- Guanajuato is the name of a state in Mexico and that state's capital city. This article is about the state. For the city, see Guanajuato, Guanajuato.
Guanajuato is a state in the central highlands of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Guanajuato, Guanajuato. Guanajuato means "hill of frogs" in the local indigenous language, because the local Tarascan Indians believed that the frog represented the god of wisdom.
Guanajuato (at el Cerro del Cubilete) is located in the very center of Mexico, about three and half-hours from Mexico City, and is one of Mexico's most famous tourist spots. Today, Guanajuato's colonial architecture is very well preserved along with over 35 old churches in its capital alone, and is very European in nature. It is also the home state of Mexico's current president, Vicente Fox Quesada and famous Mexican artist, Diego Rivera.
The state of Guanajuato borders the states of San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Michoacán, and Jalisco. It has an area of 30,589 km² (about 11,800 square miles). In 2003 the state had an estimated population of about 4,855,000 people. The literacy rate stands at about 88 percent.
After central Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico coast, Guanajuato was one of the first areas of Mexico colonized by the Spanish, in the 1520s, for its rich silver deposits. Today, Guanajuato's mines are still among the richest-producing silver mines in the world (historically one of the largest). The state also produces tin, gold, copper, lead, mercury, and opals. Guanajuato also leads the nation in shoe production and various farm products such as lettuce and potatoes. Main Export Products: Motor vehicles and autoparts, footwear, leather goods, chemicals, electric machinery and materials, fruits and vegetables.
In addition to the state capital city of Guanajuato, the state includes the cities of Acámbaro, Celaya, León, Salamanca, Irapuato, San Miguel de Allende, and Dolores Hidalgo, the cradle of Mexican independence.
A couple of historical points worth noting for this state is that the first populist uprising in Mexican history resulted in a march from Dolores Hidalgo upon the capital of the state and the subsequent burning of the granary which held all the "gachupines" (approximately 500 men, women and children from Spain or of pure Spanish decent) by peasants of pure Amerindian or mixed Mestizo descent who had been put to work in very harsh conditions.
According to some historians, this incident (seen as a horrifying caste revolt) incented the ruling class of New Spain to declare its independence from Spain in order to keep the caste system intact rejecting moderate concessions to the lower classes that had been a part of the original upper class platform for revolting. Subsequently, it would take another 100 years (1910) until the next populist revolution would occur and actually take hold creating the first socialist country in the world pre-dating the Bolsheviks by seven years. Some historians do not, however, relate the two uprisings or agree that the granary's burning had a significant effect on Mexican Independence from Spain.
The state of Guanajuato accounts for more than its proportional share of economic migrations of workers to the United States and Canada. Among the areas favoured by migrants from this part of Mexico are the U.S. cities of Corpus Christi, Texas, Evanston, Illinois, and La Habra, California.
Municipalities
Guanajuato is subdivided into 46 municipalities
External links
- Guanajuato: Governmental portal (Spanish, English, French)
- My Guanajuato: Informatión about the state and main cities, touristic guide, directory, chat, photos. and more (Spanish, English, French, German and Italian)
- Guanajuato en Linea: General information about the state (Spanish, English, French)
- Guanajuato Travel: Official tourist information about the state (Spanish)
- Towns, cities, and postal codes in Guanajuato (in Spanish)
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanajuato under GFDL
