Pátzcuaro

According to the Relación de Michoacán, written around 1540, Pátzcuaro was founded by two Chichimeca chiefs who built their first temples here; since both died in 1360, the founding is usually placed around 1324. Under Tariácuri, who conquered his neighbours and took the title of caltzontzin, it became the first capital of the Purépecha kingdom. Power later passed to Tzintzuntzan, leaving Pátzcuaro as a ceremonial centre and a retreat for the nobility.

The Spanish conquest was harsh. The last Purépecha ruler, Tanganxoan II, was humiliated by Cristóbal de Olid on a spot later marked by the chapel of El Humilladero, and tortured and killed under Nuño de Guzmán, after which most people fled to the mountains. Vasco de Quiroga, the first bishop of Michoacán from 1538, persuaded many to return and is regarded as the founder of the modern town. He made it the capital of the province and began an ambitious cathedral, of which only one nave was built. After his death, the capital and the College of San Nicolás moved to Valladolid, now Morelia.

Pátzcuaro remained the market and religious centre of the lake. In 1817 the insurgent Gertrudis Bocanegra was shot by royalist forces in the main square. In the Reform War the town sided with the Conservatives, and under President Lázaro Cárdenas, who was from Michoacán, it became a cultural centre and national tourist destination in the 1930s. In 2002 it was named one of Mexico's Pueblos Mágicos.

Pátzcuaro is the market town of a Purépecha region where the language is still spoken, and its crafts reflect Vasco de Quiroga's plan for each lake village to specialise: copperware from Santa Clara del Cobre, black pottery, musical instruments, baskets, lacquerware, carved wood and textiles fill the shops around the main plaza and the Friday market. The Casa de los Once Patios houses workshops, and the popular arts museum keeps one of the largest collections of lacquered work.

The Day of the Dead is the town's best-known tradition. Families clean and repair the cemeteries and build arches of cempasúchil, the Mexican marigold, at the gates of church courtyards. In the early morning of 1 November comes the wake for the little angels, for children who died in the past year; children also play the teruscan, taking corn, squash and chayotes from neighbours' roofs to be cooked for the whole community. From midnight into 2 November the vigil for all the dead is held in the cemeteries, which is why the occasion is called the Night of the Dead here. Janitzio's vigil draws the biggest crowds, and a cultural festival, canoe races, poetry contests and a ball game played with a burning ball at Tzintzuntzan surround it.

Religion is part of daily life. The basilica's Virgin of Health, the region's patroness, receives visitors every day and especially on the 8th of each month, and the town's houses are known for courtyards and balconies full of flowers.

The city had 60,811 people at the 2020 census, and it governs more than a hundred smaller communities in its municipality. Just under 4,000 people in the municipality spoke Purépecha at the 2005 count.

Commerce is mostly a matter of serving tourists and supplying local needs. Craft making — furniture, textiles, jewellery, ironwork and religious figures — and food processing are the main industries, and farmers grow corn, wheat, beans, lentils and tomatoes and raise cattle, pigs, sheep and poultry. Fishing continues on the lake.

The lake's health is the town's biggest environmental concern. Until 2007 only Pátzcuaro had a water treatment plant, and other lakeshore communities discharged wastewater straight into the lake, polluting it with sewage, chemicals and rubbish, while rainy-season sediment adds to the problem. State and federal agencies have begun a programme to clean up the basin, with new treatment plants and reforestation. Daily life centres on the two plazas, the market and the churches, and the town's pace quickens sharply in the days around the Night of the Dead.

The lake has always fed the town. Charales, tiny lake fish fried in wide flat pans and eaten with salt, chilli and lime, are the classic snack. The pescado blanco, the delicate whitefish that once drew visitors to Pátzcuaro, is no longer fished in the lake because of pollution, though trout dishes are common on local menus.

The region's corn cooking is distinctive. Corundas are triangular tamales wrapped in a long corn or reed leaf; uchepos are soft tamales of fresh corn; and tamales filled with fish are also made. Sopa tarasca, named after the Tarascans, as the Purépecha were long called, is a soup of beans and tortilla spiced with chillies and topped with cream. Red pozole, atole and several cold drinks based on corn round out the local table.

Carnitas, pork slowly cooked in its own fat, are the speciality of nearby Quiroga, which is renowned across the state for them. For something sweet there is nieve de pasta, a milk-based ice cream. The Friday market and the stalls of the Plaza Chica are the places to find seasonal foods, and at the Day of the Dead the main plaza holds the best of the season's markets.