Lagos de Moreno
When Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla issued El Grito—the call to arms for independence from the Spanish Crown—many citizens of Central Mexico answered. One of them was 35-year-old Pedro Moreno, born near Lagos, who was to become a leader of the struggle for independence.
Pedro Moreno
Good thing, too, because Hidalgo and three other leaders of the insurgency were captured and executed less than a year later, their heads hung in iron cages hung from a granery in Guanajuato as an example. Others, like Moreno, took up leadership of the cause.
Pedro Moreno died in the fighting seven years later. Today he ranks as one of the fathers of independent Mexico. In recognition of his contribution, Villa de Santa Maria de los Lagos was renamed Lagos de Moreno. I bet the civil authorities had a hell of a fight with the ecclesiastics over dumping Santa Maria for an insurgent who fought against the interests of the Church; at the time firmly in the royalist camp.
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Found in a Wickipedia article:
Hyperbole, indeed. But this notion bears on our discussion.Lagos de Moreno is called by Mexicans, with some hyperbole, the "Athens of Jalisco" because of the numerous writers and poets who were born there.
Alfonso de Alba was a politician and one of those writers from Lagos. A much-loved work of his is El Alcalde de Lagos y Otras Consejas—The Mayor of Lagos and other fables.
The Mayor is clueless, ignorant of human nature, given to ill-thought out actions. One of De Alba's short stories deals with construction of a bridge over the river running beside the city, facilitating traffic on the highway from Guanajuato to Lagos during the rainy season, when the river is dangerous to cross. In an attempt to pay the bridge's cost, the Mayor imposes a toll.
Travelers along the road have long crossed the river without benefit of a bridge, because for most of the year, little rain falls and the riverbed is dry. And when the river is full, they just take their chances or they wait. It's been this way for decades. They're certainly not going to begin paying a toll to use the bridge when they can walk down into the riverbed alongside the spanking new bridge, its paving stones unmarked by the passage of feet, and cross the river in the time-honored and toll-free way.
The Mayor affixes a plaque to the bridge that says:
ESTE PUENTE SE HIZO EN LAGOS
Y SE PASA POR ARRIBA
It says "This bridge was built in Lagos." Which settles the question of whether it was erected in place or if it was manufactured in, say, Guanajuato, and towed to its present location.
The second line, I would translate as "You cross it by going on top." Always nice to have instructions for those who can't figure things out for themselves. Or maybe, the Mayor hoped that people would take the hint and actually use the bridge instead of taking the riskier river crossing below. Fat chance.
The story doesn't say how the bridge was eventually paid for. But it still stands today, toll-free, a monument to the inflated egos of the alcaldes of Lagos.
El Puente de Lagos
El Alcalde de Lagos also takes aim at the city's rather elegant parish church, noting that it is larger and more ornate than some cathedrals, despite no bishop having his seat there.
La Parroquia de Lagos
Lagos is a crossroads between Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Guadalajara; long-haul truckers make their way through. It's an important agricultural center. It is important historically and has many monuments, making it an interesting town for tourists to visit.
But few do. No crowds. No tacky tourist shops. Just a genuine city full of regular people living productive lives; a comfortable town. A nice place to visit.