Facts about Guadalajara in Mexico

Facts about Guadalajara

• it is the second biggest city in Mexico, after Mexico City

• it is the biggest city in the state of Jalisco

• there is a town with the same name in Spain

• it holds the biggest Hispano American International Book Festival- Feria Internacional de Libro de Guadalajara, which is the second most important in the world (after Frankfurt). Presentation of books, sale, concerts, events etc. take two weeks with more than 100. 000 visitors per day.

• it holds FICG – Festival Internacional de Cine Guadalajara – International Festival of Cinema is very important in Latin America.You can watch movies from all over the world right at the street.

• Encuentro Internacional de Mariachi y la Charreria – Mariachi from all over the world, mostly from Japon, Spain and Latin America meet here

• has the biggest market in Latin America – San Juan de Dios with three floors

• there were 2 other places close to the present Guadalajara where the city was established but then because of the wars between the Spanish soldiers and Indians, the Indians were fighting too harsh to protect the area, which made the Spaniards had to move the city 3 times to finally establish the city of Guadalajara at the actual place.

• two football championships were here

• a lot of relationship with Brazil because of the football, the Brazil football players come to the city often

• it is said the nicest Mexican women live in Guadalajara

• very religious, traditional, conservative city – must be the most religious city in Mexico

• the city with most Criollos – Spanish and French inheritage (in the 19th ct when French troops invaded the area and mixed with the Indians)

• the second biggest public University in Mexico, after UNAM, is here – the University of Guadalajara

• it is sutuated above lowland Valle de Atemajac, there is almost no mountains around Guadalajara itself

• the metropolitan area consists of 6 disctricts (Zapopan, Tlaquepaque, Guadalajara, Ixtlahuacan, Tonalá and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga) but Guadalajara itself is the smallest one out of 6, in the middle of them, so it cannot grow any more.

• tapatíos – people from Guadalajara are called this way
• 
• charrería, tequila and mariachi originated in the state of Jalisco, in Guadalajara or close

• there are not many Indians, they were too aggressive and the war against them was so cruel to fight them, so they did not survive

• rivalry between Guadalajara and D.F. like Madrid and Barcelona, and with Monterrey a bit as well (sport level, cultural level)

• pan-american games will take place here from 15th to 31th October 2011. Places for swimming, athletics, volleyball and so on are constructed now in Guadalajara.

• the most famous football  team – Las Chivas de Guadalajara – the most football city in Mexico (3 first division teams are from here)

• it is not a colonial city like Guanajuato or San Miguel de Allende, but with many avenues, the best modern infrastructure possible

• the public transport is not planned enough, only 1 and a half line of subway in Guadalajara (actually it is just a so called light train) and macrobus – big buses going from one stop to another. The situation produces a lot of traffic jams.   

• almost 90 % of inhabitants have a family member in the U.S. in Chicago or California but illegally (the University of Guadalajara opened a high school and wants to open soon a University too in L.A. because of the family members)

• the virgin of Guadalupe is important here as in the whole Mexico but more Virgin of Zapopan is venerated – probably she appeared in Zapopan so people started with the new veneration

• many foreigners here – mostly at the Ribera de Chapala (older people from the EE.UU. and Canada buy a house there to relax)

• has 2 breweries – beers La Corona and la Sol

• electronics are made here and blackberry produced by a Canadian company

• all the families of bosses of drug dealing (called capo in Mexico) came here to live in the  70s and 80s… They came from Sinaloa to have a more comfy live in Guadalajara, so the violence was not really here in order to protect their families; some kind of a zone impossible to touch, but you can find a capo de narcotrafico in a shopping centre or a church.

• the city with the most shopping centres in Mexico, people go during the weekends not only to buy food, but like a social event, to spend time, because the city has not many parks and public places to sit at, so the malls replace the parks – on Sundays many main streets close for cars and are open only for walking and bicycles.

• at night, usually at 11pm, people gather on bicycles and take a different route every night around the city, go to the movies or theatre together

• it is said Guadalajara is the city with the most gays in Mexico; there is actually a place where many transexuals gather at night, too

Typical dishes in Guadalajara

1. tortas ahogadas – typical bread with pork meat inside in a tomato sauce
2. pozole – pork and corn stew
3. birria – spicy mutton meat stew

Places to see in Guadalajar

• Arcos de Vallarta – is is possible to climb up for free to get a view of the city
• new yellow Arcos designed in a similar way to the historic ones
• Historic centre
• La Minerva
• The Theatre Degollado
• Cathedral of Guadalajara
• Bull rings – Plaza de toros
• Stadium Jalisco and the New Chivas Stadium which has an untypical shape and grass around the walls
• University of Guadalajara
• Temple El Expiatorio
• Plaza Tapatia and the emlbem of Guadalajara – 2 lions and a tree
• Instituto Cultural Cabañas
• Expo Guadalajara
• Colomos – literally a forest, not a park, with many birds, an artificial lake, some statues from the sculptures from all over the world, , a so called Jardin japones (Japanese garden) with precisely done green areas, flowers, trees, little lakes. Really an awesome place for some relax in the nature. People come to do exercise and run around Colomos. There is a castle and a dam as well.
• Puente Atiratado is a new bridge that illuminated at night with blue colour
• Zapopan and its Basilica
• Tlaquepaque and El Parian

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Posted in Mexico, tips, travel Tags: Arcos de Vallarta, Colomos, el Parian, Expo Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Minerva, tapatios, Theathre Degollado, Tlaquepaque, University of Guadalajara, Zapopan