ZACATECAS CAPITAL

Zacatecas is a Mexican city, capital of the state of Zacatecas and head of the homonymous municipality. A Spanish host arrived in what is now the city on September 8, 1546, discovering rich silver mines by Juan de Tolosa. On January 20, 1548, the city was officially founded and it was given the name Real de Minas de Nuestra Señora de los Zacatecas. Its mineral wealth gave strong income to the Spanish Crown, which made it possible for it to receive the title of City of Nuestra Señora de los Zacatecas. It is the Catholic episcopal seat of the diocese of Zacatecas, and with the neighboring city of Guadalupe it forms a metropolitan area. With a population of 138,444, it is the third most populous city in the state, while its metropolitan area has 405,285 inhabitants, making it the 44th most populous metropolitan area in the country.
Zacatecas holds the titles of Very Noble and Very Loyal City of Zacatecas, granted by King Philip II of Spain on June 20, 1588 in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid. Thanks to its strategic position and the benefits of its silver mining, the city came to be considered the second most important city in New Spain. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city was the scene of what is considered the most important battle of the Mexican Revolution: the capture of Zacatecas, fought on June 23, 1914, when the forces of Francisco Villa took the city in one day fighting against the army of Victoriano Huerta and to a large extent defined the destiny of the country. The city was left after the Revolution with half the inhabitants it had; the 1910 population census indicated that there were 25,900; the next, from 1920, indicated that there were 15,462, also coupled with the decline of mining, the depopulation of the city was more notorious.6 7 On June 23, 2010 it was named Heroic City by the LX Legislature of the Legislative Power of the State of Zacatecas, and the City Council published the solemn proclamation on November 10 of that same year.