Guadalajara
Guadalajara,
pronounced gwah-dah-lah-hah«-rah
Guadalajara is
a city located in the Atemajac Valley in west central Mexico at an altitude
of 1,552 m (5,092 ft). The capital and service center of Jalisco state and
the second largest city in Mexico, it has a city-proper population of
1,633,316 (1995) and a metropolitan-area population of 3,300,000 (1995
est.). The cities total
population surpassed 6,000,000 in the year 2000.
The
city lies in a rich farming region.
The tree-shaded
public squares and parks of this beautiful old city date back to Mexico's
days as a Spanish colony. Guadalajara
is an important manufacturing center. It
has won fame for its fine pottery and blown glass.
Other products include textiles, hosiery, flour, steel, and alcoholic
beverages. The city was founded
in the year 1531 by Nuno de Guzmán, a Spanish conquistador. It was named for the city in Spain where Guzmán was born.
The surrounding area
has rich volcanic soil and a mild climate, with an annual mean temperature
of 12º C (53.8º F) and annual precipitation of 965 mm (38 inches). As a
result, agricultural productivity is high. Jalisco state is Mexico's leading
producer of maize and beans, which are marketed in the city. A financial
center of western Mexico and an important education center, Guadalajara is
also an industrial city, producing foodstuffs, chemicals, electronic goods,
iron and steel, textiles, handicrafts (such as hand-blown glass, pottery,
and cloth), and leather goods. Universities located in the city are the
University of Guadalajara (1792; restructured 1925), the Autonomous
University of Guadalajara (1935), and a campus of La Salle University of
Mexico (1962).
A large colony of
retirees from the United States live in Guadalajara. They and the many
tourists contribute substantially to the city's economy. Music is one of the
main attractions of this part of Mexico. Guadalajara is regarded as the home
of the “mariachis” groups of strolling musicians, dressed in their
special garb with the large brimmed decorated hats.
They sing their own special music and play instruments such as the
guitar, violin and trumpet at many special occasions.
The mariachis music from Mexico is recognized through the world.
José Clemente
Orozco, a leading Mexican artist who lived and worked in the city for many
years, painted some of his most famous murals in the Hospicio Caba–as, a
19th-century orphanage; the Hospicio is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Several
buildings have murals by José Clemente Orozco, a famous painter. The
city contains numerous significant buildings from the colonial period.
Many of them are clustered around five plazas in the city center,
including the cathedral of Guadalajara, completed in 1618 and containing a
painting, the Assumption of the
Virgin, attributed to Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the
18th-century Governor's Palace, which also contains an Orozco mural. In
addition to the universities, other cultural resources include several major
museums and Agua Azul Park.
Guadalajara was
founded in the year 1530 and
established on its present site in 1542. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla captured
it in 1810, and for a short time it was the center of the Mexican
independence movement.