Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos is a town and municipality in Jalisco in central-western Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 184.25 km2. It is located north of the Chapala municipality.
In 2005, the municipality had a total population of 23,420.
Geography
Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos is located in the center of the State, at the coordinates 20-21'00" to 20-27'30" north latitude and 103-07'20" at 103-17'00" west longitude, at a height of 1,570 metres above sea level.
It is bordered to the north by the municipalities of Tlajomulco de Zuñiga and Juanacatlán, to the south by Chapala, to the east by Juanacatlán and Chapala, and to the west by Tlajomulco de Zúñiga and Jocotepec.
Its territorial extension 184.25 km2, with 94 localities, being the most important: Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos (municipal head), Atequiza, La Capilla, Los Cedros, El Rodeo and Santa Rosa.
Flat areas represent 62% of the municipal territory, with heights of 1,500 to 1,600 meters; semi-flat zones account for 20% of the territory, with heights of 1,600 to 1,700 meters; and rugged areas account for 18% of the territory, with heights of 1,700 to 2,300 meters above sea level.
Climate
The climate is classified as semi-dry with dry winter and spring, and semi-warm without winter season. The average annual temperature is 20 °C, and an average annual rainfall of 800 millimeters with a rainfall regime in June, July and August. The prevailing winds are east and west. The average number of frost days per year is 8.
Natural resources
The resources of the municipality are part of them: the Rio Grande de Santiago-Río Santiago and the streams flowing during the los Sabinos rainy season, Los Lobos, Agua Escondida (Jalisco)' Escondida Water, Los Pinos, La Cañada and Grande.
It has storage dams: El Llano, El Carnero, Las Campanillas, La Capilla, El Carrizo and El Aniego.
The dominant soils belong to the type pelicver vertisol and planeeric sun; and as associated soil is the Haptic Feozem type. Flora and fauna The flora is represented by species such as Pinus-pine, oak, oyamel, eucalyptus, Laurel of India, Galeana, Pinabete, willow, sabino, ozote, mezquite, guamúchil, guaje, ash, walnut, guayabo, tepehuaje, Mangifera indica-mango, lemon tree, orange, copal, white zapote, tabachín, jacaranda, camichín, zalate, ahuilote, plum, pirul, nopal and other species.
In the fauna there are species such as coyote, oryctolagus cuniculus-rabbit, Dasypodidae-armadillo, tlacuache, squirrel and rattlesnake.
History
About four kilometers west of Ixtlahuacán, at the foot of the highest hill known as "El Picacho," there is a place called "El Varal" because it is a place where "Las Varas" abound, which are long and thin sticks that were previously used to make tapeixtes, huacals, brambles, fences and huts.
In "El Varal" there is an uncovered and flat plateau where from 1513 to 1534 a tribal group from Tlajomulco de Zúñiga used to live. This group was precisely that of Don Francisco Tepotzin who had just left Tlajomulco de Zúñiga. Adjacent to "El Varal" there is another extensive paddock known all as "La Quebrada".
According to legend, in 1533, by the revelation of their god, the inhabitants of "El Varal" were aware that they should find another place to settle because the place where they were would sink and, therefore, they would die if they did not abandon it. By this same revelation they were made to know that they should go up, at night, to a high part on the hillside and that, facing east, they will seek a very bright light. That would indicate precisely where they should be established.
To the south of what is now Ixtlahuacán there was a spring known as "The Eye of Water". The water from that spring ran down to the north, so extensive puddles formed on the plain. At night, in the water of these puddles, from afar you could see the bright reflected light of the morning lucero that has become the planet Venus.
That bright light is what our ancestors of "El Varal" saw from somewhere on the mountainside "El Picacho". The hitherto inhabitants of "El Varal" according to the indicated signal moved to what is now Ixtlahuacan, but did not settle in the plain, but chose to do so in the vicinity where the spring "The Eye of Water" was still, more than four times centenary, a tree known as "Sabino". Years later, indeed if there was a considerable sinking, not exactly in what is "El Varal" but in the vicinity, in a place called "Mexiquito" but now better known as "La Quebrada". Today we still notice the depression of the terrain, although already very disguised by the thick vegetation.
21st century Three municipal police officers were arrested in April 2018 for the kidnapping, robbery, and murder of an employee of the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) in 2017. The same year, the Jalisco human rights commission issued a warning against the municipal president of Ixtlahuacán for rights violations.
The May 4, 2020, arrest of Giovanni López Ramírez, a 30-year-old construction worker, and his murder while in police custody the next day, set off violent protests against police brutality in Guadalajara in June 2020 which were met by increased arrests and police repression. López's arrest was supposedly because he was not wearing a facemask outside his home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, and the demonstrations can be indirectly tied to the George Floyd protests in the United States.
Government Municipal presidents Municipal president Term Political party NotesJosé Ma. Herrera1839Agapito Zaragoza1848Teófilo Zúñiga1869Valente G. González1870Margarito Bustos1870José Ma. Herrera1871J. Pilar González1875Crecencio Velázquez1876Lázaro Herrera1876Mónico García1876José Ma. Herrera1878Pantaleón Mendoza1878Leandro Mendoza1879Mateo Luna1879–1880Marcelino Díaz1880–1881Georgino Zúñiga1881Teófilo Zúñiga1883Maximino Mendoza1884Teófilo Zúñiga1884Mateo Luna1885Hilario Hernández1886Mateo Luna1886Teófilo Zúñiga1886–1887Mateo Luna1888Lázaro Herrera1889Marcelino Herrera1889Teófilo Zúñiga1890Maximino Mendoza1891Mateo Luna1892Petronilo Herrera1892Teófilo Zúñiga1893–1894Rosalío Zaragoza1895Onofre Díaz1896Rosalío Luna1897Marcelino Díaz1898Eulogio Herrera1899Juan Langruen1900Mateo Luna1901Francisco Zúñiga1902Eulogio Herrera1903Mateo Luna1903Onofre Díaz1904Eulogio Herrera1905Anacleto Zúñiga1906J. Pilar Zúñiga1907Anacleto Zúñiga1907Adalberto Herrera1908Eulogio Herrera1909Eusebio Casillas1910J. Guadalupe1910Eulogio Herrera1911Crescencio Zúñiga1911Anacleto Zúñiga1911Quirino Zarazoza1911Eusebio Casillas1912Manuel Zaragoza1913Juan A. García1913Eulogio Herrera1914Juan G. González1914–1915Florentino Zaragoza1915J. Santos Zaragoza1915–1916Bonifacio Neri1916J. Encarnación García1916J. Santos García1916–1917Bonifacio Neri1917Crecencio Zúñiga1918Adalberto Herrera1919Valente D. González1920Amado Gómez1920Anacleto Zúñiga1920Ramón Díaz1921Eusebio Casillas1921Aureliano Díaz1922–1923Crecencio Zúñiga1924Julio C. Díaz1924Ignacio Lepe1925Timoteo García1926J. Jesús Zaragoza1927Agustín Mendoza1927Pedro Velázquez1928Agustín Mendoza1929J. Jesús Zaragoza R.1929PNR José María Herrera1930PNR Nabor Langruen1931PNR Pedro Velázquez1931PNR Manuel Cuevas1931PNR Isidro Rodríguez1932PNR J. Jesús Zaragoza1932PNR Pedro Cervantes1932PNR J. Jesús Zaragoza R.1933PNR Isidro Martínez L.1934PNR Aureliano Díaz1935PNR Maximiliano García1936PNR Conrado Ortiz1937PNR Timoteo García1937PNR José Mora1938PNR Apolonio Carrillo1938PRM Simón Rodríguez1939PRM Julián Aguilar L.1940PRM Rafael Ramírez1941–1942PRM Ramón Coronado1942PRM Maximiliano García1943–1944PRM Apolonio Carrillo1945PRM J. Jesús Cervantes1946PRI J. Refugio Aguilar1947–1948PRI José Mendoza V.1949–1952PRI Merced Ramírez1953PRI Acting municipal presidentJ. Refugio Aguilar1953–1955PRI Ramón C. Ramírez1956–1958PRI Julián Aguilar L.1959–1960PRI Juan Zaragoza Íñiguez1961PRI Acting municipal presidentSalvador Herrera S. 01-01-1962–31-12-1964PRI Eva Herrera Becerra01-01-1965–31-12-1967PRI J. Trinidad Mendoza H.01-01-1968–31-12-1970PRI Juan Manuel Zaragoza Íñiguez01-01-1971–31-12-1973PRI David Díaz Ramírez01-01-1974–31-12-1976PRI Pedro Salvador Sánchez Zepeda01-01-1977–31-12-1979PRI Juan José Herrera Arreola01-01-1980–31-12-1982PRI Raúl Ramírez Real 01-01-1983–31-12-1985PRI María Elba Díaz Ramírez01-01-1986–31-12-1988PRI Juan Pablo Guardiola Zúñiga01-01-1989–1992PRI Conrado Ramírez García1992–1995PRI José Antonio Aguilar Enciso1995–1997PAN José de Jesús López Covarrubias01-01-1998–2000PRI Refugio Silva Vega2000PRI Acting municipal presidentAurelio Díaz Aguilar01-01-2001–31-12-2003PRI Ramón Ramírez Hernández01-01-2004–31-12-2006PAN Octavio Coronado Vargas 01-01-2007–31-12-2009PAN Carlos Méndez Gutiérrez01-01-2010–2012PRI Panal Coalition "Alliance for Jalisco"Marco Antonio Díaz Carrazco2012PRI Panal Coalition "Alliance for Jalisco". Acting municipal presidentSergio Ramón Quintero González01-10-2012–30-09-2015PRI PVEM Coalition "Compromise for Jalisco"Eduardo Cervantes Aguilar01-10-2015–30-03-2018PRI Applied for a temporary leave, to run for reelection, which he gotCarlos Méndez Gutiérrez31-03-2018–2018PRI Acting municipal presidentEduardo Cervantes Aguilar01-10-2018–30-09-2021PRI Was reelected on 01-07-2018José Heriberto García Murillo01-10-2021–PRI
References