San Luis Potosí

Before the Spanish arrived, the dry plains were the land of the Guachichil, a Chichimeca people, and the first settlers of the late 16th century faced constant attacks. In early 1592 gold and silver were found in the hills of Cerro de San Pedro, but the lack of water there made a town impossible, so the settlement was laid out in the valley below. The legal foundation of San Luis Potosí came on 3 November 1592, under a commission from Viceroy Luis de Velasco to Miguel Caldera, considered the city's founder. It was named after Louis IX of France, its patron, and after the fabulously rich mines of Potosí in Bolivia.

Mine wealth and the city's place on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road north from Mexico City, paid for the churches and palaces of the centre. The cathedral was built between 1670 and 1730, the Jesuits founded a college in 1624, the Carmelite church of El Carmen was founded in 1749, and the governor's palace dates from 1770. The Jesuit college later became the Instituto Científico y Literario, which was raised to a university in 1923.

In recent decades the city has become one of the main industrial centres of central Mexico, helped by its position halfway between Mexico City and the US border and between Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. In 2010 the historic centre was listed by UNESCO as part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, and in 2019 BMW opened a car plant in the industrial zone.

Holy Week is the high point of the city's year. On the night of Good Friday the Procession of Silence leaves the Templo del Carmen and winds through the historic centre; drums and bugles sound, but no participant or spectator speaks. It is one of the most important Holy Week observances in Mexico and was declared part of the state's cultural heritage in 2013.

The city has a strong museum culture. The National Mask Museum, in a mansion on the Plaza del Carmen since 1982, holds about 1,300 masks and dance costumes from across Mexico, the second-largest such collection after the Rafael Coronel Museum in Zacatecas. The Leonora Carrington museum, opened in 2018 with works donated by the surrealist's son, has a second venue in Xilitla, in the east of the state, home to Edward James's garden of Las Pozas. Contemporary sculpture has a home at the Federico Silva museum.

The plazas are the centre of public life, especially at Christmas and Easter, when light shows draw crowds to the Plaza de Armas and the Plaza de los Fundadores. The state's other cultures are close at hand: the Wixárika pilgrimage land of Wirikuta near Real de Catorce in the desert to the north, and the Huastec towns of the tropical Huasteca to the east.

The city had 845,941 people at the 2020 census, and the metropolitan area, which takes in the neighbouring city of Soledad de Graciano Sánchez and other municipalities, has more than a million. Residents are known as potosinos.

Manufacturing drives the economy. Foreign companies have invested heavily in the industrial zone, where BMW opened a 300-hectare car plant in 2019, and the airport serves as the main hub of the cargo airline Estafeta and handles freight for industries including auto parts, steel, textiles and furniture. The Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí, descended from the 17th-century Jesuit college, and the state government are also based in the city.

Most people live in the newer districts and housing estates that spread out across the plain, shopping in malls such as Plaza Tangamanga and Plaza San Luis and spending weekends in the Tangamanga parks. The historic centre remains the place for errands, markets and evening walks. A passenger railway linking the city with Querétaro has been announced, with construction expected to begin in 2026.

Potosinos are proudest of their enchiladas potosinas: small, bright orange enchiladas made with corn dough coloured with ancho chilli, folded around cheese and often served with refried beans and guacamole. Tacos rojos are a street-food staple, and tacos sudados, steamed tacos prepared early in the morning and kept warm in big containers, are sold for breakfast and lunch at busy stalls, many of them outside the centre. Tamales are common street food too.

The Mercado Hidalgo, at the end of the pedestrian Hidalgo street north of the Plaza de Armas, is a market for groceries and food, and the streets around the plazas are full of taquerías and cafés.

The state's two other landscapes bring their own food to the capital. From the tropical Huasteca come zacahuil, a very large tamal baked in a wood-fired oven, and bocoles, small corn cakes, while the desert north produces mezcal, which is made in San Luis Potosí as in neighbouring Zacatecas.