Chihuahua

Chihuahua grew from silver. Mines were found at Santa Eulalia in 1652, and a second rush followed new finds in 1707, but the mining camp sat in rough hills with no room to grow. On 12 October 1709 the governor of Nueva Vizcaya, Antonio Deza y Ulloa, settled a tied vote by choosing the valley where the Chuvíscar and Sacramento rivers meet, and the Real de Minas de San Francisco de Cuéllar was founded there. It became the town of San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua in 1718, and a special tax on Santa Eulalia's silver paid for its great church, now the cathedral. Governors preferred to live here rather than in Durango, the official capital.

The town has seen many turning points in Mexican history. Miguel Hidalgo, the priest who launched the independence war, was imprisoned here and shot in 1811. United States troops occupied the city after the Battle of Sacramento in 1847, and in 1864–66 Benito Juárez made it the seat of his government during the French intervention. In the Porfiriato, after the railway arrived in 1882, it grew rapidly into one of the most important cities in Mexico. In the Revolution it was the base of Pancho Villa's División del Norte, and Villa served as governor of the state from December 1913.

In the 20th century Chihuahua lived on cattle and trade until foreign-owned factories arrived in the 1970s. Many colonial buildings were destroyed in the 1970s to widen streets, and in 1983 the opposition National Action Party won the city for the first time. Much of the historic centre has since been pedestrianised.

Chihuahua is at the heart of norteño identity: ranch culture, cowboy hats and boots, plain speaking and pride in the north's role in the Revolution. Pancho Villa is the city's great hero, remembered at his former home, now the revolution museum, and at a mausoleum in the Parque de la Revolución. Miguel Hidalgo and Benito Juárez have their own places of memory in the palaces and museums downtown, and the murals of the Government Palace and the university auditorium tell the history of the state.

Public art is a point of pride. Sculpture lines the main boulevards, including works by the Chihuahuan sculptor Sebastián. The patron saint, Rita of Cascia, gives her name to the city's big annual fair in May, now combined with a livestock show and famous for its concerts, and the International Festival of Chihuahua brings art, theatre and music in September and October. The university symphony orchestra plays at the Paraninfo in summer, and bullfights are held at the La Esperanza bullring in summer and autumn.

The state's Indigenous Rarámuri and its Mennonite farming communities are also part of Chihuahua's identity. Sport includes the Dorados basketball team and the Caudillos American football team.

The 2020 census counted about 925,000 people in the city and about 990,000 in the metropolitan area. Chihuahua ranks among the highest cities in Mexico for human development, literacy is about 98 per cent, and it is rated among the six Mexican cities with very high urban competitiveness.

Industry dominates. Nine major industrial parks hold foreign-owned maquiladora plants making electrical and electronic components for export, alongside domestic heavy industry and consumer goods. Chihuahua is the largest maquiladora centre away from the border, attracting companies that want quick access to the United States without the border's higher costs. Universities such as the Autonomous University of Chihuahua and the Instituto Tecnológico train engineers and managers, and a growing middle class fills the malls along the Periférico de la Juventud.

The city spreads in an L-shape across plains and around three hills, with new gated developments, called fraccionamientos, built on its edges every year. Downtown stays busy by day with shoppers on Libertad Street, and in the evening some of the old mansions turn into dance halls with live bands. The Chuvíscar and Chihuahua dams supply water and hold back floods, and water shortages are a constant issue in the desert cities of the region.

This is beef country. Carne seca, dried beef, is the classic local ingredient; shredded, as machaca, it is scrambled with eggs, and flour tortillas are the northern staple, wrapped around burritos. Dishes in red chile colorado sauce and grilled meats are everywhere, and pan de elote, a corn bread, and chacales appear on the table too. Other northern dishes include lentils, capirotada, chile con queso and discada.

Chihuahua's Mennonite farmers, centred on Cuauhtémoc to the west, make a mild melting cheese sold as queso menonita or queso Chihuahua. The state is also the country's leading producer of apples and nuts.

Sotol, distilled from the desert spoon plant, is the traditional drink of the state; tesgüino, the corn beer of the Rarámuri, belongs to the sierra. The city's restaurants range from northern grills and Chinese buffets to international fast-food chains, many on Libertad Street downtown or the Periférico de la Juventud.