Сан-Хуан-дель-Рио: История и современность города в Керетаро

San Juan del Río is a city (2010 census pop. 241,699) and administration of the surrounding San Juan del Río Municipality (pop. 208,462) in the central Mexican state of Querétaro. The population in for the municipality is 268,408 as of 2015. The city and its municipality have the second highest population in the state. The municipality has an area of
The city is located on country's central plateau (altiplano), southeast of state capital, Santiago de Querétaro, at with an elevation of 1922 m. Although famous for its opals, mined at nearby La Trinidad, it is also an agricultural center (corn, wheat, sugarcane, beans, alfalfa, fruit, and livestock). A number of wineries are also located in the vicinity. San Juan del Río is connected to Santiago de Querétaro and Mexico City by the mainline freight railway and Federal Highway 57.

The city was founded on the Feast of Saint John the Baptist June 24, 1531, by Fernando de Tapia, an Otomí chieftain that converted to Catholicism and dropped his Native name Conín. San Juan was one of the first Spanish settlements outside the Valley of Mexico and thus marked the beginning of the colonization of Northern and Western Mexico, including the city of Querétaro, which was founded one month later. The settlement became important since it was an obligated stop during the rich mining regions of Guanajuato, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí.

In what now occupies the municipal area of San Juan del Río, on the bank of the river that bears the same name, discoveries of the ancient Otomí culture who have the ancestry of Chupícuaro have been found, legacies indicating that the area was inhabited around 400 BC. The ancient settlers were sedentary gatherers; carriers of a complex culture and way of life. It is considered one of the oldest social organizations in the Mexican highlands. The Otomí culture made very important advances, especially in the cultivation of maize, beans, pumpkin, and Agave. The Otomí, after having great advantages in agriculture, were grouped in the region around the hill Techimacit (today Barrio de la Cruz); in the glen that forms the riverbed; they built their houses forming the village they called Ixtachichimecapan, which means land of white Chichimecas, and whose chief it was Mexici who later had the Christian name of John.

San Juan del Río was founded as a village of Indians on the day June 24 Thyrean bonfires of 1531 (although for some authors, such as Agustín Ruiz Olloqui the true date of the foundation is June 24, 1526, which appears in a document of the colony dealing about water and which currently remains in the Municipal Historical Archive), and was named for that day being the feast of San Juan Bautista, and because it remained on the banks of a flowing river, it usually had the suffix, "Of The River". It is around this date that the city fair is held annually, in which bullfights, games, concerts, and other cultural events take place. San Juan del Río is sometimes confused with Santiago de Querétaro, a frontier of safeguarding during the confrontation between the Chichimecas groups called barbarians and vice royal expansionism; later, the two cities were the middle ground between Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí mining hubs with Mexico City.

Once the village was founded and conquered peacefully, the organizational and building work began; the first chapel of the village built by the Franciscan religious was built and the main streets were drawn "on an area of 2,500 square rods of good land and gentle slope". The Village of San Juan del Río, the head of its Jurisdiction, is founded on a hillside near the North and Westeros that tops in a broken valley, which is surrounded by all parts of hills. Constructive work during the sixteenth century (1500s) was restricted to the scope of the organization of the town and to solve certain immediate problems. One of the first urban elements of community use was the construction of the bridge over the San Juan River, which practically left the population not being able to communicate with each other during the rainy season. This case concerned both the San Juanan population and the interests of the vice royal government, mainly because it was a place of transit and rest for the constant travelers with silver shipments, who came from the North to Mexico City. The bridge that alleviated the problem is attributed to Fray Sebastián de Aparicio and was built in 1561 (today Benito Juárez avenue, in front of the municipal pantheon). Since traffic over the bridge was constant, in 1621 it had to be rebuilt.

On June 24, 1984, the Honorable City Council of San Juan del Río headed by the engineer Leopoldo Peralta Navarrete, in The Solemn Session of Cabildo declares the new Official Shield. The result of the design was a call that was launched for this purpose of which the painter Héctor Raúl Rojas López was the winner who, in that same session, was named The Favorite Son of San Juan del Río. This shield is composed of a traditional coat of arms accompanied by a pair of headbands that descend from the top and join at the lower central. The coat of arms of San Juan del Río is a composite, Spanish style one, which as well as Portuguese and Flanders flamenco (countries that received Spanish influx) is rounded at the base in the shape of an inverted half point arch. The blasón is divided into three barracks that contain representative aspects of the municipality: in the upper middle is located the image of the Patron Saint John the Baptist represented in half body; then, symbolizing the historical future, there is the bridge of five arches: the great stone bridge, representing the foundation, evangelization, and development during the viceroyalty. The lower environment is divided, in turn, into two barracks that represent the moment before evangelization: to the sinister is located the Otomi rode that symbolizes our pre Hispanic roots when the Spaniards arrived in Iztacchichimecapan (ancient name of San Juan del Río) to conquest. On the right hand, the kingdom of Spain is represented as the meaning of those who founded the people. In the lower part of the blasón is located a gallardete that bears the name of the municipality: San Juan del Río. The author of the shield took elements of the heraldry for its creation, including as the basis of the composition the representative Stone Bridge, above it the image of the patron Saint John the Baptist remembering the date of June 24, 1531, the day of St. John the Baptist when it occurred, according to legend, the Spanish foundation of San Juan del Río and the representation of the Kingdom of Spain in its characteristic colors with the towers of the Kingdom of Castile and the rampant lions of the Kingdom of León, which are already unified here
This is the original colored shield in a stylized design. It is the original work of the author. The enamels (colors) it integrates are: metal: Gold (heraldic) gold; and five enamels: gules (red), azure (blue), sable (black), sinople (green), griffon (brown) and carnation (meat).

The stone bridge construction started on 9 February 1710 by the Mexican architect Pedro de Arrieta. The bridge was completed on 23 January 1711 and soon became the most transited bridge in Mexico as it was the main connection between Mexico City and the northern states. The bridge has greater historical importance as it was the main way to get to Mexico City for all of those who fought during the Mexican Independence and Mexican Revolution.

The city is located in a central sedimentary valley of a rich agricultural area with abundant underground streams of hot springs of about 37.5 O. The valley of San Juan is surrounded by the mountains of La Llave (2,450 [msnm]) of Xajay (2,750 meters above sea level) of Scholastics (2,800 meters above sea level) and Jingó (2,500 meters above sea level). The San Juan River, whose sources are located in the State of Mexico, is the mainstream of the municipality and the state. This river, when leaving the municipality of Tequisquiapan, already with the name of Río Moctezuma forms the natural boundary between the states of Querétaro and Hidalgo and already flows as Rio Pánuco into the Golfo de México in the port of Tampico.

San Juan del Río has a semi dry temperate climate, the rains fall mainly in the summer. Snow is rare in this area, although the hills northeast of the city have been covered with a light white layer.

The flora in San Juan del Río, being in a general study, accommodates the flora "Mezquital", of the regions between 1,400 and 2,000 meters above sea level. However, by specializing in the study, we can say that there is a flora amplitude. The "Mezquital" area is composed of small trees and large shrubs, such as mesquite, piru or pirul, gobystick, cat's claw, reed, huisache, garambullo, granjeno, and nopal; also the desert type plants, such as the biznaga and organs.

Independence Square. Located between the streets of Hidalgo and Guerrero, Centro. It is located in the City Center. In it stands a column, built in honor of Empress Charlotte. At the fall of the empire was dedicated to Independence. It has a large marble tombstone in which it holds the date of intervention ordered by the City Council of San Juan del Río and says: "THE AYUNTAMIENTO IN HONOR TO THE NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE 1865". The blessing of the fountain that was built around the Monument to Freedom was on March 19, 1887. At first, the column was adorned on top by an eagle made of bronze, which was destroyed by lightning. Family Garden Square. It emerged as a public square after the construction of the Temple of the Lord of the Sacred in 1832, the last temple built in the center of the city in a virreinal style. It has a water fountain and in 1994 during the international year of the family was placed a marble statue with the figure of a family, because of this the square is known as Garden of the Family. Founders' Square. Located between the streets of Hidalgo and September 16. It was originally part of the temple of the Sacred Heart, where the pantheon was located. Later it became the Garden Of Cosio and then Jardin Porfirio Díaz; it was also called Jardín Madero and finally in 1981, it was remodeled as we currently know it, with its kiosk. In it is a monument in honor of the founders of San Juan del Río.