Colima (city)


Colima, located in west−central Mexico, is the capital of the state of the same name and the seat of the municipality of the same name. It is the easternmost and second-largest municipality of Colima, behind Manzanillo. It is located near the Colima volcano, which divides the state from Jalisco. The city of Colima is part of the which also includes Villa de Álvarez and other municipalities.
In 2011, FDI Intelligence, a subsidiary of the Financial Times of London, ranked Colima first in small cities and tenth in Latin America as a place to live. It was evaluated under six categories: economic potential, human resources, cost-benefit ratio, quality of life, infrastructure and favorable business environment. In 2022, however, Colima was ranked as the murder capital of the world with a homicide rate of 182 per 100,000.

Places

The historic center of the city is a square called Jardín Libertad. It consists of a kiosk in the center, brought from Belgium in 1891, surrounded by palms and leafy trees and bushes. It often hosts live music on weekends.
The best known hotel of the city is Hotel Ceballos, located just off the main square called Jardín Libertad behind a set of arches. The hotel was begun by the Ceballos family. Hotel Ceballos has an area under and in front of the arches for outdoor dining. Here and in other restaurants in the city, one can try popular dishes such as atole with milk, white pozole, white menudo, tatemado, pipián mole, birria and sopes. On the side of the hotel, there is pedestrian street called Andador Constitución. It retains traditional businesses such as the Joven Don Manuelito ice cream shop, which has been there since 1944. On the street proper, one can see street musicians and artists offering to paint or draw landscapes and portraits. At the end of this street, there is a large handcrafts store funded by a government agency called DIF, which focuses on crafts from the state such as indigenous clothing and ceramic figures, especially those of the Mexican hairless dog also known as the Xoloizcuintle or simply Xolo.
The Colima cathedral is called the Basílica Menor Catedral de Colima. The current structure was built in 1894, but since then it has been renovated various times, often due to earthquake damage. The style is Neoclassical with two towers at the front and a dome. The interior is sparse. The former state government palace is next to the cathedral. It is a two-story buildings in French Neoclassical design. It was finished in 1904 and designed by Lucio Urbe, who also did the cathedral. The façade contains a bell, which is a replica of the one Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang in Dolores Hidalgo and a clock brought over from Germany. The building surrounded an inner courtyard marked off by arches. The main stairwell contains mural work done in 1953 by the Coliman artist, Jorge Chávez Carrillo. The park behind the cathedral is Jardin Gregorio Torres Quintero, which contains mango, tabachin and palm trees along with stands selling handcrafts, novelties and food. Stands here and other places in the city sell a local drink called the "bate" which is thick and somewhat gray in color, made from a toasted seed called chan or chía along with honey or piloncillo. Another traditional drink sold on streets and parks is called "tuba". It is made from the flower of a type of palm tree, with apple, cucumber and peanut bits added.
On one side of Jardín Libertad is the Museo Regional de Historia, or the regional museum for Colima. The building dates from 1848 when it was a private home. Later it became a hotel and in 1988, it opened as a museum. The ground floor has a number of archeological pieces along with a replica of a shaft tomb, which is characteristic of the region. It recreates the burial of several peoples along with their belongings and Mexican hairless dogs, which were thought to be guides to the next world. The upper floor contains documents and other objects which narrates the history of the state from the Conquest to the Mexican Revolution.
A short distance from Jardín Libertad is Jardín Hidalgo, dedicated to Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. This square contains an equatorial sundial which is exact. It was designed by Julio Mendoza and contains explanations in several languages. On one side is located the Temple of San Felipe de Jesús. The main altar of this church contains six niches, with a crucifix at the top. The Del Carmen Chapel is next to it, which is a simple building that contains the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel with the Infant Jesus in her arms. On another side is the Pinacoteca Universitaria Alfonso Michel which is a museum dedicated to the history of art in Colima. It is dedicated to Colima artist Alfonso Michel who is considered the best of the state from the 20th century, and who focused on cubist and impressionist painting. The building is traditional for the city with its corridors lined by arches. Along with its permanent collection, the museum hosts exhibitions by local artists.
The Piedra Lisa Park is named after a large smooth monolithic stone which was thrown here by the Colima Volcano thousands of years ago. According to local legend, visitors to the city who slide down the smooth face of the stone three times are destined to stay or return. This park is also home to an interactive science museum called the Xoloescuintle.
The Conjunto de la Secretaría de Cultura is a series of buildings around a central plaza that contains a Juan Soriano sculpture by the name of "El Toro." The three main buildings are the Edificio de Talleres which is for workshops on various artistic disciplines, the Casa de la Cultura Alfonso Michel or Edificio Central, which hosts various exhibitions along with a permanent collection of works by Alfonso Michel and Museo de las Culturas de Occidente María Ahumada de Gómez is the work of architects Xavier Yarto and Alberto Yarza. It is a modern design. Its interior contains a mural entitled "La Universialidad de la Justicia" by Gabriel Portillo del Toro.
The Museo Universitario de Artes Populares María Teresa Pomar is not only dedicated to the region's handicrafts and folk art, it also has exhibitions related to the area's popular festivals and traditions. The collection includes festival costumes, toys, masks, cooking utensils, metal miniatures, wood objects, pottery and fiber crafts.

Colima Municipality

As municipal seat, the city of Colima is the local government for 145 communities, with the most important being Colima, Tepames, Piscila, El Chanal and Los Asmoles. The only urban community is Colima with a high population density with almost all involved in commerce, services and some industry. These communities cover a territory of 668.2km2 and are bordered by the municipalities of Cuauhtémoc, Ixtlahuacán, Tecomán, Coquimatlán and Villa de Álvarez with the state of Jalisco to the east and the state of Michoacán to the southeast. The municipal government consists of a municipal president, an officer called a síndico and eleven representatives called regidores.
The municipality contains about one-quarter of the state's total population. About 92% of the municipality's population lives in the city proper.. , only 574 people spoke an indigenous language, with 239 of them living in the city proper. Over 95% of the population is Catholic, with about two percent following a Protestant or Evangelical form of Christianity. As of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 146,904, and covers an area of.
The city has radio stations, two broadcast television stations, cable television services, and eight newspapers. The main highways that connect the municipality to the outside include Highway 4 to Manzanillo and Guadalajara and Highway 110 to Jiquilpan, Michoacán. Other modes of transportation include the Guadalajara-Colima-Manzanillo rail line, the Central Camionera and Central Suburbana de Autobuses bus stations and the regional airport Miguel de la Madrid Airport.

Economy

The city of Colima is the economic center of the state. Outside in the small communities of the municipality, agriculture is still the most important economic activity. The city has been ranked as first as liveable small city in Mexico and tenth in Latin America by FDI Intelligence. It is one of seventy-one urban areas and 308 municipalities that contribute over eighty percent of Mexico's GDP. It is ranked twelfth in competitiveness. Its main competitive advantage is reliable and objective local laws with its weakness being sustainable use of the local environment. The working population of the municipality is 51,509, with 3,145 working in agriculture, 10,820 in industry, mining and construction and 35,809 in commerce and services as of 2009. A study by the University of Colima concluded that the municipality is the most competitive in the state and one of the most competitive in the center west of Mexico. Two economic advantages the municipality has are its well development commerce and services sector and its low rate of unemployment. One main disadvantage is its lack of developed technology sector, with most businesses dedicated to basic commodities. Others include high bureaucratic costs, crime rate, over exploitation of aquifers and problems with waste management, especially hazardous materials.
Agriculture is exclusively practiced outside of the city proper, by the small rural communities which still depend on it economically, along with some mining and fishing. The municipality has a total of 70,000 hectares dedicated to agricultural production, which is over ten percent of the total. Most soils in the municipality are fertile. Most irrigated agriculture occurs in the west of the municipality on the Los Asmoles, Las Golondrinas and Los Ortinces mesas. Main crops include corn, rice, melons, animal feed, sugar cane and limes. Other important crops include sorghum, tomatoes, tomatillos, beans, peanuts, mangos, tamarind, coconut, papaya, agave and bananas. Livestock mostly consists of domestic fowl followed by cattle, horses, sheep, goats and pigs. Agriculture employs just over nine percent of the population.
Except for some limestone at the Cerro de Galindo, there are no exploitable minerals in the municipality. Industry is limited to food processing and packaging, especially of rice. There is also some production of oils, soaps and sweets. This sector of the economy employs just over twenty percent of the population.
About 68 percent of the population is employed in commerce and services. Colima is one of the state's main commercial centers and is the major distribution center for goods destined for local consumption. The municipality has five traditional fixed markets, eight department stores, ten tianguis markets, one flea market and a very large number of small, independent retail stores. Despite being the capital, the city is not the state's main tourist attraction, eclipsed by Manzanillo and Comala, as it lacks major cultural and historical sites. It is one of the state's main commerce and distribution centers, with over two-thirds of the population employed in commerce and services within the city proper. The main economic activities in the city are commerce and services, including tourism. However, the city lacks major cultural and heritage sites, with makes it lag behind Manzanillo and the small town of Comala as a tourist attraction.