Guadalajara, Jalisco

This article is about the Mexican city of Guadalajara. For other meanings, see Guadalajara (disambiguation)

Guadalajara, Jalisco
Coat of arms	Location
Basic information
Area :	187,9 km²
Population :	1,647.712 million
Density :	8.769 hab/km²
Elevation :	1550 m
Coordinates :
Time zone :	UTC-6
Website :	guadalajara.gob.mx

Guadalajara (Spanish pronunciation ^*) is the capitol city of the state of Jalisco and it's also the second most populated city in Mexico, located in the Western-Pacific region. Guadalajara is known as La Perla del Occidente (Spanish for "Pearl of the West"), la Perla Tapatía ("tapatío" is an informal adjective of origin for people and things from Guadalajara) and Ciudad de las Rosas (City of the Roses). The city is also the birthplace of mariachi music and charreadas. This beautiful city is considered the "most Mexican" city, and the capital of Jalisco, the "most Mexican" state. Guadalajara is also the home to one of the most popular and beloved soccer team in Mexico: Chivas Rayadas.

History

During the Colonial era, Guadalajara became the capital of Nueva Galicia and after the Mexican War of Independence it became the capital of the Intendencia of Guadalajara.

Guadalajara was settled in three different locations (Nochistlán, Tonalá and Tlacotlán) before the Atemajac Valley where it now rests. Beatriz Hernández was responsible for choosing the location saying "I bet for my King and it is my belief that we shall go to Atemajac Valley, and if it's done otherwise, it will be done in God's and the King's service, anything else would be showing cowardice". Guadalajara was then established in Atemajac Valley on February 14th 1542 under the Royal order of king Charles V. The Municipality of Guadalajara is the most populated in Jalisco with 1,646,183 inhabitantsXII Censo General de Población y Vivienda 2000. INEGI. However, The Guadalajara Metropolitan Area also includes the municipalities of Zapopan, Tlaquepaque, Tonalá, Tlajomulco, Zapotlanejo and Ixtlahuacán del Río totaling 3,655,250 inhabitants in 2000. Guadalajara is the second most populous metro area after Mexico City.

The city is named after Guadalajara, Spain whose name originates from the Arabic Wad-al-hidjara, meaning "River Running Between Rocks". The city refers to itself as the Silicon Valley of Mexico. Such high-technology companies as General Electric, IBM, Intel, Hitachi, Hewlett Packard, Siemens, Flextronics and Solectron have facilities in the city or its suburbs.

People from Guadalajara are known as tapatíos. Famous people from Guadalajara include film star Gael Garcia Bernal, mexican music legend Vicente Fernandez, artist Alejandro Fernandez (Vicente Fernandez's son), artist Pedro Fernandez, and artist Xavier Martinez.

The city is served by the Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla International Airport also known as Guadalajara International Airport.

The Universidad de Guadalajara, the state's public university, has its main campuses and administrative offices here.This University is the second largest in Mexico and ranks among the 10 largest in the world. Guadalajara has campuses of several universities such as Universidad del Valle de Mexico (UVM), ITESO, ITESM, Universidad Panamericana (UP), and Universidad del Valle de Atemajac (UNIVA), as well as the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG), the first and oldest private university in Mexico. UAG is associated with the first division futbol club Tecos. The other two clubs in the city are: Chivas and, Atlas.

On 28 October 2004 Guadalajara was declared the American Capital of Culture for 2005.

Disaster

Guadalajara is also known for the great disaster of April 22, 1992, which took place in the downtown district of Analco. Numerous explosions originated in the sewer system, which was inexplicably saturated with gasoline fumes and gasoline. During a period of four hours, several explosions destroyed kilometers of streets; in particular, Gante street was the most damaged. The force of the explosions was such, that some newspaper pictures show a bus atop a two-storied building's rooftop. Officially 206 people were killed, nearly 500 injured and 15,000 were left homeless. The affected area can be recognized by the more modern architecture, in stark contrast with the surrounding area, which has much older buildings. To date, Pemex, the Mexican state oil company, does not accept any responsibility for the enormous amounts of gasoline found in the sewage system, although it agreed to create a fund to compensate the families affected by this catastrophe. Guadalajara is a site of major seismological activity with a high-scale earthquake occurring about every 80 years.

External links

Mexican state capitals | Cities in Jalisco | Guadalajara | Guadalajara metropolitan area

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History

Disaster

See also

External links