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Guanajuato:
The State
of Guanajuato is bordered by the states of San Luis
Potosí, Michoacán, Querétaro and Jalisco, with an
altitude that ranges between 800 and over 3,800 meters
(3,150 and some 15,000 ft). Although it's principal
agro-industrial cities are Leon, Irapuato, Salamanca and
Celaya, the state is more known to the visitor and
tourist for the colonial towns and historical centers of
Guanajuato, San Miguel del Allende and Dolores Hidalgo.
Guanajuato
state is rich in minerals, particularly in the central
and northern regions. Production includes silver, gold,
iron, cinnabar, lead, bismuth, mercury, tin and sulphur.
In the
southern, more fertile areas of the state, corn,
sorghum, beans, wheat, barley, chiles, tomatos, onions,
broccoli and other vegetables are cultivated, and the
region around Irapuato is well known for it's fine
strawberries.
Guanajuato's
first inhabitants, the Chupicuaro, settled in the
southwest. They were an agrarian society, living in mud
and grass huts, and were adept at ceramics and the
forming of brown clay figures, flutes, ocarinas and
other musical instruments.
Between
the years 700 and 900, other cultures began to migrate
into the area, among them the Toltecs, who brought their
knowledge of metalwork, and many of the Chicimecan
tribes, who were a hunters and gatherers. The
Chichimecas were skilled in weaving cane, wicker and
other grasses
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