Aguascalientes has an array of distinctive attractions that make it a great city to visit and to live in. For its people, peace and stability are priorities. The production dynamic and the fast growing, the work culture and the ability to transcend, have turned this into a society that achieves what it wants to; with the passing of time, this city has gone through many different transformations, but it has always dominated the adversities thanks to its people, since their joined efforts have made their city show a new face in which traditions are perfectly combined with the rhythm of modernity.
Description
Aguascalientes is a small state that will soon have a million inhabitants, among them, important immigrant groups are counted; some of them are from different states of the republic, or Mexico City, others are from the United States, Canada or Japan. These immigrants have slowly incorporated themselves to the main activities developed in this beautiful state of impressive industrial outline.
With the slow passing of the years, Aguascalientes has had to reinvent itself and adapt to the changes of the world, as very few states have done in Mexico, having to give up on some of its traditional activities, transform some others and even embark on many activities it never imagined, but it is thanks to them that the state features now a solid industrial profile.
However, despite its development in the industrial field, this land is actually worldwide known because of the famous Feria Nacional de San Marcos (National Fair of San Marcos), its traditional vineyards, its many historic buildings and the gorgeous haciendas that once had important roles in the social and economic development of this region from the second half of the 16 th century towards the end of the 20th century.
History
After the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, many of the Spanish conquerors decided to move forward towards northern territories in search of riches. In those scorched lands they found silver beds to make use of and soon those mines became the heart and motor of this zone. Due to the extraction of silver, some roads needed to be open between the New Spain and this new part of the conquered territory, which was then known as the New Galicia, but apart from their riches, Spaniards also found native people who would soon become the terror of the travelers who usually took these roads known as the "Route of Silver".
As a solution to the constant attacks of the Chichimecas (natives from this zone) to the roads, and also as an answer to the war that started as a consequence of those attacks, the Spanish conquerors decided to establish some villas along the "Route of Silver". Those villas were forts used as safe places for the travelers to rest. Then in 1575 a villa was founded in a place where natural springs were abundant and that villa was called "Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion de las Aguascalientes ".
A lot to discover
Nowadays, in the surrounding areas of Aguascalientes, beautiful haciendas can be found; these haciendas used to be eye-catching in the past thanks to the richness of their fields, where corn, wheat, beans, chili and barley, among other products, were grown. Some of them had everything their inhabitants could need for their day to day life, from the shoemaker who would take care of all the footwear, to the person who would make the quilts; a carpenter perfectly capable of repairing from a simple bench, or repairing the complicated plough. Many of these haciendas also had a little school where the children would learn their first words. On the 17th century the owners of the haciendas started to construct impressive hydraulic facilities such as dams and aqueducts to supply the fields with water and achieve a true economic development on their lands.
Some of these haciendas are still intact while some others are in ruins, keeping only vestiges of the marvelous and rich architecture they used to have. In the many haciendas that are still unharmed, the beauty of the façades, the large halls and the thick walls that protect them, can be perfectly appreciated.
When you stroll along the haciendas of Aguascalientes it is almost impossible to keep your imagination from taking a journey to the past, a past that is still felt in every corner, since every hacienda melancholically evokes the greatness and splendor that it once had.