Saltillo

Founded in 1577 by Conquistador Alberto del Canto as Villa de Santiago del Saltillo, it is one of the oldest post-conquest settlements in Northern Mexico. The name of the city comes from a small waterfall that draws water from a spring. Nowadays, the spring is located within the Parish of the Holy Christ of the Ojo de Agua and is still visited by the local population. In 1591, the Spanish resettled a community of their Tlaxcaltec allies in a separate town, San Esteban de Nueva Tlaxcala, located just across an irrigation ditch from Saltillo. The measure was taken in order to aid stalled colonization efforts and cultivate the land. In its early years, Saltillo grew slowly due to the hostility of the indigenous Chichimeca people and frequent water shortages. …

El Cerro del Pueblo (The Town Hill) and its 4-metre (13 ft) cross overlook the city. The city's elevation makes it colder and windier than the neighboring city of Monterrey. Saltillo lies in the Chihuahuan Desert near the city of Arteaga. The city is flanked by the Zapalinamé mountains, which are part of the Sierra Madre Oriental. According to local legend, by looking at the relief of the mountains one can see the relief of Zapalinamé, chieftain of the Guachichil tribe who rose against the Spaniards in 1584. Composed of geological formations of the Jurassic period, the San Lorenzo Canyon, located southeast of Saltillo in the Sierra de Zapalinamé, is a tourist attraction for outdoor activities and extreme sports such as rock climbing, rappelling, mountain biking, hiking, mountaineering and camping. …

Saltillo's local culture shares many features with the larger Northern Mexican culture. However, it has various particularities that denote a great cultural and historical wealth. Some of them are highlighted below. The danza de matachines is a carnivalesque dance that, in addition to being performed in Saltillo, is performed in various locations ranging from the US state of New Mexico to the Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Nuevo León and Chihuahua. As a cultural manifestation, this dance has controversial origins. Cruz Viveros, an academic from Veracruz, points out that it must have arrived in America with the Spanish Conquest, since it is similar to the Moorish dances that were already used in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France since the Middle Ages. …

Saltillo's most famous exports are Saltillo tile and the locally woven multi-colored sarapes. Mercedes-Benz and General Motors both have assembly plants there and Chrysler operates a truck assembly plant, a sedan assembly plant, two engine facilities, and a car transmissions plant. Of all the vehicles made in Mexico, 37.4% of cars and 62.6% of trucks are assembled in Saltillo. Saltillo is home to the Grupo Industrial Saltillo, an important manufacturing conglomerate that makes home appliances, silverware, and auto parts. The General Motors plant manufactures vehicles for export to Japan, Canada, and Central America as well as for domestic purchase. It builds the Chevrolet C2, Chevrolet Monza, Chevrolet Captiva, Chevrolet HHR, Saturn Vue hybrid, Saab 9-4X and Cadillac SRX. As of 2016 the plant produces about one third of the firm's full-sized pick-up trucks.

Saltillo Metropolitan Area air traffic is served by Plan de Guadalupe International Airport. It takes 15 minutes to get from downtown Saltillo to the airport. It has several cargo airline flights per day, but no passenger flights. There is a comprehensive bus system in Saltillo along with many taxis.

The city of Saltillo according to the last official count and delimitation carried out in 2020 jointly by the INEGI, the CONAPO and the SEDESOL, is the 14th most populated city in Mexico with 879,958 inhabitants.