Zacatecas

Zacatecas Zacatecas
Photograph of Zacatecas
Details
Population	818.68K
State GDP	$0.33B
GDP/C	$414
Culture	Norteno, with small Indigenous minorities including the Huicholes, Tepehuanes and Nahua

In-Game Description

Tucked away deep in the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, the city of Zacatecas was founded in 1564 as one of the preeminent mining colonies of Spanish Empire, earning it the name "con rostro de cantera rosa y corazón de plata" or "with a face of pink stone and a heart of silver", referencing the deposits of pink sandstone and silver ore its mines and quarries were most famous for. Heavily valued by Spain for its mineral wealth as well as its strategic position, the city was also so thoroughly admired by King Philip II that it was granted the titles of "muy leal" and "muy noble", or very good and very noble respectively. With the onset of the War for Mexican Independence, the people of Zacatecas proved themselves among the best and bravest of Mexico's patriotic revolutionaries, joining with Hidalgo's insurrection just days after the mythic Cry of Dolores, where it would succeed in fighting off the Spanish for a decade, eventually winning its independence from Spain along with Mexico, becoming the capital of the new and free State of Zacatecas in 1823. During the era of the 19th century, Zacatecas would become a growing center for the arts as part of a series of rapid modernization under the dictatorship of the Porfiriato, one that would be interrupted by the Mexican Revolution, where the city would become the site of the legendary, day-long battle where Pancho Villa's rebels triumphed over the army of Victoriano Huerta, considered by many to be one of the greatest and bloodiest battles of the revolution. In the later half of the 20th century, the city has fallen of rough times; Mexican Revolution caused enough damage to the city to trigger a demographic freefall and atrophy, with parts of the city appearing almost abandoned. This lack of development crippled the economy of the city and lead to decades recession and decline, both made worse with the depletion of the cities silver deposits and little in the form of international invsetment. Not all is bleak in Zacatecas, however; the lack of development in the city allowed for it to retain a much older and more traditionally Mexican visual appearance and aesthetic, which has since allowed for the city to transition its economy towards tourism and commerce, with slow but moderate success.