Hidalgo del Parral is a city and seat of the municipality of Hidalgo del Parral in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is located in the southern part of the state, 220 kilometres (140 mi) from the state capital, the city of Chihuahua, Chihuahua. As of 2015, the city of Hidalgo del Parral had a population of 109,510 inhabitants, while the metro area had a population of 129,688 inhabitants. During the colonial period the city was a significant supplier of silver to the Spanish empire and was known as San José del Parral. The name of the city was changed after independence from Spain, in honour of Fr Miguel Hidalgo, widely considered the 'Father of the Country'. In 2023, Hidalgo del Parral was designated a Pueblo Mágico by the Mexican government, recognizing its cultural and historical importance.
Geology
Hidalgo del Parral mushroomed from the base of a hill of silver known as the Cerro la Prieta. The hill, is a part of the eastern foothill belt of the Sierra Madre Occidental, characterized by thick eroded deposits of tertiary volcanics. The bed rocks of both sedimentary and volcanic origin supply both lead and lead-free silver vein bearing ores.
Parral's topography is characterized by both the silver vein bearing ores of its hill and adjacent basins that allowed for: the growth of crops such as maize, cattle grazing, and easy routes of communication to the state capital.
History
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Parral was once a bustling center for silver mining.
According to legend, Juan Rangel de Biezma came here in 1629, picked up a rock on the "Cerro la Prieta" (La Prieta Hill), licked it and proclaimed, "There is a mineral deposit here." This deposit produced silver for 340 years.
Despite legend, as early as 1567, the silver mines at Santa Barbara were established in the territory of the Conchos people. However, in 1631, a vast new silver strike was made in what is now southern Chihuahua. Later, in 1640, it was declared "Capital of the World of Silver" by monarch Philip IV of Spain, at the very height of the Spanish Empire, that included territories in Eastern Asia, Italy, and the Low Countries.
Colonial Era
Urban design and economy
Parral's urban design during the colonial period did not mirror the stereotypical checkboard grid layout. Instead, the city developed with housing situated as close to the mine and hill as possible. Over time these temporary quarters evolved to more permanent, jacales, adobe structures surrounded by corrals plots of vegetables.
The development of Parral's association with its grain farms and stock ranches was based on the region's major physical characteristics and the necessity for agriculture to sustain the region's growing population. Under colonial authority the region was developed as a permanent mine-ranch settlement complex, requiring large amounts of food and labor.
Despite the fact Parral was not the most lucrative of the northern Mexican colonial mines, by 1640 Parral's population was 8,500, making the town the largest north of the tropic of cancer in the Americas, and nowhere else in the Americas during the colonial period was there a larger concentration of enslaved African people living in a single place.
Mining and labor
Labor within the mines was challenging, physically brutal, and frequently exploitative. The principal shaft of the mine at Cerro Prieta was 420 feet deep. In order to access the metals lodged beneath the ground, workers, dug with picks, wedges, metal points, and crowbars. Tools weighed at times up to forty pounds, and miners were working for twelve hours or more a day. Alongside grueling physical labor, miners were also at risk for danger on the job. Diggers regularly fell into shafts, were crushed by collapsing sections of the mine, and breathed in large amounts of silica causing scar tissue and lung decay. The inhalation of silica in the mines would build up in miner's lungs over years gradually causing severe lung scarring, low oxygen levels, and eventually death.
After metals were retrieved beneath the surface, miners, frequently enslaved Indigenous and African men utilized leather bags to bring metals to the surface. Derived from the Nahuatl word, tenatl, a fiber or leather bag, ore carriers were generally referred to as tenateros. Carrying 225–300-pound bags of metallic rock from the shafts to the surface, enslaved miners crawled through low passages and ascended by way of pine logs and ladders, before being unloaded into carts for transport.
A member of the Reales de Minas in Northern Mexico, the mines in Parral had a distinctive militaristic political and social structure. Labor for the mines of Parral was initially hard to obtain as the Chichimec people were not sedentary and were able to resist Spanish forced labor in the repartimiento system. Thus, systems of free labor emerged in the mines of Hidalgo del Parral that attracted large numbers of Aztec and Tarascan workers from the Southern mining company, Axace and Xixime workers from Sinaloa, Opata from Sonora and some Huichol and Tepehuan workers from Durango. Connecting networks of migratory native mine workers and suppliers across the region, the economic sphere of Parral extended far beyond the colonial center's geographic boundaries.
After extraction, metals were transported from the mine to dozens of estates, known as haciendas, across the region for processing. Utilizing the smelting method to crush the ore into coarse gravel and combine it with molten lead, workers separated silver from rock. A few haciendas in Parral did not use the smelting process, and instead utilized patio amalgamation.
Independence
The large area of southern Chihuahua inhabited by the Rarámuri people included the highway between the mining districts of Parral, Cusihuiriachic, and Chihuahua. Asarco managed the La Prieta mine until the boom ended in the early 1930s; the minerals that were extracted were sent to the United States for final processing and then shipped back to Mexico, the US and other markets. After the end of the silver mining boom, Parral was almost completely abandoned in the early 1930s.
Currently, Parral is a medium-sized town in the state of Chihuahua mainly dedicated to commerce and is an important regional center for trade between the southern regions of Chihuahua and northern Durango. It received its first local television station in 1969, the now-defunct XHJMA-TV channel 3, and it currently has one local station, XHMH-TV channel 13.
Parral is often associated with several historical figures, including Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, who was assassinated in Parral on July 20, 1923, and initially buried here; and border ruffian "Dirty" Dave Rudabaugh, a sometime friend and foe of Billy the Kid.
Locals and visitors of Parral can visit the Palacio de Alvardo, a late nineteenth century house belonging to a mining baron, as well as, if accompanied by a guide, the mine itself. Its intricate network of streets and alleys are distinctive features of the city, helping to preserve its colonial style. Urban development has been slow due to the lack of potable water and its complex physical geography.
Notable sites
El Palacio de Alvarado
It belonged to one of the most prominent families in Parral, descendants of Pedro Alvarado owning the silver mine called "La Palmilla." This family was rich enough to offer the President Porfirio Díaz to pay the national external debt. The palace was constructed by Federico Amérigo Rouvier and it is now a museum and cultural center. It has preserved much of the original European-made furniture. The walls of the patio were painted by Italian painter Antonio Decanini between 1946 and 1948.
El Hotel Hidalgo
This historical building was a gift from Don Pedro Alvarado to Pancho Villa and is located next to the Plaza Guillermo Baca.
La Casa de la Familia Griensen (the Griensen Family House)
This is where Elisa Griensen was born. She distinguished herself in Parral history by fighting against a contingent of U.S. soldiers sent to capture Pancho Villa after he crossed the border and attacked Columbus, New Mexico.
The Francisco Villa Museum
The Francisco Villa Museum is a historical building located on the street near the spot where Villa's enemies waited days for him to pass and ultimately assassinated him in 1923. Every year in July, his death is reenacted here.
Casa Stallforth
Casa Stallforth is a palace built in a baroque style, featuring figures from Nordic mythology, that once belonged to the Stallforth family—who along with the Alvarado family, became the town's main benefactors, contributing much to its infrastructure.
Notable events
The annual staging of the Murder of Francisco Villa, a recreation using props from the era, in the exact place of the historical event.
The annual Cabalgata Villista, is a long-distance horse ride with statewide massive participation and a spectacular visual event as thousands of horses enter the city (see Cavalcade).
Food
In addition to its diverse and rich History, Parral is famous for its traditional foods. Parral was recently named as one of the "Ten Gastronomic Marvels of Mexico," primarily for its artisan confectioneries dulces de leche. These include a wide variety of candies and pastries from old recipes based on milk, sugar, and natural fruits. Some other notable recipes with a touch of Parral are enchiladas, barbacoa, steaks and cabrito (goat).
Dulces de leche
Dulces de leche are cooked-milk confections found nationwide in Mexico; Parral has been historically acclaimed since the 1930s because of the distinctive flavor of its dulces de leche—candies made with nuts like pecans, peanuts, hazelnuts, and fruits such as apricot, pineapple, coconut and others. Parral's candies have been shipped around the world; interesting destinations include Vatican City, Washington DC, and London.
These traditional confections arrived in Parral in the early 20th century. The origin of recipes is unknown, although it is believed that they arrived in southern Mexico from Europe during the colonial times. Then, these recipes were transferred to later generations.
One of the most famous confectionery artisans in Parral was Don Pablo Rodríguez, founder of La Gota de Miel. Don Pablito (as the Parralenses knew him) was born in Teocaltiche, Jalisco in the late 19th century. He and his wife arrived in Parral in the early 20th century, after working for several years in the State of Coahuila as a baker and a cook in the Hacienda del Rosario (now Parras de la Fuente) for Francisco Madero and Mercedes González (parents of President Francisco I. Madero). It is believed that their recipes might have acquired some influence from professional chefs also working in the hacienda at the time.
Several local artisans in Parral had recently—in the late 1990s—attempted to imitate Don Pablito's original recipe without success.
Enchiladas
Enchiladas are a specialty Mexican plate also found nationwide, and Parral is traditionally famous for its delicious enchiladas. They are a rolled maize tortilla stuffed with meat and covered with a tomato and chile sauce. Enchiladas can be filled with a variety of ingredients, including meat, cheese, beans, potatoes, vegetables, or seafood.
These other traditions in Parral started in the early 20th century and they gained notoriety in the mid-late 20th century. Enchiladas originated in Mexico. Anthropological evidence suggests that the indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico traditionally ate corn tortillas folded or rolled around small fish. Writing at the time of the Spanish conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo documented a feast enjoyed by Europeans hosted by Hernán Cortés in Coyoacán. In the 19th century, as Mexican cuisine was being memorialized, enchiladas were mentioned in the first Mexican cookbook, El cocinero mexicano (The Mexican Chef), published in 1831, and in Mariano Galván Rivera's Diccionario de Cocina, published in 1845.[4][8] Probably, as with the dulces de leche, these recipes arrived to Parral from immigrants from the south of Mexico.
Among the most famous cookers of enchiladas in Parral was Doña Cuca, near the historical Calicanto bridge.
Barbacoa
Barbacoa is meat from cattle or sheep slowly cooked over an open fire or, more traditionally, in a hole dug in the ground covered with maguey leaves; although the interpretation is loose, in the present day it may refers to meat (traditionally whole heads are used)steamed until tender.
During colonial and post-colonial times, Parral was famous because of its delectable barbacoa or birria de hoyo. Such barbacoa contained ingredients as laurel (bay leaf), garlic, maguey, onions, and other condiments. It was one of the luscious foods of the executives, foreigners, and miners working in the silver mines at Parral.