Durango (, ) is the capital and largest city of the northern Mexican state of Durango and the seat of the municipality of Durango. It has a population of 616,068 as of the 2020 census with 688,697 living in the municipality. The city's official name is Victoria de Durango, renamed in honor of the first president of Mexico, Guadalupe Victoria, a native of the state of Durango. The city is at an altitude of in the Valley of Guadiana.

Durango was founded on 8 July 1563, by the Spanish explorer Francisco de Ibarra. During the Spanish colonial era the city was the capital of the Nueva Vizcaya province of New Spain, which consisted mostly of what became the Mexican states of Durango and Chihuahua. The city was founded due to its proximity to the Cerro del Mercado, in the northern part of the modern city, which was believed to contain large amounts of silver. Eventually, an important iron deposit was discovered.

History

thumb|left|upright|Captain [[Francisco de Ibarra]]

thumb|The Palace of Government of Durango (Governor's Office)

The town was named by Francisco de Ibarra after his hometown Durango in the Spanish province of Biscay. The name Durango is of Basque origin. Ibarra also named the surrounding area Nuevo Vizcaya (New Biscay). The official name of the city became Victoria de Durango in 1826, in honor of Guadalupe Victoria, the first president of Mexico and native of the state. The first inhabitants of the area were a people called the Nahoas, nomads who came to the area from the north about 2,000 years ago. By the Post Classic period, the area became inhabited by the Zacatecans and the Tepehuanos, who migrated here from the north-west. officially founded as Villa de Durango by Francisco de Ibarra on 8 July 1563. The site was chosen because of its proximity to the Cerro de Mercado, thought at the time to contain reserves of silver, but instead was found to be an important source of iron. The mountain was named for Captain Ginés Vázquez de Mercado, who discovered the valley on his expeditions in the north. The site was also chosen because it was close to the Franciscan mission at Analco, which was a source of water, wood, and animals to hunt. The Jesuits were also missionaries here from 1596 until their expulsion from New Spain in 1767. They founded the Colegio de Guadiana, which was the main educational institution for northern Mexico during the colonial period. The city regained its role as the province's capital on 10 October 1738. More recent stars to work here include John Cusack, Kevin Costner, Salma Hayek, Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Brendan Fraser. Film production has diminished and the state has a director of cinematography to promote filmmaking. The main attraction for filmmakers is the variety of landscapes. In 2013, the city celebrated the 450th anniversary of its founding. The climate is temperate in the western part of the city, with the average annual temperature being and an average annual rainfall of . In the eastern part, the average annual temperature is and precipitation amounts to .

Winters are mild, with an average daytime high of in January. Precipitation is rare, with March being the driest month.

|source 2=World Meteorological Organization (relative humidity and sun 1981–2010)

|date=January 2012

The municipality

thumb|The Durango International Airport

The city of Durango is the local government for 481 other communities, spread out over an area of . The municipal government consists of a municipal president, a syndicate and seventeen representatives called regidores.

It is divided into two regions, with mountain ranges in the west and valleys in the east. Most of the municipality is covered in forests. Wildlife includes deer, wildcats, coyotes, hares, rabbits and ducks. The climate is temperate. In the western mountains, the average annual temperature is with an average rainfall of . In the east, the average annual temperature is with precipitation of about .

There are several historically important churches in the city. The Guadalupe Sanctuary is located northwest of the historic center. It was constructed between 1653 and 1658 by Bishop Barrientos Lomelín originally as a guest house.

The State Government Palace is located in the former residence built by captain and miner Juan José Zambrano between 1790 and 1800. It acquired this function after the War of Independence. The original interior is Baroque, but it also contains more recent murals related to Mexico's Independence and the state's history, especially in the main stairwell.

The Founders' Plaza (Plaza de los Fundadores) is located near the State Government Palace and next to the former Jesuit College. It marks the place where the city was officially founded, with a sculpted mural depicting the event. It also contains a Mirror Monument and a fountain where children play on hot days. It was originally built as part of the Zambrano residence as the owner's personal theater with the name of the Coliseo Theater.

Like many parts of Mexico, the city has an annual Passion Play for Holy Week. The procession was reinstated as a public spectacle in the mid 20th century.

The Durango National Fair is held each year for 15 days around 8 July to commemorate the city's founding. It begins with a parade of floats and horseback riders, and the selection of the fair queen. Activities include sporting and cultural events such as football, baseball, dance, food, plays, concerts, exhibitions, and showings of agricultural and industrial products in different parts of the city. The fairgrounds are located on the highway that connects the city with neighboring Mezquital.

The Revueltas Festival is named after a family noted for their cultural contributions to the city. It is held at the Victoria Theater with events related to music, literature and dance. In December 2022, the Institute of Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference (Instituto de Diagnóstico y Referencia Epidemiológicos, InDRE) confirmed Fusarium species in the cerebrospinal fluid of two cases. On 24 November 2022, the Secretariat of Health reported that several medications were put in preventive quarantine; on 30 November Fusarium solani had been detected in two patients, and by December 8, no Fusarium had been identified yet in any of the batches of the medications. Most affected patients were women (96%) between 25–29 years, who underwent gynecological-obstetric procedures. Four hospitals had been closed. By 6 February 2023, 79 meningitis cases, of which 35 were fatal, had occurred with new cases appearing "nearly every day". The next day, El Pais reported that contamination of four batches of bupivacaine used by an anesthesiologist were contaminated with Fusarium solani.

Sports

Popular sports in Durango are baseball, softball, football, and basketball. In football, the city has a Second Division team named Alacranes de Durango (Durango Scorpions), In basketball, the city is the home of the Durango Lumberjacks basketball team (in Spanish Leñadores de Durango) who play in the Auditorio del Pueblo Gym. They also have a minor league team named los Alacranes de Beisbol (English; Durango Baseball Scorpions), having a rivalry with the Dorados de Chihuahua, and a semi-professional softball team.

In American football, there is a semi-professional team named Centuriones de Durango playing in the AFAS Master League and a college football team, the ITD Burros Blancos, playing in the northerner conference of the ONEFA.

Demographics

thumb|right|City of Durango

According to the 2014 census, there were 565,300 people in the city and 654,876 in the municipality. The ethnic composition of the city is 52% White, 44% Mestizo, 4% Arabs, and less than 1% Indigenous. The majority of Duranguenses, like many northern Mexicans, have European origins, with most of them being Criollos.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were small immigration waves to northern and central Mexico from Europe and the Middle East. Most immigrants to the city arrived from Spain (mainly from the Basque Country. There were also some waves from France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

There were also immigration waves during World War II from Eastern Europe, (mainly Russians and Poles) and from the Balkans (especially from Macedonia and Montenegro). Romanians and Ukrainians arrived during the 1990s and most of them reside in immigrant ghettos in the inner city.

There are roughly 10,000 Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites living in the municipality of Durango. Durango also has recent retiree communities from Australia, the United States, and South Africa.

Many post-colonial Spanish immigrants were from Galicia (Galicians). The Galician language, cuisine and culture had a major presence in the city for most of the 20th century. In recent years, descendants of Galician immigrants have led a mini-boom in Celtic music.

The Arab and Armenian communities have had a significant presence in commerce and civic life since the beginning of the 20th century. Asians represent smaller communities and number about 1–2% of the city's population; most of them are Japanese while smaller numbers are Chinese and Koreans, the latter known in the city for owning family-style supermarkets.

Religion

The majority of the city, like the rest of Mexico, is predominantly Roman Catholic. Protestants make up less than 10% of the population, most of them are Charismatics. There are also large numbers of Jehovah's Witnesses and Latter-Day Saints, Jews and Orthodox Christians represent smaller communities of about 1,000 each. Muslims in the state number about 5,000–7,000 with most of them living in Victoria de Durango.

Durango is the centre of the diocese of Durango which was erected in 1620 and became an archdiocese in 1891. Originally it covered all of Northern Mexico and much of what is today in the United States. The current archbishop is José Antonio Fernández Hurtado. The estimated Catholic population is 1,124,237 or 93.3% of the population.

Economy

The city of Durango is the capital and economic center of a state that is mostly dependent on agriculture and livestock, with a high level of socioeconomic marginalization. It is by far the largest and most populated urban center in the state.

There are highways connecting the city to Zacatecas (and into the center of the country), Torreón to the north, Nayarit to the south and a new major highway west to Mazatlán. General Guadalupe Victoria Airport receives both national and international flights: six per day from Mexico City, one per day from Guadalajara, Tijuana and Monterrey as well as flights from Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas/Fort Worth (beginning in June 2019). The area contains sets built for this purpose including Calle Howard, Western Village and Rancho Calderón, all with reproductions of wood buildings like those found in the Old West of the United States. The city proper has provided backdrops of Old Mexico. Several old sets have been converted into theme parks, including Chupaderos, Villas de Oeste and La Joya, John Wayne's old ranch.

  • Durango, Spain
  • Durango, Colorado, United States
  • Franklin Park, United States
  • Ningbo, China
  • Sacaba, Bolivia
  • Vigo, Spain

References

  • Gobierno Municipal de Durango Official website
  • Official Site of the State Government of Durango
  • Film Commission Durango
  • Map of the touristic points of interest in Durango