10516 are from forest use, urban land are 206 hectares and 442 hectares have other uses. As far as ownership is concerned, an area of 6432 hectares is private and the other 11286 is communally or publicly owned.

Hydrography

Its water resources are the rivers: La Pasión, Río de Gómez, Los Cazos, Ponche Grande and la media luna; streams: El Salto, Barranca Verde, El Ruido, Cuate, Barranca, Los Puentes and La Cuesta; The Springs: Barranca

los Hoyos LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

, Paso Blanco, La Pasión y Boca de Tinieblas.

Climate

The climate is subtropical highland, with dry, mild winters. The average annual temperature is 21°C(69.8°with maximum of 25.7°C (78.26°F) and minimum of 7.1°C(44.78°). The rainfall recorded between June and September, with an average rainfall of 982 millimeters. The average annual number of days with frost is 52.6. The prevailing winds head south.

Flora and fauna

Its

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

is composed mainly of

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

arbutus ''Arbutus'' is a genus of 12 accepted speciesAct. Bot. Mex no.99 Pátzcuaro abr. 2012.''Arbutus bicolor''/ref> of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islan ...

, huizache,

mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus '' Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under gr ...

, palo dulce,

nopal Nopal (from the Nahuatl word for the pads of the plant) is a common name in Spanish for ''Opuntia'' cacti (commonly referred to in English as ''prickly pear''), as well as for its pads. There are about 114 known species in Mexico, where it i ...

, granjeno, and some fruit species. The wildlife includes

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

, porcupine,

wild cat Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the dom ...

, rabbit, squirrel, the

eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...

, the

sparrowhawk Sparrowhawk (sometimes sparrow hawk) may refer to several species of small hawk in the genus ''Accipiter''. "Sparrow-hawk" or sparhawk originally referred to ''Accipiter nisus'', now called "Eurasian" or "northern" sparrowhawk to distinguish it f ...

chachalaca Chachalacas are galliform birds from the genus ''Ortalis''. These birds are found in wooded habitats in the far southern United States (Texas), Mexico, and Central and South America. They are social, can be very noisy and often remain fairly c ...

and wild guajolote.

Economy

26.37% of the population is engaged in the primary sector, 26.45% in the secondary sector, 42.31% in the tertiary sector and the rest were not specified. 30.78% is economically active. The main economic activities are: agriculture, forestry, fisheries, livestock, industry and

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

. *Agriculture: cultivated corn,

oat The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human con ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

, beans,

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es,

broad beans ''Vicia faba'', commonly known as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Var ...

and

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es. *Livestock: breeding cattle, pigs, cows and horses. In addition to birds. *Tourism: architectural and natural attractions. *Trade: these include restaurants, shops and market. Predominates the sale of essential goods and shops that sell mixed miscellaneous items. *Services: provided financial services, professional, technical, communal, social, tourism, personal and maintenance. *Industry: food processing plants such as dairy products, canned food and

cajeta ''Dulce de leche'' (; pt, doce de leite), also known as caramelized milk, milk candy or milk jam in English, is a confection from Latin America prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours. The resulting substance, wh ...

. *Logging: Primarily

and

. *Mining: there are deposits of

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

as well as use of

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

Infrastructure

*Education 90.11% of the population is literate, of whom 31.28% have completed primary education. The municipality has 18

preschools A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school ...

, 30

Elementary schools A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

, 3 middle schools, 1

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, and 2 job training centers. *Health Health care is supported by the Ministry of Health of the state, the

Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social The Mexican Institute of Social Security ( es, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, IMSS) is a governmental organization that assists public health, pensions and social security in Mexico operating under the Secretariat of Health. It also form ...

(IMSS), the Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado and private doctors. El Sistema para el

Desarrollo Integral de la Familia The National System for Integral Family Development ( es, Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, links=no; SNDIF or just DIF) is a Mexican public institution of social assistance that focuses on strengthening and developing th ...

(DIF) is in charge of

social welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

. *Sport There are sports centers, with the following sports practiced: football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

and

extreme sports Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear. Extreme tourism overl ...

like hiking, mountaineering, hunting, and racing. The town also has a

cultural center A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run. Asia * Cen ...

plaza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

, cinema,

palenque Palenque (; Yucatec Maya: ), also anciently known in the Itza Language as Lakamhaʼ ("Big Water or Big Waters"), was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD. ...

s, a museum, municipal auditorium,

lienzo charro A ''lienzo charro'' is an arena where charros hold the events of '' charreada'', ''coleadero'' and jaripeo Jaripeo () refers to a form of bull riding practiced mainly in central and southern Mexico. It developed in the 16th century and origin ...

, parks, gardens, and a library. * Housing There are 2674 houses, most of which are privately owned. 96.33% have electric service, 76.93% have sewer and drinking water service. Most construction is usually made of

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

, adobe,

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

and brick. *Services The municipality has potable water, sewerage, street lighting, markets,

rastro El Rastro de Madrid or simply el Rastro is the most popular open air flea market in Madrid (Spain). It is held every Sunday and public holiday during the year and is located along ''Plaza de Cascorro'' and ''Ribera de Curtidores'', between ''Calle ...

, cemeteries, roads, public cleaning services, public safety, parks, gardens, and sports centers. 89.9% of residents have drinking water, sewerage 80.9% and 93.3% of electric power. *Ways and means of communication Mazamitla has access to mail services, fax, telegraph, telephone, radio services, as well as radio and television signals. The transportation is carried across the road Guadalajara–

Tuxcueca Tuxcueca is a town and municipality, in Jalisco in central-western 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 Sta ...

-Mazamitla. It has a network of rural roads that connect the localities; transportation is carried out in public buses or rental vehicles and taxis. The foreign ground transportation is carried out in public buses, the most important are: Buses Valle de Juarez, Autobuses de Occidente, Autobuses Flecha Amarilla, Autobuses del sur de Jalisco, Autotransportes de Mazamitla, y Autobuses de Tamazula.

Demographics

According to Count II Population and Housing, the municipality has 11671 inhabitants, of whom 5502 are male and 6169 are female; 0.53% of the population are

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Religion

In the population 96.92% profess

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

; there are also believers of Jehovah's Witnesses,

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

s and believers of other religions. 0.30% of the inhabitants profess to practice no religion whatsoever.

Culture

Sites of interest

* La casa de los fuentes.

Fiestas

* Fiestas de San Cristobal (

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of people) in the second week of July. * Feast of the

Virgin of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe ( es, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe ( es, Virgen de Guadalupe), is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus associated with a series of five Marian apparitions, which are believed t ...

: from 4 to 12 December. * Patriotic Fiestas: September 15 and 16. * Festival de las flores Weekends of October * Celebrations of the founding of Mazamitla: from 27 to 30 March.

Government

The form of government is democratic and depends on the state and federal governments; elections are held every 3 years, which elects the mayor and his cabinet. The municipal president is Antonio de Jesus Ramirez Ramos member of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

, who was elected on July 1, 2018. The municipality has 58 villages, the most important are: La Cofradía, Corral Falso, Epenche Grande, Epeche Chico, Puerto de Cuevas, Puerta del Zapatero, El Zapatero, La Huevera, Llano de los Toros.

Notable people

* Jacinto Chavarría colonel * Vicente Castellanos y Nunez, bishop * Ramón Blancarte Cárdenas, attorney at law * Efraín Buenrostro Ochoa * José Parres Arias, painter, rector of the

University of Guadalajara The University of Guadalajara ( es, Universidad de Guadalajara) is a public higher education institution in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. The university has several high schools as well as graduate and undergraduate campuses, which are distr ...

, founder and first director of the Museum of Anthropology and History of Jalisco * Jesús y Filemón del Toro * Jesús "Don Chuy" Silva * Manuel Cárdenas Mata * J. Jesús Garcia * José Santana Garcia, father and introducer of the electricity * Daniel Cárdenas Mata * Armando Chavez, I.T technician

Twinned cities

Mazamitla is officially twinned with 2 cities and associated with 1 state of USA *

Denton, Texas Denton is a city in and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, United States. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the 27th-most populous city in Texas, the 197th-most populous city in the United States, and the 12th-most populous ...

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Gatlinburg, Tennessee Gatlinburg is a mountain resort city in Sevier County, Tennessee, United States. It is located southeast of Knoxville and had a population of 3,944 at the 2010 Census and a U.S. Census population of 3,577 in 2020. It is a popular vacation res ...

References

External links

Weather from Mazamitla

Mazamitla's Government

Directory of Mazamitla
{{Jalisco Municipalities of Jalisco Pueblos Mágicos