Tecalitlán
| Tecalitlán | ||
|---|---|---|
| Town | ||
| ||
 Location of the city in Jalisco | ||
| Country |
 | |
| State | Jalisco | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 1,326.44 km2 (512.14 sq mi) | |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central Standard Time) | |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (Central Daylight Time) | |
Tecalitlán is a city and municipality in the central Pacific coastal state of Jalisco, Mexico. Located just south of Ciudad Guzmán, its population was 13,265 per the 1990 census.
Industry
One of Tecalitlán's major industries was the growing of sugar cane. This industry ended about ten years ago. Nowadays the economy comes from agriculture and the raising of animals such as cattle, pigs, chickens, and goat. A lot of the money that comes to the town comes from people that have migrated to the United States to work and send money to their families back home.
Culture
Tecalitlán is at the heart of the region where mariachi music was developed, and in fact the most famous exponent of that genre, Vargas de Tecalitlán, was founded there in the 1890s (though now resident in Mexico City). There is a museum of this mariachi in Tecalitlan. Tecalitlan has a lot of traditions, like the fiestas de diciembre which celebrate religion and the love toward virgen of Guadalupe. People in this town are very friendly. A very interesting tradition kept until now, is that every Sunday after mass, people are used to going to the center of the town (jardin) and spend their afternoon socializing with other people of the town. In this Jardin, girls walk one way and boys on the other way so they face each other. There is the cerro de la cruz, a mountain were there is a cross that people go to visit and offer sacrifices.
A local culinary specialty is birria, a savory stew made from goat meat and other ingredients.There are also other foods like tacos, sopes, pozole, tostadas, enchiladas and many more Mexican traditional foods.
Comedian/singer Cessy Casanova, whose father and brother have been guitarron players with Vargas de Tecalitlan, was born and raised here.
Gang violence
On December 11, 2010, a gunbattle between rival gangs killed 11 people during a Virgin of Guadalupe celebration. Armed men arrived in three cars and opened fire on another group of gunmen in the main plaza of Tecalitlan.
In January 2018, three Italian businessmen were abducted by a group of corrupted police officers linked with a local gang. In relation to the disappearance of the three Italians, one of the leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, José Guadalupe Rodríguez Castillo known as 'El 15', was captured by the Federal Prosecution Office in July 2018. It remains unclear what happened to the Italians.[1]
On July 2, 2018, the mayor of Tecalitlan, Víctor Díaz Contreras, was shot to death by an unidentified group of vigilantes when traveling in his car in the town part Emiliano Zapata. A municipal employee who was accompanying the mayor was injured. Víctor Díaz Contreras was a member of the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and one of the youngest mayors in the state.[2]
References
External links
Coordinates: 19°28′N 103°18′W / 19.467°N 103.300°W
