The Municipality
It has 260 active communities with a total population of 65,219 (2010); however most of these are extremely small and rural with only one community having more than 700 residents, the seat. Outside the town of San Juan, other important communities include Mezquitic de la Magdalena, Halconero de Arriba, La Sauceda, Antenas (Cañada de Pérez), El Sauz de Ibarra and San Antonio de la Barrera. In total, there are 298 named locations in the municipality, but 38 have been abandoned.
In 2005, 111 spoke an indigenous language, up from 24 in 1995, and 95% are Catholic.
The municipality has seventeen preschools, 65 primary schools, seven middle schools two high schools and one vocational/technical school. About 90% of the population is literate; however, the rate was about only half of the population until the 1990s.
Another pilgrimage site is that of the Santo Niño de Mezquitic, also called the Niño Cacahuate, whose feast day is 17 September. This image is located in a small church constructed for it in the community of Mezquitic de la Magdalena, four km outside the town of San Juan. The construction is Neoclassical and dates from the 18th century. The image itself is five centimeters tall contained in a peanut shell, which gives it the name of Niño Cacahuate. The veneration of this image began in 1810, but it has grown in the past two decades. Its rise in popularity has made the community another destination for religious tourism in the area.
Read more about this topic: San Juan De Los Lagos