Querétaro (State)

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Querétaro (State)

Querétaro (State), one of the smallest Mexican states, today encompassing 4,544 square miles. The estimated population in 1990 was 1,044,200. It is located in central Mexico, bounded on the south by the states of Mexico and Michoacán, on the west by Guanajuato, the east by Hidalgo, and the north by San Luis Potosí. The western section of the state extends into the Bajío, the rich agricultural region long important in the history of Mexico. Rugged mountain ranges dominate much of the landscape of the state. Bordering the city of Querétaro are the Sierra Queretana to the south and the Sierra del Zamorano to the north. In the northeast is the Sierra Gorda, for centuries an obstacle to colonization. The highest point in the state is the Cerro de la Calentura, reaching 11,647 feet above sea level in the Sierra Gorda.

Long the home of Otomí-speaking peoples, the early history of the region experienced the influence of Tarascans and Aztecs from the south. With the arrival of Europeans in 1531, Querétaro became a political and religious province, administered by the city of the same name. Administrative reorganization in the eighteenth century created the intendancy of Mexico, which included the corregimiento (jurisdiction) of Querétaro, which in turn included the three large municipal divisions of Querétaro, Cadereyta, and San Juan del Río. With the independence of Mexico, Querétaro formally became a state in 1824 with the official name of Querétaro de Arteaga.

Traditionally, the wealth of the state came from a combination of agriculture, manufacturing, and trade. Already by the end of the sixteenth century, the region was known for its abundant harvests of maize and wheat and its large numbers of sheep, cattle, and horses. Large sheep estancias (ranches) spread to the west and north of the province as Spaniards laid claim to the land. Wool provided the raw material necessary for Obrajes, the textile factories that dominated the urban economy in the eighteenth century. The location of the city and state of Querétaro between the mines of the north and the densely populated regions of the south stimulated agricultural and industrial production and commerce. Mining, including that of turquoise and opals, around which artisan activities developed, provided another source of economic activity, increasing in significance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

By the end of the colonial period, the population of the region was a modest 126,000. Growth in the nineteenth century was slow and sporadic, reaching 232,289 in 1900. After the reversals of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the population began to expand more rapidly, totaling 355,045 in 1960. Since that time, as with the rest of Mexico, the state experienced very rapid population growth.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Septién y Septién, Historia de Querétaro (1966).

John C. Super, "The Agricultural Near North: Querétaro in the Seventeenth Century," in Provinces of Early Mexico, edited by Ida Altman and James Lockhart (1976), pp. 231-251, and La vida en Querétaro durante la Colonia, 1531–1810 (1983).

Additional Bibliography

Cabello, Gaspar Real. El campo queretano en transición. La Jolla, CA: Ejido Reform Research Project, Center for United States; Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 1997.

Coerver, Don M; Pasztor, Suzanne B., and Buffington, Robert. Mexico: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Culture and History. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2004.

Crespo, Ana María; Brambila Paz, Rosa, and Pastrana, Alejandro. Querétaro prehispánico. México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1991.

García Ugarte, Marta Eugenia. Génesis del porvenir: Sociedad y política en Querétaro (1913–1940). México: Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales/UNAM: Gobierno del Estado de Querétaro: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1997.

García Ugarte, Marta Eugenia. Breve historia de Querétaro. México: Colegio de México: Fideicomiso Historia de las Américas: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1999.

Gilly, Adolfo. The Mexican Revolution. New York: New Press: Distributed by W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.

Monsiváis, Carlos; del Paso, Fernando, and Pacheco, José Emilio. Belleza y poesía en el arte popular mexicano: Guerrero, Hidalgo, Estado de México, Morelos, Oaxaca, Querétaro, Tlaxcala, Veracruz. México: Circuito Artístico Regional Zona Centro, 1996.

Niemeyer, Victor. Revolution at Querétaro: the Mexican Constitutional Convention of 1916–1917. Austin: Published for the Institute of Latin American Studies by the University of Texas Press, 1991.

Pahissa, Angela Moyano. Querétaro en la Guerra con los Estados Unidos, 1846–1848. Santiago de Querétaro, Qro. [Mexico]: Gobierno del Estado de Querétaro, Oficialía Mayor, Archivo Histórico, 1998.

Tostado, Conrado and Aldana, Guillermo. The State of Querétaro, México. Mexico, 1997.

John C. Super

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture