Pachuca (; ), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the east-central Mexican state of Hidalgo, located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca de Soto is also the name of the municipality for which the city serves as municipal seat. Pachuca is located about north of Mexico City via Mexican Federal Highway 85.
There is no agreed upon consensus regarding the origins of the word pachuca. It has been loosely traced to pachoa ('strait', 'opening'), pachoacan ('place of government', 'place of silver and gold') and patlachuican ('place of factories', 'place of tears').
The official name of Pachuca is Pachuca de Soto in honor of congressman Manuel Fernando Soto, who is credited with the founding of Hidalgo state. Its nickname of La Bella Airosa ("the airy, beautiful") comes from the strong winds that blow through the canyons to the north of the city. In the indigenous Otomi language, Pachuca is known as . The area had been long-inhabited; and is famous for mining, both for green obsidian which was highly prized by Pre-Columbian civilizations and was traded as far as Spiro Mounds in the United States; and for later mining activity overseen by the Spanish in the mid-16th century.
Pachuca remained a major mining center until the mid-20th century, with the city's fortunes fluctuating with the health of the mining sector. In the mid-20th century, a major downturn in mining pushed the city to shift focus from mining to industry, resulting in the revamping of the Universidad Autónoma de Hidalgo. Today, mining forms only a fraction of the municipality's economy. One cultural aspect that makes Pachuca unique is the influence of the Cornish miners who immigrated in the 19th century from Great Britain, as many of their descendants remain in Pachuca, and nearby Real del Monte. Furthermore, the Cornish populace helped to shape two local traditions that define the city—fútbol and a dish called "pastes."
History
Evidence of early human habitation in this area is found in Cerro de las Navajas and Zacualtipán, in the Sierra de Pachuca. Here primitive mines to extract green obsidian, arrow heads, scraping tools, and mammoth remains can be traced back as far as 12,000 BCE. An ancient pre-Hispanic obsidian tool-making center has also been found in the small town of San Bartolo near the city. Around 2,000 BCE nomadic groups here began to be replaced by sedentary peoples who formed farming villages in an area then known as Itzcuincuitlapilco, of which the municipality of Pachuca is a part. Later artifacts from between 200 CE and 850 CE show Teotihuacan influence with platforms and figurines found in San Bartolo and in Tlapacoya, and it has been argued Teotihuacan monopolized the Pachuca deposit to control and influence Obsidian trade in Central Mexico during the Classic Period. Development of this area as a city, however, would lag behind other places in the region such as Tulancingo, Tula and Atotonilco El Grande, but the archeological sites here were on the trade routes among these larger cities.
After the Teotihuacan era, the area was dominated by the Chichimecas with their capital in Xaltocan, who called the area around Pachuca Njunthé. Later, the Chichimecas would found the dominion of Cuauhtitlán pushing the native Otomis to the Mezquital Valley. These conquests coalesced into a zone called Cuautlalpan, of which Pachuca was a part. Fortifications in the area of Pachuca city and other areas were built between 1174 and 1181. This dominion would eventually be overrun by the Aztec Triple Alliance between 1427 and 1430, with rule in Pachuca then coming from the city of Tenochtitlan. According to tradition, it was after this conquest that mineral exploitation began here and in neighboring Real del Monte, at a site known as Jacal or San Nicolás. The Aztec governing center was where Plaza Juárez in Pachuca city is now.
The Spanish arrived here in 1528, killing the local Aztec governor, Ixcóatl. Credit for the Spanish conquest of the Pachuca area has been given Francisco Téllez, an artilleryman who came to Mexico with Hernán Cortés in 1519. He and Gonzalo Rodriguez were the first Spaniards here, constructing two feudal estates, and calling the area Real de Minas de Pachuca. Téllez was also given credit for laying out the colonial city of Pachuca on the European model but this story has been proven false, with no alternative version. Mining resources were not discovered here until 1552, and there are several versions of this story. The most probable comes from a work called "Descripción Anónima de la Minas de Pachuca" (Anonymous Description of the Mines of Pachuca) written between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th. This work claims that the first mineral deposits were found by Alonso Rodríguez de Salgado on his ranch on the outskirts of Pachuca in two large hills called Magdalena and Cristóbal. This discovery would quickly change the area's economy from agriculture to one dependent almost completely on mining.
As early as 1560 the population of the city had tripled to 2,200, with most people employed in mining in some way. Because of this rapid growth and the ruggedness of the terrain, it was impossible to lay out an orderly set of streets. The first main plaza was placed next to the Asunción Parish, which is now the Garden of the Constitution. Next to the (Royal Safe) was constructed to guard the fifth that belonged to the king.
In 1554, on the , now the site of a tennis club, Bartolomé de Medina found the largest mineral deposits here as well as developed new ways of extracting minerals from ore using the patio process. This caused Pachuca to grow even more with the discovery of new deposits and accelerated extraction processes. Mining operations spread to nearby areas such as Atotonilco, Actopan, and Tizayuca. The population of the town continued to grow, leading Pachuca to be declared a city in 1813.
Mining output had waned by the 18th century due to flooding, but was revived in 1741 by the first Count of Regla, Pedro Romero de Terreros, and his business partner Jose Alejandro Bustamante, who invested in new drainage works. He also discovered new veins of ore, mostly in nearby Real del Monte. By 1746, Pachuca had a population of 900 Spanish, mestizo, and mulatto households, plus 120 Indian ones.
During the Mexican War of Independence, the city was taken by Miguel Serrano and Vicente Beristain de Souza in 1812, which caused the mines here to be abandoned by owners loyal to Spain. The war left the Pachuca area in a state of chaos, both politically and economically. The third Count of Regla brought the first Cornish miners and technology around 1824. The Cornish took over mines abandoned by the Spanish, bringing 1,500 tonnes of more modern equipment from Cornwall. Cornish companies eventually dominated mining here until 1848, when the Mexican–American War forced them to sell out to a Mexican company by the name of Mackintosh, Escondón, Beistegui and John Rule. Mining operations resumed in 1850, especially in the Rosario mine.Thisiscornwall.co.uk
Mining operations were disrupted again by the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. The city was first taken by forces loyal to Francisco I. Madero in 1911. Roberto Martinez y Martinez, a general under Pancho Villa, entered the city in 1915. Both incursions were due to the economic importance of the mines here. During this time American investors came to Pachuca, again updating the mining technology used here. From 1906 to 1947 the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company was the primary producer here, with output reaching its peak in the 1930s. However, by 1947, mining here had become too costly, because of political instability, labor disputes and low prices for silver on the world market. The company sold its interests to the Mexican government in 1965.
The decline in mining here in the mid-20th century had disastrous effects on the city. Many of the abandoned houses and other buildings were in danger of collapse. Under ownership of the Mexican government, mining came to a near standstill. During this time Pachuca's economy began to shift from mining to industry. The old Instituto Científico Literario Autónomo de Hidalgo was converted to the Universidad Autónoma del Estado in 1961, which would become one of the impetuses to the growth of the city in the following years, turning out as it did a better-educated and more technical workforce in areas such as law, engineering, business and medicine. In the late 1950s and through the 1960s, some growth was seen in the way of suburban developments for workers in newly built factories.
Population growth returned in the 1970s and continued through the 1990s because of the growth of non-mining industries as well as a development of a large student population for the state university as well as other educational institutions. Another impetus was the movement of many government offices to Pachuca with new government facilities such as the State Government Palace and the State Supreme Court built in the 1970s. Much of the city's growth during this time was due to new housing projects, but infrastructure projects such as the new Municipal Market, the remodeling of the Plaza Benito Juárez and the main bus station also took place.
Geography Climate Pachuca has a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). The climate is cool with high rainfall and occasional hail during the summer months and dry conditions during the winter. The coldest month is January, with an average high of and an average low of . Winter nights are cold and the temperature can drop below . The warmest month is May, with an average high of and a low of . Due to its high altitude, nighttime temperatures remain cool throughout the year. The average annual precipitation is , mostly concentrated in the months May through September. In terms of extremes, the record high was and the record low was .
The city The city occupies a small valley and is almost completely surrounded by large hills, which are also covered in colorful housing. The city centre has maintained most of its colonial-era structures, with narrow winding streets. Away from this centre is the more modern Pachuca, with warehouses, factories, supermarkets and a large football stadium called (The Hurricane). The local team has won eight national and international titles here since it was built. The city proper has a population (2005) of 267,751 which is 97% of the population of the municipality. The Pachuca zona metropolitana (ZM) is one of the 56 officially defined areas for the 2005 Census (2010 not released) consisting of the municipalities of Pachuca de Soto, Real del Monte, and Mineral de la Reforma making a total of 7 municipios, with a combined population of 438,692 inhabitants , up from 375,022 in 2000, covering 1202 km2. Pachuca was declared the capital of Hidalgo by Benito Juárez in 1869.
City attractions
Pachuca is center of one of the most important mining areas in Mexico, and for this reason, most of the city's attractions are based on the mining industry. Many of these are located near Hidalgo Street, which is one of the oldest in Pachuca and runs alongside the arcade of the main plaza (Plaza de la Constitución) to Hidalgo Park. The oldest markets and houses are also located on this street, many of which are well-preserved.
Reloj Monumental