Bajío

Region in Central Mexico

The Bajío (the lowland) is a cultural and geographical region within the central Mexican plateau which roughly spans from northwest of Mexico City to the main silver mines in the northern central part of the country. This includes (from south to north) the states of Querétaro, Guanajuato, parts of Jalisco (Centro, Los Altos de Jalisco), Aguascalientes and parts of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and Michoacán. Located at the border between Mesoamerica and Aridoamerica, El Bajío saw relatively few permanent settlements and big civilizations during Pre Columbian history, being mostly inhabited by nomadic tribes known to the Aztecs as "The Chichimeca" peoples (the barbarians), another Nahua group from whom the Toltec and the Aztecs were probably descended. The tribes that inhabited El Bajío proved to be some of the hardest to conquer for the Spanish—peace was ultimately achieved via truce and negotiation—but due to its strategic location in the Silver Route, it also drew prominent attention from the Spanish crown and some of the flagship Mexican colonial cities had to be built there, such as Guanajuato and Zacatecas. Abundant mineral wealth and favorable farming conditions would soon turn the region into one of New Spain's wealthiest. At the beginning of the 19th century, El Bajío was also place to the ignition of the Mexican War of Independence, and saw most of its battles during the initial phase of the war, including the Cry of Dolores, the storming of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas and the Battle of Calderón Bridge. Nowadays, the region features one of the strongest economies in Mexico and Latin America, drawing both domestic investment from the adjacent, industry heavy State of Mexico, as well as foreign companies in seek for cheap specialized labor and decent infrastructure (mostly American, Japanese and to some extent, European vehicle and electronics companies). The largest cities of the Bajío are Guadalajara, León, Santiago de Querétaro, and Aguascalientes.

Recent archeological studies of the Bajío have discovered an extensive historic cultural tradition that is unique to the region, particularly along the flood plains of the Lerma and the Laja Rivers. The Bajío Culture flourished from 300 to 650 CE, with cultural centers ranging from El Cóporo in the far north of Guanajuato to Plazuelas in the far southwest. More than 1,400 sites have been discovered throughout the state of Guanajuato, with only the sites of Cañada de la Virgen, El Cóporo, Peralta, and Plazuelas having received extensive study. The region was also known as La Gran Chichimeca in later years and was the epicenter of the Chichimeca War in the 16th century and the cradle of Mexican War of Independence from 1810. In the Bajío in April 1915, during the Mexican Revolution, General Álvaro Obregón provoked decisive battles against Pancho Villa, whose troops lost in June that year outside the city of Celaya, in the State of Guanajuato.

In general usage, the region is usually associated with the States of Guanajuato and Querétaro, even though those two states form only a part of the Bajío. It is now characterized by its highly mechanized agriculture, with mean precipitation in the order of per annum (one of the highest in the country). During the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the area was known as the breadbasket of the territory. As of 2014, the region produces sorghum, wheat and maize as its main crops. The Bajío region lies in the basin of the Rio Lerma and Río Grande de Santiago.

StateAguascalientes GuanajuatoJaliscoQuerétaroSealCapitalAguascalientesGuanajuatoGuadalajaraQuerétaroSecondary states sometimes considered as partly contributing to El Bajío or enclosing it: Michoacán, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and Estado de México (State of Mexico).

Today, the region is one of the fastest growing in the country. This has caused the metropolitan areas to attract many migrants from other parts of Mexico. The region has had an outstanding industrial and economic development in the last 15 years. The cities of El Bajío have one of the highest income per capita figures in Mexico.

El Bajio has long been a hub for the national industrial market, because it naturally sits between Mexico's three main cities: Mexico City to the south, Guadalajara to the west and Monterrey to the northeast. The region has attracted foreign companies due to its relative proximity to the United States, second only in American manufacturing plants to the Mexico US border. Faster access to port cities such as Manzanillo, Tampico and Veracruz compared to border cities is also attractive for Asian and European markets. The main investor was Japan, although the United States, South Korea, Germany, France, Italy and Spain also have important presence in the area. It is estimated that, by 2016, Asian foreign direct investment totaled over 1.5 billion dollars. Guanajuato (León Silao and Celaya) hosts General Motors, Pirelli, Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Denso, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo plants. Aguascalientes hosts Nissan, Renault, Mercedes, Yazaki and Jatco plants. Querétaro hosts Mitsubishi, Samsung, Bombardier and Safran plants. San Luis Potosí hosts BMW and Yazaki. The first Japanese consulate was inaugurated in January 2016 in León to serve the Bajío region. As of 2017 there were 1143 Japanese, 294 United Statesians and 200 Spanish legal immigrants in Aguascalientes according to the immigration authorities, although the total number of immigrants is thought to be much higher. In 2015, authorities reported a total of 6230 legally registered immigrants in the state of Querétaro, most of them from the United States, Spain, Colombia, South Korea, Germany, Cuba, France, Canada, Japan and Venezuela. Now archetypal in the development plans of the local governments, these business partnerships with multinational corporations have been criticized for exploiting Mexico's weak labor laws and low wages, lacking long term potential of benefiting the local population and for outsourcing jobs out of their countries of origin in the developed world.

The Bajío is known for being the cradle of Mexican independence from the Spanish Empire, and for being one of the conservative bastions of Mexican Catholicism.