Ojuelos de Jalisco is a town and municipality in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, being the easternmost municipality in Jalisco. The town's 1990 population was 7,265, although by the year 2010 it had increased to 11,881.

It sits at the junction of Mexico Highways 51, 70, and 80. The municipality is located in the North-Central region of Mexico. It is bordered by 3 states: Guanajuato, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes. Also, it is located in close proximity to the state of San Luis Potosi. All of the above makes of Ojuelos one of the municipalities with the most borders in Mexico. It also borders with the Lagos de Moreno municipality in the state of Jalisco.

History

The city was founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro Carrillo Davila in 1569, as a fortification or military garrison to protect travelers against the Chichimecas warriors. The fortification of Ojuelos was one of the seven ones built at the request of the Viceroy Martín Enriquez de Almanza in the important route Mexico-Zacatecas which later became the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. The fortification in Ojuelos was the first being built and it is only one still in place. The decision to build the seven fortifications was made by Viceroy Enriquez de Almanza in response to deadly attacks made by Chichimecas commanded by their legendary leader Maxorro.

Ojuelos has a significant value in Colonial history in Mexico and North America, since its fortification is the only one which has survived to present day keeping its main structure as originally built in 1569. Currently, it houses the offices of the City Hall and a Library.

In 1874, Ojuelos was designated as Municipality by Ignacio L. Vallarta, Governor of the State of Jalisco, after a long border dispute with the state of Zacatecas.

In 2010, Ojuelos was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro 2010. Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was the Royal Inland Road, also known as the Silver Route. This UNESCO's World Heritage Site consists of a series of sites lying along a 1400 km section of this 2600 km route, that extends north from Mexico City to Texas and New Mexico, United States of America. The route was actively used as a trade route for 300 years, from the mid-16th to the 19th centuries, mainly for transporting silver extracted from the mines of Zacatecas, Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí, and mercury imported from Europe. Although it is a route that was motivated and consolidated by the mining industry, it also fostered the creation of social, cultural and religious links in particular between Spanish and Amerindian cultures. In the case of Ojuelos, the specific sites inscribed in the UNESCO Roster are the historic downtown of Ojuelos (Site 1351-018) including "El Fuerte", "El Parian" and other historic buildings, and the Bridge of Ojuelos "El Puente de Ojuelos" (Site 1351-019).

Culture In Ojuelos are manufacture of wool serapes, pottery, and colonial furniture, also elaboration of eggnog (rompope) and prickly pear fruit sweet paste.

Landmarks

Architecture Among other touristic attractions, Ojuelos also has a plaza, El Parián, which is surrounded by 102 Gothic arches. El Parián was designed at the end of the 19th century by priest Luis G. Maciel.

El Fuerte (Municipal Palace). Built in the 16th century. Hacienda de Ojuelos (typical hacienda house, which today is used as a training and meeting center for the parochial church). The Bridge of Ojuelos. Built in the 16th century

Churches Temple of San José.

Parks and reserves Cerro del Toro and the Mayal (Hill of the Bull and the Mayal). Cerro de Buenavista (Hill of Good View).

Most central Mexican place controversy In the Plaza de Armas (Main Square) of Ojuelos (between the Municipal Presidency and the Parish Church of San José) there is a multicolored three-dimensional sign which reads, "OJUELOS" and below this word, in smaller white letters, the phrase "Corazón de México" (Heart of Mexico), and when searching in Google Maps the following: "Centro de México, Ojuelos", the website (or the Google Maps application) displays a satellite map with the legend: "Centro de México" and the image of a white silhouette-symbol of a photographic camera. By clicking or tapping on said camera, photographs of the main square of the town are opened, where there is a statue of a Christ with a crown of thorns, placed on a pedestal in the shape of a truncated quadrangular pyramid, and the aforementioned sign. Presumably this square is the geographic centre of the United Mexican States.

Hoaxes of this kind have been around for decades. The townsfolk of Tequisquiapan, Querétaro, boast of having the "geographic centre" of the country, by agreement of 1916 of the first head of the Constitutionalist Army and in charge of the Federal Executive Power Venustiano Carranza. In May 1970, the municipal authorities of Tequisquiapan unveiled an allusive plaque.

The city of Aguascalientes once also claimed to be the centre, and the authorities of that municipality placed a plaque in the Main Square of that city (it is no longer there).

For its part, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía) indicates that the geographic centre of Mexico, when taking into account only the continental extremes, is located at the following coordinates: , a point to the north-northwest of Nueva Pastoría, a town located in the Zacatecan municipality Villa de Cos.

But INEGI's calculation is based on averages of the means of the several longest straight lines that can be drawn between the extremes of the country.

Government Municipal presidents Term Municipal president Political partyNotes1874 Domingo Macías Valadez 1875-1876 Pablo López 1877 Domingo Delgado 1878 Amado Ornelas 1879 Domingo Macías Valadez 1880-1882 Leonardo Quevedo 1883 Domingo Macías Valadez 1884 Felipe Alba 1885-1890 Domingo Macías Valadez 1891-1893 Santiago S. Cárdenas 1894-1895 Daniel V. Medina 1896-1897 J. Jesús Ruvalcaba 1898 Juan Aranda 1899 Domingo Macías López 1900 Joaquín Macías 1901-1902 Domingo Macías López 1903-1904 Salvador González 1908 Domingo Macías López 1909-1911 J. Jesús Ruvalcaba 1912 J. Refugio Delgadillo 1913 J. Jesús Ruvalcaba 1914-1916 Domingo Macías López 1917-1920 Ramón Díaz de León Medina 1921 Nicolás Mascorro López 1924-1926 J. Guadalupe Delgadillo 1927-1929 José Romo Martínez 1931-1934 Sebastián Arce Moreno PNR 1935 Alfonso Macías PNR 1936 Cipriano Romo Álvarez PNR 1937 Francisco Hernández PNR 1938-1939 J. Isabel Rodríguez Montoya PRM 1940 Manuel Torres PRM 1940 Juan Plascencia R. PRM 1941-1942 J. Isabel Rodríguez Montoya PRM 1943 Fortino Morales Olvera PRM 1944 Francisco González Delgado PRM 1945 J. Guadalupe Urzúa López PRM 1946 Joaquín Quevedo Martín del Campo PRI 1947-1948 Francisco González Delgado PRI 1949 Francisco Delgado Alférez PRI 1950 J. Jesús Quevedo Aranda PRI 1951-1952 José González Ortiz PRI 1953-1955 Francisco González Delgado PRI 1956-1958 J. Jesús Medina Moreno PRI 1959-1961 Antonio Macías Álvarez PRI 1962-1964 Francisco González Delgado PRI 1965-1967 Jesús Ibarra López PRI 1968-1970 Juan Plascencia Robledo PRI 1971-1973 J. Jesús Díaz de León González PRI 1974-1976 J. Refugio Calzada Plascencia PRI 1977-1979 Joaquín Ibarra Alcalá PRI 1980-1982 Francisco González Hernández PRI 1986-1988 Ángel Pérez Lozano PRI 1989-1992 Tomás Gómez Sánchez PRI 1992-1995 Rafael Marmolejo Amaya PRI 1995-1997 Salvador Vela Briones PRI 1998-2000 Marco Antonio Jasso Romo PRD 2001-2003 Benjamín Plascencia Gómez PRD 2004-2006 Juan César Contreras Macías PRI 01/01/2007-31/12/2009 Rafael Dávila González PRD PT 01/01/2010-30/09/2012 José Gil Macías PAN 01/10/2012-30/09/2015 José de Jesús Tovar Gómez PRI PVEM Coalition "Compromise for Jalisco"01/10/2015-31/03/2018 David González González PRI PVEM He applied for a temporary leave, to run for reelection, which he didn't get31/03/2018-31/08/2018 Juan Carlos Jasso Romo PAN PRD Acting municipal president01/09/2018-30/09/2018 David González González PRI PVEM Resumed01/10/2018-04/03/2021 Marco Antonio Jasso Romo PAN PRD MC He applied for a temporary leave, to run for reelection, which he got05/03/2021-07/06/2021 Julio César Escalante Marmolejo PAN PRD MC Acting municipal president08/06/2021-30/09/2021 Marco Antonio Jasso Romo PAN PRD MC Resumed01/10/2021-30/09/2024 Marco Antonio Jasso Romo MC He was reelected on 06/06/2021

Climate

References

External links Government Tourism Municipality of Ojuelos Ojuelos city