Plateros is a mining town in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico. It was founded as San Demetrio in 1566 and renamed by 1621. Located within the town is an important pilgrimage, the Sanctuary of Santo Niño de Atocha.

History

The site of Plateros was inhabited as early as 1566 when some miners lost their way while trying to find the nearby mining town of

Fresnillo Fresnillo (/fres'nijo/), founded in 1554 by Francisco de Ibarra, is the second largest city in Zacatecas state, north central Mexico and the seat of Fresnillo municipality. As a rail and highway junction, Fresnillo is the center of a rich mining ...

. The miners found silver as they reconnoitered the area on Saint Dimitri's Day, and thus named the place San Demetrio. After 1621 the town was known as ''Plateros'', the Spanish word for silver miners. The first church built in Plateros included a crucifix called "El Señor de Plateros," which according to legend, conveyed spiritual healing powers. A second church founded in 1789 came with a gift from a local mining entrepreneur. He imported from Spain a statue of Nuestra Señora de Atocha, Maria de Atocha. Maria held a figurine of the baby Jesus, which was detachable and used alone as an attraction every Christmas Eve. Eventually the emphasis shifted from Maria de Atocha to the Niño de Atocha. In the nineteenth century interest in Santo Niño de Atocha spread through the mining region of Zacatecas. Later in the 1800s, the town imported a blue-clad version of the boy called "Niño Azul." This image was of boy around ten-years-old portrayed as performing two miracles. This new version of Santo Niño de Atocha appeared in popular reproductions of the image. By the early twentieth century, the Plateros Sanctuary's priests used this image to convert some

Huichols The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California ...

to Christianity.

Tourism

Religious tourism is now an essential industry in Plateros. The Sanctuary of Santo Niño de Atocha is the third most frequented religious site in Mexico. It draws 1.5 million visitors annually, behind the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City and

San Juan de los Lagos San Juan de los Lagos (Spanish for " Saint John of the Lakes") is a city and municipality located in the northeast corner of the state of Jalisco, Mexico, in a region known as Los Altos. It is best known as the home of a small image of the Virgi ...

in the state of Jalisco. The mountain-dwelling

Huichol The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California ...

people visit Plateros in order to sell their wares.

References

Populated places in Zacatecas Populated places established in 1566 1566 establishments in the Spanish Empire {{Zacatecas-geo-stub