Apodaca

For other uses, see Apodaca (disambiguation).

Apodaca
Ciudad Apodaca
PIIT Park.
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname:  Apodaca
Motto(s):  Apodaca, Capital Industrial de Nuevo León
Apodaca Location within Mexico
Coordinates: 25.781667°N 100.188611°W / 25.781667; -100.188611
Country	Mexico
State	Nuevo León
Municipality	Apodaca
Founded	March 31, 1851
Discovered	1585
Government
• 2018–2021	Lic. César Garza Villareal
Elevation	430 m (1,410 ft)
Population  (2010)
• Total	523,370
Demonym(s)	Apodaquense; Regiomontano/a (by association)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC −5
Postal code	66600–66649
Area code	81
INEGI code	190060001
Airport	Monterrey International Airport
Website	Ayuntamiento de Apodaca.

Apodaca <phonos file="Apodaca - es - mx.ogg">pronunciation</phonos> is a city in Nuevo León, and also the seat of the Municipality of Apodaca. It is part of the Monterrey metropolitan area, located at the eastern end of the conurbation, and borders the municipalities of San Nicolás de los Garza, Guadalupe, Pesquería, General Escobedo and General Zuazua.

Apodaca is home to numerous industries of both Mexican and foreign companies, as well as to the most important airport in the state: Monterrey International Airport. Its HDI is considered High.

Apodaca in detail

Apodaca is currently known for being home to large and numerous industries, of both national and international companies: 70% of the industrial parks of Nuevo León are located in this municipality. It also has the Mariano Escobedo International Airport, the most important in the state. Very close to the airport, multiple hotels and shopping centers have densified the area in recent years. Thanks to its labor activity, it is the most attractive municipality in the state for national and foreign investment.

Apodaca has been the birthplace of illustrious figures mainly in education, diplomacy, legislation, literature, music, the military, medicine, Masonic lodges and sports. From its beginnings, the Hacienda San Francisco (today Apodaca) emerged as a cradle of great enterprises and, in the process of settling the Novohispanic Northeast at the end of the sixteenth century, it would have been the most attractive objective for a foundation in the New Kingdom of León because of its springs and its very shallow water tables.

History

The territory where Apodaca is now located originally housed a settlement called "Estancia Castaño" (property of the Portuguese Gaspar Castaño de Sosa), and it was later known as "Hacienda de San Francisco".

In 1700, after successive purchases, sales, divisions and partitions of the Hacienda San Francisco, human settlements gradually became more clearly delimited into 7 haciendas within the hacienda: Aguafría, Encarnación, Huinalá, San Francisco (seat), San Juan del Mezquital, San Miguel and Santa Rosa.

The name Apodaca was assigned by the State Congress in 1851 in honor of Dr. Salvador de Apodaca y Loreto, Bishop of Linares, a figure who carried out great philanthropic work in the State of Nuevo León.

On March 31, 1851, Apodaca received the title of Villa during the government of Agapito García Dávila. More than a hundred years later, on March 26, 1982, it was raised to the category of City, in a decree signed by the then Governor Alfonso Martínez Domínguez.

In the 1960s, Apodaca became part of the Monterrey Metropolitan Area together with the municipalities of Santa Catarina and General Escobedo.

Today, the Municipality of Apodaca, whose population and urbanization are the fastest growing in the metropolitan area, can in turn be considered subdivided (unofficially) into seven former "original settlements", which are: Huinalá, La Encarnación, Agua Fría, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and El Mezquital, in addition to the Municipal Seat.

Research work, documented in archives, on the history of the Municipality of Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico, carried out by Juvencio Javier Treviño Galindo in his book "Apodaca Eternamente", printed on December 28, 2007.

Historical events in the municipality

• 1585: On August 16, Diego de Montemayor claims the abandoned land grants (mercedes) and requests further lands, including a second spring, in order to found the Hacienda San Francisco.
• 1610: José de Treviño Quintanilla, signing as Josephe de Treviño, buys the hacienda on September 24 for four thousand pesos: the land transaction included 4 native caciques (Namecunala, Panalequi, Cayaguama Francisco and Alaguapiame) with their people, women and children.
• 1626: The surnames "de la Garza" and "de Treviño" are the ones declared on October 13 in lists as owners of cattle-branding irons. It should be noted that, for various reasons, the surnames borne by individuals in those times were not necessarily the direct ones of their paternal lines.
• 1634: Blas de la Garza and Alonso de Treviño enlarge the hacienda after having bought it.
• 1649: Alonso de León, chronicler, refers to San Francisco as the updated name of the land grants up to that year, including that of Castaño, who sixty years earlier had decided instead to venture north through the mountains (Monclova, Río Salado, Río Bravo, Albuquerque) in search of silver mines.
• 1658: Nicolasa de-la-Garza-Falcón Rentería, according to records, is born in the Hacienda San Francisco, daughter of Francisco de-la-Garza Falcón and Leonor Sepúlveda de-Rentería, who resided in those parts.
• 1673: Lázaro de-la-Garza-Falcón Rentería, brother of Nicolasa, is born on October 1 on the same hacienda, confirming that by that date there were already birth records credited to the name of San Francisco as a delimited human settlement.
• 1693: The heirs of Francisco and Miguel de la Garza bring a lawsuit against their cousins, the heirs of Blas de la Garza, over the ownership of a spring: in the testimony of the proceedings of the lawsuit, land grants and measurements of thirty caballerías of land and sites for large and small livestock of the Hacienda San Francisco, Huinalá and Mezquital are mentioned; bundle 8, number 20.
• 1700: Purchases, sales, divisions and partitions of the Hacienda San Francisco followed one another starting from the properties of the children of Miguel de-la-Garza Falcón, who had died three years earlier. Little by little, human settlements became more clearly delimited into 7 haciendas within the hacienda: Aguafría, Encarnación, Huinalá, San Francisco (seat), San Juan del Mezquital, San Miguel, Santa Rosa.
• 1772: Nicolás de Elizondo, first judicial authority in the Hacienda San Francisco.
• 1801: On November 28, Pedro José Elizondo heads heirs and residents in formally requesting that a piece of land be set aside for the grazing of livestock, with 13 people signing the petition.
• 1845: José María Flores is named, by popular election in a verbal consultation, first mayor on March 14, as is the first Ayuntamiento of the Valle de San Francisco. The first political authority, in the manner of governor of the State, was José María Martínez, and with this came the petition, authorization and formalization of events in the seat such as the establishment of a philharmonic company, the drafting of regulations, serenades, concerts, plays, censuses and so on.
• 1851: The Valle, or Hacienda San Francisco, was defined as a villa on March 31, its name being changed to Villa de Apodaca in honor of Salvador de Apodaca y Loreto, a philanthropist committed to Nuevo León.

Historical data

Apodaca, formerly Hacienda San Francisco, was one of the oldest places of settlement in the New Kingdom of León. San Francisco lay in the line of settlement advance exactly 45 degrees to the northeast of the Ojos de Santa Lucía —or Villa de San Luis of 1582—, later the Ciudad Metropolitana de Nuestra Señora de Monterrey of 1596, of which, originally and because of its proximity, it would form part. The Hacienda San Francisco emerged as an ideal linking site between the mines of San Gregorio or Ciudad León (Cerralvo) and the villas of San Luis (Monterrey) and Santiago del Saltillo.

Around 1584, the Alcalde Mayor of the Villa de San Luis, Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, owned an estancia on a farming hacienda that he had named San Francisco, the first of his land grants conceded by the first governor (1579–1589) of the New Kingdom of León, Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva; the estancia was to be used as a resting place for travelers. This hacienda comprised a spring (the springs of San Francisco) and four caballerías of land. Soon, Castaño was commissioned to go to the mines of La Trinidad to found the Villa del Nuevo Almadén (Monclova), thus abandoning his estancia in San Francisco.

Diego de Montemayor, of the political group of the aforementioned Castaño and Carvajal, also Portuguese, claimed on August 16, 1585, the abandoned land grants and requested further lands, including a second spring, with the purpose of founding the Hacienda San Francisco. The opposing group, from the Valley of Saltillo, was made up mainly of Francisco de Urdiñola (a wealthy miner and landowner of Mazapil, Saltillo, Parras and Río Grande), Francisco de Villarreal, Francisco Martínez Guajardo and Juan de Tarango. Owing to political intrigues, the leaders of both groups, Carvajal and Urdiñola, were taken as prisoners to Mexico City, the former accused of being a Judaizer and the latter of having poisoned his wife; Castaño had been taken out of the game by being exiled abroad.

These events were the circumstances that led a small group to emigrate from Saltillo and bring about the founding of Monterrey in 1596, it being taken for granted that the Hacienda San Francisco lay, in leagues, within a square that probably must have measured one degree (a "band" on a map) of terrestrial longitude by the same of latitude, whose center would be at the Ojos de Santa Lucía of the metropolitan city that was founded.

It should be noted that the league was an ancient measure of travel itinerary that rather indicated speed: the distance covered in one hour by a man on foot or on horseback; the reference in longitudinal measurement at the end of the 16th century was that for each degree of longitude, into which the planet is divided in the manner of bands or strips, there were 17.5 Castilian leagues (it would become 20 in the 17th century). Thus, 17.5 leagues to the degree of longitude (100.333 kilometers per degree, measured at the latitude of the Ojos de Santa Lucía, or 2,787 centimeters per second) gives us 5.733 kilometers per league. With the above calculation, it can be inferred that the San Francisco chapel, mentioned further below, would have been some three leagues in a straight line from the present historic center of Monterrey. This is how the Hacienda San Francisco was known in 1830: "Posada situada a 3 leguas de la Capital dentro de su Distrito" ("Inn located 3 leagues from the Capital within its District").

Two figures, who arrived somewhat after the founding of Monterrey, would be key pieces for the Hacienda San Francisco: Marcos Alonso de la Garza and his brother-in-law José de Treviño. The latter —Joseph de Treviño, signing as Jusepe de Trebiño, married to Leonor de Ayala and son of Diego de Treviño y Alcocer and Beatriz de Quintanilla— was a rich and wealthy miner in Zacatecas and Durango, who already in 1603 appears as owner of lands in El Topo (present-day Municipality of Escobedo, Nuevo León) for the cultivation of wheat and maize in partnership with Manuel de Mederos and Diego de Huelva.

On September 24, 1610, shortly before the death of Diego de Montemayor (founder of Monterrey and governor, from 1596 to 1610, of the by then politically defined New Kingdom of León), José de Treviño, aged 45, bought the Hacienda San Francisco from him for four thousand pesos: the land transaction included four native caciques (Namecunala, Panalequi, Cayaguama Francisco and Alaguapiame) with their people, women and children. From his residence in Mexico City, José de Treviño settled (on the condition of being given farmland, water and Indians) on the hacienda with his wife, family, four black slaves, ten carts with oxen, 1,200 tame and wild cows, 1,000 head of small livestock, 50 brood mares, donkeys, farming implements and other kinds of equipment to protect themselves from Indian attacks.

Thanks to this important first lasting settlement in the New Kingdom of León, a great entrepreneurial impulse was given to the local economy as agriculture and livestock raising prospered on the Hacienda San Francisco, which thus became a regional supply center whose trade extended to Saltillo, Mazapil, Zacatecas and Durango.

Around 1624, José de Treviño sold the hacienda to two of the sons of his sister, Juana de Treviño, married to Marcos Alonso de la Garza Falcón, who came from mining centers in Durango. De la Garza, his wife and their first two sons would have arrived in the New Kingdom of León between 1601 and 1611. The names of Blas de la Garza and Alonso de Treviño, brothers, are declared on October 13, 1626, as owners of cattle-branding irons, according to a census ordered by the new governor Martín de Zavala. It should be noted that, for various reasons, the surname borne by individuals in those times was not necessarily the direct one of their paternal line; sometimes the mother's was taken, in the Portuguese custom. The nephews of José de Treviño increased the population of the Hacienda San Francisco and, clearly by around 1633, especially Alonso de Treviño, promoted the raising of small livestock (sheep) and hence the beginning of the first obraje (textile workshop) enterprise of the Novohispanic Northeast in 1634: a wool textile maquiladora; serge, sackcloth and blankets were sold even in Zacatecas and Durango.

In the 1630s, there was a "Convenio celebrado entre Diego Fernández de Montemayor y los capitanes Blas de la Garza y Alonso de Treviño, sobre reclamación del primero del resto de la cantidad en que su abuelo, el gobernador Diego de Montemayor, vendió la hacienda de San Francisco al capitán Jusepe [José] de Treviño. Ante Miguel Sánchez Sáenz, alcalde ordinario. Testigos el capitán don Vicente de Saldívar, Francisco de Treviño y Nicolás de la Serna. Hacienda de San Francisco, jurisdicción de Monterrey, 1° de julio de 1633." ("Agreement concluded between Diego Fernández de Montemayor and Captains Blas de la Garza and Alonso de Treviño, regarding the claim of the former for the remainder of the amount for which his grandfather, Governor Diego de Montemayor, sold the hacienda of San Francisco to Captain Jusepe [José] de Treviño. Before Miguel Sánchez Sáenz, alcalde ordinario. Witnesses Captain Don Vicente de Saldívar, Francisco de Treviño and Nicolás de la Serna. Hacienda de San Francisco, jurisdiction of Monterrey, July 1, 1633.") (AMM vol. I, fol. 28, no. 18)

In 1649, Alonso de León, first chronicler of the New Kingdom of León, referred to San Francisco as the updated name of the land grants up to that year, including that of Castaño, who some sixty years earlier had decided instead to venture north through the mountains, from Nuevo Almadén (Monclova, Río Salado, Río Bravo as far as Albuquerque), in search of silver mines, following the project of exploration toward New Mexico, so coveted by the political groups at war at the end of the 16th century.

"El capitán Blas de la Garza, justicia mayor y capitán a guerra en esta ciudad, y vecino, labrador y criador en sus términos, otorga poder al capitán Juan de la Garza, su hijo, para que ante los oficiales reales de la Real Caja de la ciudad de Zacatecas, haga postura en el remate del abasto de carne y maíz, que por cuenta de su Majestad se da en los almacenes de la frontera de la villa de Santiago del Saltillo y minas del Mazapil a la gente huachichila. Ante el alférez Lázaro de la Garza, alcalde ordinario, y Juan de Ábrego, secretario. Monterrey, 13 de junio de 1650." ("Captain Blas de la Garza, justicia mayor and captain of war in this city, and resident, farmer and rancher within its bounds, grants power of attorney to Captain Juan de la Garza, his son, so that before the royal officials of the Real Caja of the city of Zacatecas he may place a bid in the auction for the supply of meat and maize which, on His Majesty's account, is given in the storehouses of the frontier of the villa of Santiago del Saltillo and the mines of Mazapil to the Huachichil people. Before Ensign Lázaro de la Garza, alcalde ordinario, and Juan de Ábrego, secretary. Monterrey, June 13, 1650.") (AMM vol. III, fol. 10, no. 6)

Most of the Hacienda San Francisco, a supplier of meat and maize, had finally been acquired by Blas de la Garza, who also bought a portion from his brother Alonso de Treviño in 1643, and after his death in 1669 it was divided among his five sons surnamed Garza Falcón: Blas, Lázaro, Miguel, Francisco and Juan.

By the 1670s, religious ceremonies were being held on the Hacienda San Francisco, as shown by the following entry: in the margin, "Blas español.- En primero de mayo de mil y seiscientos y setenta y tres años, Baptisé a Blas hijo de Francisco de la Garza y doña Leonor de Rentería en la capilla San Francisco. Fueron sus padrinos Miguel de la Garza y doña Gertrudis de Rentería y lo firmé. Francisco de la Cruz" ("Blas, Spaniard.- On the first of May of the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-three, I baptized Blas, son of Francisco de la Garza and Doña Leonor de Rentería, in the San Francisco chapel. His godparents were Miguel de la Garza and Doña Gertrudis de Rentería, and I signed it. Francisco de la Cruz"), signature at the foot (sheet 17v of baptisms 1668–1702 of the Cathedral of Monterrey). As a curiosity, two brothers (sons of Blas de la Garza) had married two sisters surnamed de Rentería, and the baptized child, Blas de la Garza Falcón (heir of the Hacienda del Espíritu Santo, today Pesquería, Nuevo León), went on to become governor of Coahuila in the 18th century.

In 1693, the heirs of Francisco de la Garza and Miguel de la Garza brought a lawsuit against their cousins, the heirs of Blas de la Garza, over the ownership of a spring. In the testimony of the proceedings of the lawsuit, land grants and measurements of thirty caballerías of land and sites for large and small livestock of the Hacienda San Francisco, Huinalá and El Mezquital (la Vaquería) are mentioned.

From 1700 onward, purchases, sales, divisions and partitions of the Hacienda San Francisco followed one another starting from the properties of the children of Miguel de la Garza, who had died three years earlier. Little by little, human settlements became more clearly delimited into seven haciendas within the Hacienda: Agua Fría, la Encarnación, Huinalá, San Francisco (seat), San Juan del Mezquital, San Miguel and Santa Rosa.

The Hacienda del Espíritu Santo de la Pesquería Chica, whose owner in 1731 was Blas de la Garza Falcón (son of Francisco de la Garza), would cease to be considered part of that of San Francisco. The same happened years later with that of Zacatecas which, after belonging to one and then the other, was finally incorporated into that of Pesquería.

While still forming part of the jurisdiction of Monterrey, some events are documented in San Francisco which, among others, give a chronological follow-up of the hacienda: Nicolás de Elizondo was named first Justicia a Prevención of the Hacienda San Francisco in 1772; Pedro José Elizondo headed heirs and residents, on November 28, 1801, in formally requesting that a piece of land be set aside for the grazing of livestock, with thirteen people signing the petition. The following year, Andrés Montemayor and eight residents would make a similar request. Resolutions of this kind would follow throughout the first third of the 19th century, including the demarcation of the boundaries of the haciendas.

In 1830, as already mentioned, the Hacienda San Francisco was known as a "Posada situada a 3 leguas de la Capital dentro de su Distrito" ("Inn located 3 leagues from the Capital within its District"); however, almost twenty years later, the State Government would be informed that "Se haya situado este expresado Valle al Oriente, distante 5 leguas de la Capital de Monterrey" ("This said Valley is located to the East, 5 leagues distant from the Capital of Monterrey"). In 1842 there was a San Francisco Viejo (or de Abajo) at what is today the municipal cemetery, and the layout of a San Francisco el Alto (or de Arriba) on firmer ground; the latter would be the present site of the Municipal Seat of Apodaca.

On March 14, 1845, José María Flores was named, by popular election in a verbal consultation, first Mayor of the first Ayuntamiento of the newly named Valle de San Francisco. With this came the petition, authorization and formalization of events in the seat such as the establishment of a philharmonic company, the drafting of regulations, serenades, concerts, plays, censuses, statistics and so on.

The Valle, or Hacienda San Francisco, was defined as a villa on March 31, 1851, its name being changed to Villa de Apodaca in honor of Salvador de Apodaca y Loreto, a philanthropist committed to Nuevo León. It was separated from the jurisdiction of Monterrey, and the by then well-defined group of its former seven haciendas was thus raised to the rank of municipality, the present center of Apodaca being kept as its seat. The first Mayor of the villa, or by then Municipality of Apodaca in 1852, was José María Martínez, elected on December 14, 1851.

Up to 1855, the frequent surnames recorded in Apodaca according to various historical documents, livestock branding irons and records of officials of the Municipal Administrations had been: Ayala, Báez, Benavides, Caballero, Cantú, Casas (de las), Cavazos, Chapa, Cruz, Elizondo, Falcón, Fernández, Flores, García, Garza (de la), Gómez, González, Guajardo, Guerrero, Leal, Lobo, Lozano, Luna (de), Martínez, Melo (de), Montemayor, Navarro, Olivares, Peña, Pruneda, Quintanilla, Rentería, Ramones, Rodríguez, Saldívar, Salinas, Sáenz, Sánchez, Sepúlveda, Serna, Solís, Treviño, Uresti, Valdés, Villarreal and Zambrano.

Surnames that appear later, up to 1930, would be: Arrambide, Bautista, Buentello, Cárdenas, Castro, Carvajal, Castillón, Dávila, Díaz, Escamilla, Esparza, Gutiérrez, Hernández, Howerton, Iglesias, Méndez, Mireles, Monfort, Moreno, Pacheco, Páis, Peché, Pérez, Quiroga, Reyes, Sosa, Silva, Taboada, Tijerina and Valdez.

Surnames that appear after 1930 up to the present are: Treviño, Lozano, Guajardo, Elizondo, Flores, García, Garza and Zambrano.

On the centenary of the municipality, in 1951, Israel Cavazos Garza and Roberto Garza Osuna published the first monograph on Apodaca, commissioned by Armando Zambrano Elizondo, at the time Mayor of the municipality.

On May 7, 1981, at the behest of the Municipal President, Claro Francisco Escamilla Martínez, the Villa de Apodaca was raised to the rank of Ciudad Apodaca without losing its identity with its Patron Saint of the parish of San Francisco de Asís, in the Municipal Seat, the administrative center of the Municipality.

In the 2010 population census (INEGI), the municipality had 523,370 inhabitants distributed in 133,171 dwellings (almost 4 members per dwelling, including children): for every 1,013 males there were 1,000 females (a ratio somewhat higher than the state average of 994 to 1,000). In 2008 (ibid.) there was approximately 1 divorce for every 50 marriages performed, in contrast to the state average of 1 to 4.

As of 2011, Apodaca completed 160 years as a municipality, sharing 415 years since its founding with the Ciudad Metropolitana de Nuestra Señora de Monterrey. Its coat of arms, designed and approved on March 27, 1981, after a competition, bears the years 1585–1851, intending to express the antiquity of the founding project, as a first objective, of Diego de Montemayor 430 years ago.

Geographic location

In the northern hemisphere, in northeastern Mexico, in the State of Nuevo León and to the northeast of the City of Monterrey, the center of the main plaza of the seat of Apodaca is located at 25° 46’ 54” north latitude, 100° 11’ 54.42” west longitude, and at an altitude of 431 m a.s.l. (meters above sea level). The straight-line distance to the Government Palace of Nuevo León, located in the historic center of Monterrey, is 17 km; and to the Mariano Escobedo International Airport, 7 km (Google Earth).

The Municipality of Apodaca has a land area of 23,803 hectares (238.03 km²: INEGI, 2005), practically without elevations, as it lies in a valley. The neighboring municipalities are: to the north, Salinas Victoria and General Zuazua; to the east, Pesquería; to the south, Juárez and Guadalupe; and to the west, San Nicolás de los Garza and General Escobedo.

In addition to the highways to Saltillo and to Monterrey from the airport, the federal highways Monterrey–Laredo and Monterrey–Miguel Alemán cross the Municipality of Apodaca. Carlos Salinas de Gortari Boulevard begins in the seat of the municipality and is an alternative route to the City of Monterrey.

In the surroundings one will see mesquites, huizaches, uñas de gato, cenizos, anacuas, comas, anacahuitas, granjenos, chaparros, holm oaks, palms, date palms and various cacti including nopales; with luck, one will see rabbits, hares, gophers, coyotes, tlacuaches, ducks, pigeons, various songbirds and birds of prey, and small reptiles such as snakes, lizards, turtles and chameleons. The average annual temperature in Apodaca is 18 °C; its climate is extreme: in winter it can drop to 5 °C below zero and in summer rise to 45 °C.

Flora and fauna

The predominant flora in the municipality is the huizache and also the mesquite. The uña de gato, cenizo, anacua, anacahuita, granjeno, chaparrito prieto and nopales, among others, also flourish.

Among the most notable animals in Apodaca are reptiles, rodents and birds. Others include the tlacuache, coyote, hare and gophers. In Ojo de Agua there is a fish whose species is unique in the world, called the "Platy Apodaca".

Tourist attractions

Parish of San Francisco de Asís.

• The Parish of San Francisco, located opposite the main Plaza, on the east side. It was built in 1848. The bell tower was completed in 1966.
• Municipal Presidency of Apodaca. It is located on the main Plaza, on the west side. Built in 1976 in a modernist style, it replaced the old building of the same kind.
• Monument to the teacher Moisés Sáenz. Located in the Plaza of the village of El Mezquital. It is a work by the sculptor from the capital José L. Ruiz, unveiled in 1962.
• Monument to the First European Settler. On September 26, 1995, a plaque was installed in homage to Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, the first European settler. It is placed in the village of Ojo de Agua.

Culture

The popular festivals and feast days in the main plazas of the town centers of Apodaca are associated mainly with the religious festivals of the patron saints of the municipality:

Festivity	Date	Settlement
San Francisco de Asís	October 4	Seat
The Virgin of Guadalupe	December 12	Agua Fría
San José	March 19	Huinalá and Rinconada Colonial
San Miguel Arcángel	September 29	Agua Fría
The Virgin of the Incarnation	March 25	La Encarnación
San Juan	Fair from June 12 to 28 (June 24 Fireworks)	El Mezquital
Santa Rosa de Lima	August 30	Santa Rosa

The original name of each of the seven former historic haciendas generally corresponded to the name of the patron saint. With variations in each of these places, tradition usually offers a midnight mass and/or a serenade (on the eve) to the saint, and to other citizens, with mariachi and musical bands mainly with tambora; there is also the setting off of fireworks; from a week beforehand, mechanical rides, lotería and stalls selling typical food are set up; on the day itself, there are groups of dancers, mainly matachines, mass, a popular fair and fireworks.

Gastronomy

From its historical beginnings, Apodaca had a livestock-raising vocation as a supplier mainly of meat; its typical dishes are based on its livestock, especially cattle, now surpassed by pigs. The quality of its beef is renowned for cuts in restaurants, family barbecues and, above all, in barbacoa cooked in a pit, sometimes with maguey leaves, or the chicharrones of cow udder.

Excellent cow's-milk cheeses of the panela and asadero types are likewise produced, as well as some creams and jocoque. Milk production has made the region famous, mainly in the cheese industry, to the point that Apodaca was said to be "The Cheese Capital" of Nuevo León.

Dishes with other meats are also offered: goat in panzate, a dish that makes use of the animal's blood and is cooked underground, cabrito al pastor, pork chicharrones and carnitas, the latter sometimes cooked with cow's milk. Lamb a la griega, roasted, and its meat in panzate.

The expression of its historical agricultural vocation as a producer and supplier mainly of maize, sugarcane and even honey does not reach us today as much as the livestock vocation reflected in its gastronomy; nevertheless, although simple, the empalmes of beans with meat, tamales and prepared roasted elotes have the flavor of Apodaca, delighting the palate as appetizers; its enchiladas are also delicious, especially those prepared at the entrance of the San Francisco church at popular fairs for national holidays, religious festivals or kermesses. Preserves using the peel of sour oranges, as well as various desserts and pastries, are still prepared at home for family consumption.

Economy

Until the 1980s, the economy of Apodaca was sustained by agricultural and livestock production, but with the arrival of industries it underwent a change that not only transformed the economy of the municipality but also affected the habits, lifestyle, customs and traditions of the population.

Apodaca has a great deal of industrial activity and has high- and medium-priced residential subdivisions. The Airport area has multiple hotels and shopping centers that have densified the area in recent years.

DMMI, a company dedicated to the automation and manufacture of industrial furnaces for aluminum casting, is located in Apodaca.

Education

In 1961, the first secondary school named after the teacher Moisés Sáenz Garza, considered the creator of secondary education in the country, was built. The establishment of this school was a milestone in the history of Apodaca, since it allowed the young people of the time to take part in sporting and cultural activities that had not been held before.

As of the 1995–1996 school year, 190 schools were registered, which by level break down as follows:

• 16 general secondary schools.
• 10 technical secondary schools.
• General Preparatory School of the UANL (Preparatoria No. 1 Apodaca, Colegio Civil de Nuevo León).
• 5 technical preparatory schools (Escuela Industrial y Preparatoria Técnica "Álvaro Obregón", Preparatoria "Técnica Médica", Centro de Bachillerato Tecnológico Industrial y de Servicios No. 53 "CBTis 53", CONALEP and Cecyte Apodaca).
• 2 Industrial Job Training Centers, "CECATi 192" and "Escuela para el Trabajo Apodaca" (Pueblo Nuevo).
• 1 Public University, "Universidad Politécnica de Apodaca".

Health

The Red Cross is located at the intersection of Santa Lucía and Padre Mier streets in the Moderno Apodaca subdivision. Sponsored by the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, this institution provides services such as: outpatient consultation, wound care, educational talks, emergencies, laboratory tests and orthopedic care.

Family Medicine Unit No. 19 of the Mexican Social Security Institute (I.M.S.S.). It was inaugurated on April 15, 1964. Some of the services it provides are: family medicine consultation, dentistry, emergencies, injections, pharmacy, laboratory, X-rays with encephalogram application, occupational medicine and laboratory tests.

IMSS General Zone Hospital No. 67, located opposite the international airport, inaugurated in 2010.

IMSS Family Medicine Unit No. 66 in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood.

In addition, there are various health centers of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León "UANL", as well as private clinics and medical centers.

Sports

The gymnasium that houses the Undersecretariat of Sports was inaugurated on December 21, 1987, at the intersection of Elías Flores and Matamoros streets. It has courts for basketball, soccer, baseball, volleyball and beach volleyball, and a 400 m athletics track. There are currently 12 gymnasiums in different neighborhoods of the municipality:

• Pueblo Nuevo
• Noria Norte
• Villa de San Carlos
• Bosques de San Miguel
• El Mezquital

Housing

The industrial boom has led to the emergence of several neighborhoods in which the Fomento Metropolitano de Monterrey has built low-cost housing.

According to the results of the 2000 General Population and Housing Census carried out by INEGI, there are 66,008 dwellings in the municipality.

The dwellings are built mainly of brick, adobe and concrete. They have piped water, drainage, gas and electricity services. Housing tenure is fundamentally private.

According to the results presented by the II Population and Housing Count in 2005, the municipality has a total of 98,740 dwellings, of which 95,580 are private.

Founding of sectors and subdivisions:

Name of the sector or subdivision	Founded
Huinalá	1765
Colonia Centro	1857
Santa Rosa	1873
El Mezquital	1934
Novapodaca	1970
Pueblo Nuevo	1972
Rinconada Colonial	1973
Burócratas Municipales	1978
Santa Teresita	1979/80
Casas Reales	1985
Santa Rosa Sector I (Sector Burócratas Municipales)	1988
Los Álamos	1992
Portal de Huinalá	1995
San Isidro	1997
Residencial Apodaca	2007
Triana	2010

Public services

The municipality has water and sewerage, gas, electricity, street lighting, roads, public security, plazas, sports centers, cemeteries, transportation and street cleaning services.

Communications media

The "Mariano Escobedo" International Airport and the Del Norte Airport are located in this municipality. Other means of communication are: radio, telephone, television, mail, telegraph, telex, newspapers and magazines of various genres, from the city of Monterrey as well as from Mexico City and the United States.

Transportation routes

Downtown Apodaca.

With the following highways:

• Monterrey–Miguel Alemán
• Monterrey–Apodaca (old highway to Roma)
• Monterrey–Laredo

The Transmetro San Nicolás–Apodaca route offers the people of this municipality a connection with the metro.

Another road that passes through the municipality is the ring road, which crosses the municipality from northwest to south, connecting the municipality with the municipalities of Benito Juárez (Villa Juárez) and Guadalupe to the south and General Escobedo to the north, passing through the settlements of Santa Rosa, Apodaca and Huinalá (where it bears several names, for example: Santa Rosa–Laredo highway, Santa Rosa–Apodaca highway, Apodaca–Huinalá highway and Huinalá–Villa de Juárez highway); there are also local roads that connect the municipality of Apodaca with its neighbors.

Airports

1. Mariano Escobedo International Airport. Public.
2. Del Norte International Airport. Private.

Notable people

From the 1860s, people from Apodaca began to be mentioned beyond their place of birth. Apodaca had begun to be the birthplace of illustrious figures in education, diplomacy, legislation, literature, music, the military, medicine, chemistry and Masonic lodges. Examples of this are already documented in history:

• Colonel Lino Guajardo (1828–1914) of Santa Rosa, during the Second French intervention in Mexico.
• Professor Francisco Garza Villarreal (1860–1938) of San Francisco de Apodaca, pioneer of Education.
• Professor Mariano de la Garza (1867–1923) of El Mezquital, director of the Normal School.
• Professor Josefina García Howerton (1912–1966) of El Mezquital, one of the most distinguished teachers of Apodaca.
• Professor Ofelia Carrillo Cepeda (1919–2001), like Professor Josefina, is among the most distinguished, and also became director of the Moisés Sáenz Garza Secondary School.
• Professor Jonás García (1872–1891) of Santa Rosa, senator and federal deputy at whose proposal May 15 is Teacher's Day in the country.
• Doctor of Medicine Eusebio Guajardo (1874–1939) of Santa Rosa, administrator of the Civil Hospital and grand master of the grand lodge of Nuevo León.
• General Absalón Lozano Zambrano (1877–1949) of Santa Rosa, career military officer from the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.
• Pharmaceutical chemist and doctor of Medicine Enrique Monfort Díaz (1878–1944) of San Francisco de Apodaca, lieutenant colonel and physician of the Second Division of the North during the Mexican Revolution; with further studies in Paris, France, he was a pioneer of Homeopathic Medicine in Nuevo León.
• Lieutenant Colonel Crispín Treviño (1883–1914) of Huinalá, executed by firing squad in the battle during the capture of Monterrey by Victoriano Huerta.
• Commander Félix G. Lozano (1883–1964) of Santa Rosa, career military officer from the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.
• Doctor of medicine Carlos Monfort Díaz (1886–1933) of San Francisco de Apodaca, followed in the footsteps of his older brother Enrique, likewise being a pioneer of Homeopathic Medicine in Nuevo León.
• Professor, diplomat, politician, philosopher and indigenist Moisés Sáenz Garza (1888–1941) of El Mezquital, scholar of the chemical and natural sciences and creator of the system of secondary education in the country after postgraduate stays in Paris and New York; his brother, the lawyer, politician and military officer Aarón Sáenz Garza (1891–1993), was a deputy, ambassador and Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico.
• And finally, among those documented so far, there is Professor Humberto Ramos Lozano (1911–1999) of Santa Rosa, promoter of the creation of the Higher Normal School, Director of Secondary Education in the country, Secretary General of Government, the first to receive the "Moisés Sáenz" medal, and declared posthumously "Benemérito de la Educación en el Estado" (Meritorious of Education in the State).

Mayors

In Apodaca, before 1958, the word alcalde was the most commonly used to designate the public office at the head of the administration. The word has an Arabic origin [alqāḍī] whose meaning in Spanish is "the judge". While still under the jurisdiction of Monterrey, where from its first attempts at settlement there was an alcalde mayor, offices such as Justicia a Prevención, Juez a Prevención and Juez de Paz (the latter from 1837 to 1845) were appointed. As the Municipality of Apodaca, from 1851, terms such as alcalde primero, comisario primero (1853 to 1855), primera autoridad política (1855 to 1857) and presidente municipal (only in 1865 and from 1958 to the present) coexisted.

Chronology of the municipal presidents, from the former haciendas unified in Apodaca starting in 1834:

Year	Name
2018–2021	Lic. César Garza Villareal
2015–2018	Lic. Óscar Cantu García
2012–2015	Raymundo Flores Elizondo
2013	Oscar Mauricio Jiménez
2012	Eliud Edilberto Elizondo Treviño
2009–2012	Benito Caballero Garza
2006–2009	Raymundo Flores Elizondo
2003–2006	José Antonio Elizondo Garza
2000–2003	César Garza Villarreal
1997–2000	Jesús Rafael García Garza
1997	Ana Rosa Hernández Cantú
1994–1997	Lombardo V. Guajardo Guajardo
1992–1994	Raymundo Flores Elizondo
1989–199	Francisco Javier Elizondo Sepúlveda
1986–1988	Lombardo V. Guajardo Guajardo
1983–1985	José René Guajardo Guajardo
1980–1982	Claro Francisco Escamilla Martínez
1977–1979	Ricardo Elizondo Treviño
1974–1976	Luis Garza Garza
1972–1973	Francisco Elizondo González
1970–1971	Edmundo Guajardo Lozano
1967–1969	Aarón Lozano Guajardo
1964–1966	Gildardo Guajardo Guajardo
1961–1963	Lombardo Guajardo Zambrano
1958–1960	Juan Lozano Lozano
1955–1957	Rubén García Garza
1952–1954	Luis Garza Elizondo
1949–1951	Armando Elizondo Zambrano
1946–1948	Elías Flores Treviño
1943–1945	Manuel Garza Zambrano
1942	Ismael Garza Cárdenas
1941	Benito G. García
1939–1940	Adolfo Garza y Garza
1937–1938	Luis Garza Elizondo
1935–1936	Adolfo Garza y Garza
1933–1934	Alejandro Elizondo Garza
1931–1932	Elías Flores Treviño
1929–1930	Ismael Garza Guajardo
1927–1928	Timote Guajardo García
1926	Plácido García
1925–1926	Rafael Pérez Martínez
1923–1924	Ismael Garza Guajardo
1921–1922	Adrián García
1919–1920	Rosalío Martínez
1918	Vicente García Zambrano
1916–1917	Manuel Garza y Garza
1915–1916	Martiniano Garza
1912–1914	Timoteo Guajardo Zambrano
1910–1911	Simón Garza
1897–1909	Donaciano Zambrano
1896	Lázaro Guajardo
1895–1896	Donaciano Zambrano
1894	Juan Villarreal
1893	Apolonio de la Garza
1890–1893	Donaciano Zambrano
1888–1889	Ysidoro Elizondo
1887	Martín Elizondo
1886–1887	Apolinar de la Garza
1885	Marcos Flores
1884	Lázaro Guajardo
1883	Jesús Villarreal
1882	Toribio Lozano
1880–1881	Donaciano Zambrano
1879	Apolonio de la Garza
1878	Hexiquio Garza Treviño
1877–1878	Toribio Lozano
1876	José María Garza Elizondo
1875	Rafael Pérez Buentello
1874	Lázaro Guajardo
1874	Julián Elizondo Garza
1873	José María Elizondo
1871–1872	Antonio de la Garza y Garza
1868–1870	Rafael Pérez Buentello
1865–1867	Ramón Elizondo
1863–1864	Antonio de la Garza y Garza
1861–1862	José María Villarreal
1860	Eligio Lozano
1858–1859	Ramón Elizondo
1856–1857	Julián de la Garza Cavazos
1856	Penesuario Rogue Jiménez
1854–1855	Marcelino Guajardo
1853	José María Flores
1852	José María Martínez
1851	Jorge Lozano
1849–1850	José María Flores
1847–1848	Vicente Treviño
1845–1846	José María Flores
1844	Jorge Lozano
1840–1843	José Andrés Montemayor
1843	Benito Yglesia
1842	Francisco Treviño
1841	José María de la Garza Martínez
1839	José Estevan Treviño
1834	Guillermo Martínez

Bibliography

• Israel Cavazos Garza. Nuevo León a Través de sus Municipios, Introducción. Protocols of the Municipal Archive of Monterrey (AMM).
• Eugenio de León. Historia del Nuevo Reino de León (1577-1723).
• Ramiro Estrada Sánchez. Nuevo León a Través de sus Municipios, Tomo I, Apodaca.
• Juvencio Treviño Galindo. Apodaca Eternamente.
• Valentina Garza Martínez. Doctoral thesis. Various unpublished documents on the Novohispanic Northeast.
• Familysearch. Online documents, Mexico, Nuevo León, Monterrey (Cathedral) and Apodaca (San Francisco de Asís), baptisms, marriages, deaths.

External links

• Website of the Municipality of Apodaca, Nuevo León.
• Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México: Nuevo León.