Jerez de Garcia Salinas

Jerez is where Zacatecas keeps its cowboy soul. The town's plaza and gardens are ringed by pink-stone porticoes and nineteenth-century facades, with the Teatro Hinojosa - a neoclassical hall with Moorish-tiled detailing modelled loosely on European opera houses - and the Edificio de la Torre's ornate front as the architectural set pieces. But the identity is charro: saddle and boot workshops line the streets, hats are made and blocked to order, and the calendar climaxes at Holy Week, when the Feria de la Primavera fills the town with horsemen, charreadas, cabalgatas of hundreds of riders, banda and tamborazo music, dances and bulls - one of the biggest spring fairs in the north. Jerez is also literary ground: the poet Ramon Lopez Velarde, author of the country's beloved "Suave Patria," was born here in 1888, and his house is a museum that keeps his rooms and manuscripts. Between fair weeks, it is a handsome, unhurried town of gardens, sweets and the sound of hammers on leather.

History

The town was named by its founders, Pedro Carrillo Dávila, Pedro Caldera and Martín Morelos, after their home town of Jerez de la Frontera in Spain, and in the 16th century it lay on the route of Cristóbal de Oñate's search for gold. The words "de García Salinas" were added in 1952 in honour of the 19th-century reformer Francisco García Salinas, who set up textile mills and opened schools (Wikipedia, Jerez de García Salinas).

What to look for

• The porticoed plaza - pink stone arcades and gardens.
• Teatro Hinojosa - the tiled nineteenth-century theatre.
• The charro trades - saddlery, boots and hat shops.
• Lopez Velarde's house - the poet's rooms and papers.

When to go

Holy Week for the spring fair and the horsemen; October to April otherwise for mild weather and an easy pace. Book far ahead for fair week.

What to expect

Fair week transforms the town - crowded, loud and expensive, with charreadas and bulls central to the programme. Outside it, evenings are quiet. The charro goods are genuine working gear, priced accordingly.

Nearby

Zacatecas city is an hour east; the Sierra de Cardos canyons and the Tlacuitlapan waterfalls lie just outside town.

Key facts