Juanacatlán () is a town and municipio (municipality) in the central region of the Mexican state of Jalisco.
Origin of name Juanacatlán gets its name from the Nahuatl word "Xonacatlan", which means place abundant in onions or onion place (from "Xonaca" for onions and "Tlan" for place).
The hieroglyph of Juanacatlán includes the symbol of the Tlaxcala, representing the battles and the places where the Tlaxcaltecans went with the Nuño de Guzmán expedition, after the conquest of Mexico.
Seal The seal of Juanacatlán is based on the region's economic activities and history, and is divided into four parts:
In the center: Nahuatl ideogram of Tlaxcala, which signifies "Xonacatlan" in the indigenous vocabulary, from which is derived the name of the population. Upper left: This section includes symbols of the principal economic activity of the region, agriculture, and presents the basic products produced: wheat and corn, against a base of stone, and the image of Papantón hill, a monumental figure from the countryside that dominates the municipio. Upper right: at the base are the arches of the first public building of the area, that of the Municipal President, and in front, the Cross of Cantera, monument upon whose rectangular faces are inscribed the date of the foundation of the region's population. Lower part: As a memory of the past, the celebrated waterfall of El Salto de Juanacatlán, today almost gone, but once a monument that gave the region national recognition.
The leaves that surround the seal are identical to those in the seal of Jalisco, whose people Juanacatlán joins as a national entity. The seal was approved by H. Cabildo de Juanacatlán in 1993. Its creation was the responsibility of the teacher María de Lourdes Torres Alaniz, from the Municipality of Juanacatlán.
History Although "place of onions" has been claimed to be a necessarily inappropriate translation of the indigenous name (as the onions were brought by the conquistadors), the origin of the name was in fact a different, native, plant- a type of jicama or cebollita as is commonly known in the region. The Jalisco writer Juan José Arreola translates the name as "place of the good onions".
In prehispanic times, the Xonacatlan region was part of the Tololotlán kingdom, which was itself part of the feudal Tonalá kingdom, one of four kingdoms that composed the Chimalhuacana federation.
In 1529, Nuño de Guzmán arrived in the area, while conquering the kingdoms of Tonalá and Xalisco. Later, the people of Coyula, Juanacatlán, Tatepozco and Tololotlán (because their populations were so small) were defeated. On March 25, 1530, Nuño de Guzmán took formal possession of the territory in the name of the Spanish monarch.
Beginning in 1531, the natives of the Xonacatlán region were converted and evangelized in the Christian faith by the religious order of San Francisco: Friar Antonio de Segovia, Fray Juan de Padilla, Fray Andrés de Córdova and Juan de Badillo. That same year, Father Segovia founded the convent of Our Lady of the Assumption in Tetlán, near modern-day Guadalajara.
Geography The municipio of Juanacatlán in the east-central part of the state, between 20° 24' 00" and 20° 32' 15" northern latitude and between 103° 03' 10" and 103° 15' 00" west latitude, at an altitude of 1,530m.
It is bordered to the north by Tonalá and Zapotlanejo, to the south by Chapala and Poncitlán; to the east by Zapotlán del Rey, and to the west by Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, El Salto, and Tlajomulco de Zuñiga.
Climate The climate of the municipio is semi-dry in winter, with dry summers, and somewhat hot without a defined winter pattern. The average annual temperature is 20.1 °C, and the average annual precipitation is 819.1 mm, with a rainy season from June to August.
The dominant winds are from the east, west, and south. There's an average of 12 freezing days per year.
Hydrography The region's hydrography includes the Santiago River, which surrounds much of the town, and the streams that flow in the rainy season: the Colorado, Buenavista Los Corteses, La Cruz, la Tinaja, El Gallo, El Puerto, Hondo, Miseria, Chiquito, Lomelines, and Limoncillo.
There is also the Santiago River Channel and the irrigation channel deriving from the Corona Dam.
The municipio's water resources belong to the town Lerma-Chapala-Santiago basin and the Verde-Atotonilco sub-basin. Since companies appearing in the industrial corridor of El Salto have polluted the waters, the waterfall that once attracted hundreds of visitors is now a hotbed of infection, with a terrible odor, worse in times of heat. This has led to the appearance of respiratory diseases, various cancers, and heart disease. The Rio Lerma and Rio Santiago have become the most serious threats among the populations of El Salto and Juanacatlán.
Many people of Jalisco blame former President Vicente Fox's completed project, The El Cajón Dam, a hydroelectric dam on the Río Grande de Santiago in the Mexican state of Nayarit.
Natural resources The region benefits from a natural wealth including a 933 ha forest with species such as oak, oak, ash and Tabachines, mainly.
Its main mineral resources are sandbars. Among the species of fauna are mountain lions, rabbits, squirrels, skunks, foxes, snakes, coyotes and armadillos. The soils belong to the dominant type "Vertisol pélico" and "Regosol eútrico" and the associated soil type "Feozem háplico".
In the forested region are species such as oak, giant oak, Tabachines and ash. There are also minor species such as: guamúchil, bell, captain, tepamé, mesquite, nopal, huizache, and a variety of fruit trees.
Localities NamePopulation (2020) La Aurora 16,635 Juanacatl%C3%A1n 9,626 San Antonio Juanacaxtle 1,564 Ex-Hacienda de Zapotlanejo 967 Miraflores 449 Casa de Teja 353 Rancho Nuevo (Estancia de Guadalupe) 336
Economy The region's key local crops are maize and sorghum. It breeds cattle, producing meat and milk, and breeds pigs, sheep, goats, horses, poultry meat and postura and colmenas. The main branch of industry is manufacturing.
Fishing in the Rio Santiago produces species such as catfish, lobina, carp and frog on a small scale for local consumption.
The Juanacatlán Lagoon offers a landscape worthy of admiration, for the transparency of its water and vegetation, with a surrounding forest of conifers.
The municipal seat provides financial, professional, technical, communal, social, personal and maintenance services.
Government Municipal presidents Municipal presidentTermPolitical partyNotesJ. Santos Plascencia1898Carlos Loza1901Cayetano Rodríguez1902J. Santos Plascencia1903Juan Bravo y Juárez1912Pedro J. Lomelí1913José Ma. Parraga1914José Ma. Parraga1915Severiano Beltrán1915Donacio Briseño1915Genaro Carrillo1915Carlos Maldonado1916Domingo Velázquez1916Domingo Velázquez1917Blas Arias1918Carlos Maldonado1918Severiano Beltrán1919Eusebio Arriaga1919Conrado Arias1919Lucio Casillas1920Domingo Velázquez1920José María Vázquez1920Francisco Vega1921José Velazco1921José Rodríguez1921Francisco Vega1921Francisco Vega1922Manuel Martínez1922Conrado Arias1923Leonardo Barba1923Leonardo Barba1924Eusebio Arriaga1924Ramón M. Torres1925Blas Casillas1925Bruno Casillas1925Alfredo A. Ibarra1925Miguel Avilés1927Blas Arias1927Alfredo A. Ibarra1928Lucio Casillas1930PNR Lucio Casillas1931PNR M. L. Gallardo1932PNR José Cadena1933PNR Catarino Barba1934PNR Catarino Barba1935PNR Pedro Arámbula1935PNR Salvador Martínez1935PNR Enrique Briseño1937PNR Enrique Briseño1938PNR Manuel Torres1938PRM O.D.O.C.1940PRM Enrique Briseño1940PRM Ramón González Zamora1941PRM Ramón González Zamora1942PRM Rufino Zaragoza1943PRM J. Jesús Morales1944PRM Enrique Briseño Plascencia1945PRM Enrique Briseño Plascencia1946PRI Sebastián Valenzuela1947PRI J. Guadalupe Pérez1947PRI A. Cortés1947PRI Sebastián Valenzuela1948PRI A. Cortés1949PRI José Zavala A.1949PRI José Zavala A.1950PRI José Zavala A.1951PRI José Zavala A.1952PRI Ramón F. Rivera1956PRI Pedro Villalpando1958PRI Antonio Orozco01-01-1959–31-12-1961PRI Aurelio Franco Torres01-01-1962–31-12-1964PRI Julián Casillas01-01-1965–31-12-1967PRI J. Guadalupe Maldonado Hernández01-01-1968–31-12-1970PRI J. Jesús Briseño García 01-01-1971–31-12-1973PRI Fermín García01-01-1974–31-12-1976PRI Casiano Coronado01-01-1977–31-12-1979PRI J. Jesús García Briseño01-01-1980–31-12-1982PRI Esthela Cervantes de Parra 01-01-1983–31-12-1985PRI Rigoberto Franco Palos01-01-1986–31-12-1988PRI Pedro Cárdenas López01-01-1989–1992PRI Mario Venegas Vizcarra1992–1995PAN Juan Olmos Flores1995–1997PAN Alfredo Torres Ibarra01-01-1998–31-12-2000PRI Raymundo Orozco Ramírez01-01-2001–31-12-2003PAN Socorro Ramírez Márquez01-01-2004–31-12-2006PAN Ramiro Tapia Ornelas 01-01-2007–31-12-2009PRI Lucio Carrero García01-01-2010–30-09-2012PRI Panal Coalition "Alliance for Jalisco"José Pastor Martínez Torres01-10-2012–30-09-2015PRI PVEM Coalition "Compromise for Jalisco"J. Refugio Velázquez Vallín01-10-2015–30-09-2018MC Adriana Cortés González01-10-2018–30-09-2021MC Francisco de la Cerda Suárez01-10-2021–PAN Notable people Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez – Mexican Boxer, Middleweight champion. Rigoberto Álvarez – Mexican Boxer, a contender in the Middleweight division.
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