Cradled in the middle of the State of San Luis Potosí, you will find a 4,000-inhabitants, rustic town. A town that size could be easily overlooked, without even knowing it was the first settlement in the area, founded during the 16th century, and it would later give birth, so to speak, to the city of San Luis Potosí. It is Cerro de San Pedro.
Cerro de San Pedro is now one of the municipalities of the State of San Luis Potosí, and it was founded due to the discovery of ore deposits of gold and silver during the colonial period in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet this deposits were known since pre-hispanic times by the guachichiles, who worshipped the hill as sacred. Thus, Cerro de San Pedro became what would be the first settlement of the now city of San Luis Potosí.
Cerro de San Pedro became what would be the first settlement of the now city of San Luis Potosí
In 1583, in the township of Mesquitique, Fray Diego de la Magdalena gathered several guachichiles natives, among them one named Cualiname who, called the attention of the friar due to his elaborate make-up: his face had silvery and golden drawings made with a paste called embrijado, using cinnabar, animal fat and gold dust. The friar asked Cualiname where had he gotten the ingredients for the embrijado and the native answered that plenty of gold dust could be found East of their location.
Fray Diego de la Magdalena, following the chain of command, told Fray Francisco Franco and Captain Miguel Caldera of this discovery, and Caldera went on to command an expedition headed by Gregorio de León, Juan de la Torre and Pedro de Anda. The latter called the place San Pedro del Potosí, honoring his saint’s name and Potosí in memory of the famous mines in Potosí, in the High Peru, now Bolivia. Potosí, as coincidence would have it, is Quechua meaning immense wealth.
Both in the cerro and around it, huge deposits of silver and gold ore were found, but there was no water in the area to install proper mining facilities. The nearest water deposits where located in the West, on a region still dominated by chichimecas, which is now the city of San Luis Potosí.
Nowadays, Cerro de San Pedro is popular tourist destinations both for a day-trip or for a weekend getaway. It picturesque streets cobbled with stone will bring take you on a trip to the mining bonanza 17th century San Luis.
Comfortable hotels and restaurants with local delicacies abound, while the architecture of the whole town gives off a magic and nostalgic ambiance, ideal for a romantic trip or a family getaway.
Getting to Cerro de San Pedro is easy: just take the Carretera a Rioverde (Highway 70) and take a detour North on Boulevard Antonio Rocha Cordero (the Periferico), then making a right on Camino Viejo a San Pedro; from this point on, it’s only a 15-minute drive straight into Cerro de San Pedro’s downtown.
