Queretaro is a gorgeous colonial specimen, splashed with the vibrant colors of burnt-oranges, subdued yellows, and tiled domes. Fountains pepper the city, and flowering plazas are often kiddy-corner each other, or just a block apart. Music is an inherent part of the city, and the sweetness of live musicians leeks out of their performance venue and floods the evening streets along with the warm summer air.

For all of it's valor, Queretaro is unique in the respect that, while it does not revolve around tourists, it is immensly welcoming to them. Just open up their monthly cultural calendar, which is a city publication directed toward residents. There are foreign film houses, two dozen art gallery openings, more music venues than they can publish, artisian workships, dance and martial art classes, and more. Queretaro buzzes with it's own activity and allows visitors to hum in harmony.

Queretaro specializes in recounting its numerous legends, and several guides, fit in the drab of their inheritor, lead groups around the evening streets telling their stories, which of course are full of mystery, ghosts, and inevitably death. Evening strollers mill and college students from one of the city's four colleges/universities prepare to go out. There is also ample opportunity for adults to enjoy the city at night; Queretaro even has it's very old "viejotec," or "discotec for the old." Like most of the city's venues, you'll find it saturated with Mexican culture and ambiance, packed with people, and probably graced by a relentless stand-up comedian.

This evening culture is only possible because Queretaro is one of the safest cities in Mexico. The municipality has also prioritized cleanliness, the cobblestone streets are practically spotless.

Wynne Auld

City History

The city of Santiago of Queretaro lies in the Bajio, the central portion of Mexico characterized by a semi-arid climate and sprawling plains with alternating low elevations. Surrounding it are the earthen mounds of Mexico's neovolcanic axis.

Queretaro was officially founded here when the Christianized Indian Conin drew the Chimimec and Otomi Indian groups together and submitted them to Spanish rule in return for his own fiefdom, respect, and independence on July 25, 1531. While this betrayal constitutes Queretaro's beginning, it notably does not reflect its progression. In contrast to other colonial cities, the Spanish and Indian cultures in Queretaro inhabited the same physical space and society. This mezcla eventually brought about the consolidation of local sugar mills, tanneries and mills, in addition to agricultural and cattle production, which created notable wealth within the city.

Queretaro became a refuge for paranoid plunderers along the bandit-filled "Silver Road," which rolled into existence with the discover of the mines of Zacatecas and Guanajuato. The exploited riches were matched by rampant religious architecture within the city. The newly-rich conquistadors filled the city with cathedrals and convents. In addition to the third largest covenent in America, San Francisco, Queretaro boasts impressive examples of Baroque architecture.

Documenting the entire history is the plethora of statues and fountains, including two gargantuan statues of Conin, one dressed as a native, and the other as a "Civilized European," complete with a frock and a ruffled collar. His bone structure has morphed into a European one, and his eyes are soft and erudite instead of brazen. Such is the ironic beauty and time-honored history of Queretaro.

(World's Cultural Heritage, Mexican Cities Copywrite 2003)

Local Government

The city of Queretaro, which holds 46% of the state's population, duly serves as its cultural and government seat. Situated on the main highway to Mexico City, it is a vital center of commerce. Today, Queretaro is experiencing booms in both population and industry. The city holds 150 companies certified by international standards, as well at several trans-national companies. Urban-industrial surface area has grown by 500 % over the past 10 years. With this unbridled expansion, the municipality dubs facilitating sustainable growth and protecting the water and environment among its top priorities.

The municipality has also earned the title of being the Cleanest City in Mexico, as well as being among the safest cities in the country. As a direct result, Queretaro's tourism industry has the capability to provide many evening city tours, offering an awe-inspiring view of the lit-up colonial gems and, of course, the legends of Queretaro, which are so numerous that the municipality employs a full-time historian named Eduardo Rivel. If you can understand fervent, rapid Spanish, track him down and he will be glad to share the glory of Queretaro's past with you.

Wynne Auld

Sites of Interest

In the Plaza de Armas stands a grand statue of the founder of the city of Santiago de Queretaro, Don Franciso Antonio Alday, more commonly known as El Marques. Through an arranged marriage El Marques married a woman of exquisite order and wealth, who thereafter became known as La Marquesa. She demanded the most beautiful house in the city, which holds no other name than La Casa de la Marquesa.

Legend has it that El Marques fell in love with the cousin of la Marquesa, a Franciscan nun, who had her own demands. Supply us with drinking water, she said. The city's river was saturated with the pollutants of the modern day textile industry. And he did. The result is the city's most prominent feature, it's 84-arch aqueduct, which teemed with pure water from an underground spring.

These are only two important historic sites in Queretaro. Others include the place where fathers of the Mexican Revolution began to conspire, the room in which the treaty of the Mexican-American war was signed in 1848, the site where Maximillian of Hapsburg, archduke of Austria, was executed, and finally, the room in which the modern constitution of the Republic of Mexico was signed in 1917.

Additionally, numerous houses of colonial aristocrats dot the city and are open to the public, and there are many architectural specimens, such as the Museum of Art. With a gorgeous baroque facade, this was once the monastary of St. August. Similarly, the Regional Art Museum was a grandiose Franciscan monastary in the 16th century.

Because of its rich history and colonial architecture, Queretaro has been named a Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Wynne Auld