Juchipila
Juchipila (Nahuatl: Xochipillan, "place of noble or beautiful flowers") is a municipality in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, located approximately southwest of the state capital Zacatecas City. Geography The municipality of Juchipila is located at an elevation between in the Sierra Madre Occidental in southwestern Zacatecas. The municipality spans the canyon of the Juchipila River, a tributary of the Río Grande de Santiago, which is flanked by the Sierra de Morones to the west and the Sierra de Nochistlán to the east. The municipality borders the municipalities of Apozol to the north, Nochistlán de Mejía to the east, Moyahua de Estrada to the south, Mezquital del Oro to the southwest, Teúl de González Ortega to the west, and Santa María de la Paz to the northwest. The municipality covers an area of and comprises 0.4% of the state's area. As of 2009, 15.8% of the land in Juchipila is used for agriculture. The remainder of the land cover consists of tropical dry forest (47.4%), temperate forest (28.9%), grassland (7.1%), and urban areas (0.7%). Juchipila's climate ranges from semiarid in the Juchipila River canyon to temperate in the mountains surrounding it. Average temperatures in the municipality range between , and average annual precipitation ranges between . History Prior to Spanish contact, Juchipila was a Caxcan altepetl called the in Spanish sources. The Caxcanes had invaded the area in the 13th century from Tuitlán, now known as La Quemada. The archaeological site of , also known as the Peñol de Juchipila, is located next to the village of El Remolino, south of the municipal seat of Juchipila. Structures at the site date from the late Classic and Postclassic periods, and other structural and archaeological remains indicate inhabitation as early as the first centuries AD. Las Ventanas was one of the most heavily fortified of ancient Mesoamerican sites. Its upper citadel, set above sheer cliffs and accessible only by a steep and narrow stairway with switchbacks, features some of the finest stonework of its kind in all of Mesoamerica. Beneath the citadel is a settlement zone covering more than . Xiuhtecuhtli, the leader of Juchipila, was based at Las Ventanas (then known as Tlatlan or Tlaltan) when the Spanish first arrived in the area around 1530–1531. He and other Caxcan leaders led a vigorous resistance to Spanish colonization attempts throughout the 1830s, until the Spanish finally prevailed in the Mixtón War of 1540–1542. Franciscan friars founded the first monastery in what is now the town of Juchipila around 1532. The church of St. Francis of Assisi, the first built in the region and one of the first in Nueva Galicia, dates to 1627. From 1548 to 1786, Juchipila was designated an alcaldía mayor of Nueva Galicia, its territory extending from Villaneuva in the north to Moyahua in the south. It then became a subdelegacíon under the Intendancy of Guadalajara until 1804, when it was transferred along with Aguascalientes to the Intendancy of Zacatecas. After Mexican independence, Juchipila became of the original eleven partidos