Valle de Bravo
Valle de Bravo
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Valle de Bravo

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Valle de Bravo

Valle de Bravo (Latin American Spanish: [ˈbaʝe ðe ˈβɾaβo] ) is one of 125 municipalities in the State of Mexico, Mexico. The largest town and municipal seat is the town of Valle de Bravo. It is located on the shore of Lake Avándaro, approximately 156 km (97 miles) southwest of Mexico City and west of Toluca on highways 15, 134 or 1. It takes about two hours to drive from Mexico City to Valle de Bravo, making it a popular weekend getaway for the capital's affluent upper class.

The town has several names during its history including San Francisco del Valle de Temascaltepec, Temascaltepec de indios, Villa del Valle, and San Francisco del Valle. The original names including Temascaltepec caused confusion with the nearby "Real de Minas de Temascaltepec", now Temascaltepec, so the county was known as "El Valle" (The Valley). The honorific "de Bravo" was added later to recognize Nicolás Bravo who fought at the Castle of Chapultepec during the Mexican–American War. Its Coat of arms includes the image of a temazcal in reference to its original name.

In 1971, Valle de Bravo was known as typical city (ciudad típica) and magical town (pueblo mágico) in 2005. The town and the surrounding area are well known in Mexico as a tourist destination, mainly due to its relative proximity to Mexico City and for having hosted the world-famous Circuito Avandaro auto racing event and Festival de rock y Ruedas, a massive rock music festival.

The original name of Valle the Bravo was Valle de Temascaltepec, from the náhuatl temazcalli "steam bath", and tepetl "hill", the full meaning of which is "Hill of steam baths".

The first to arrive in the area were the Matlatzinca, who settled mostly in the present-day communities of Santa Maria Ahuacatlán, La Peña and Otumba. Between 1474 and 1479, the Aztec tlatoani Axayacatl conquered the region, establishing what would be the last addition to the Aztec Empire. After the destruction of Tenochtitlan by the Spanish, campaigns to subdue the area were carried out by Andrés de Tapia and Gonzalo de Sandoval, followed by evangelization by the Dominicans and the Augustinians. Around 1530, the Franciscan friar Gregorio Jiménez de la Cuenca founded the town as a congregation called "El Pino". Between 1607 and 1615, a Franciscan convent was established here, giving the town that grew up around it its original name of San Franciscano del Valle de Temascaltepec.

The town suffered greatly during the Mexican War of Independence due to the monarchy's attempts to repress the rebellion there. Another short-lived rebellion occurred in 1834 when Carlos Guadalupe Tepixtoco Abad proclaimed his plan to re-establish the empire of Moctezuma. However, most people considered the cause to be ridiculous and the movement quickly died out. The village gained town status in 1842 and city status in 1878. In the beginning of the 19th century, Professor G. Velázquez wrote the poem "Valle de Bravo en la poesía de Pagaza", describing the region's beauty. The town also saw incursions by Zapatistas during the Mexican Revolution.

In the 20th century, the geographic configuration of the landscape changed. In 1937, the Federal Commission on Electricity began plans for an electrical plant called Ixtapantongo, later called the Miguel Alemán hydroelectric system. Construction began in 1938 and ended in 1947 ending with a Villa Victoria Dam that flooded 2,900 hectares, creating the current reservoir which extends all the way to the state of Michoacán. The electrical plant generates 458,775 kilowatts and forms a part of the water system supplying Mexico City. The town is situated on a small plateau at the foot of several hills at the edge of this lake. During the 1960s the place became world-famous for its auto racing event Circuito Avandaro which was suspended in 1969 after pilot Moisés Solana's fatal accident. On 11–12 September 1971, Valle de Bravo became the Mexican Woodstock as a large gathering of between 200,000 and 300,000 hippies from all over the country, Central and North America arrived in town to take part in the massive Festival de rock y ruedas Avandaro held in the hamlet of Tenantongo. As of 2005 it had a population of 22,166. The dam is actually a series of dams named Valle, Tilostoc, Colorines, Ixtapantongo and the newest at Santo Tomás de los Plátanos. With the creation of the lake came the development of exclusive resort facilities such as hotels, golf clubs, country cabins, sailing clubs and a myriad of restaurants.

The town's principal economic activities center around tourism. It is a very popular location for weekend visits, especially from residents of Mexico City and Toluca. Holidays such as New Year's Eve and Semana Santa bring large numbers of visitors to the town leading to strong recommendations to arrange lodging well in advance. Other yearly events include the Festival Vallesano (March) where people participate in sporting, horseback-riding, art exhibitions and food-tasting events as well as cultural and musical performances. However, the largest annual celebration is the cultural festival known as the Festival de las Almas (Festival of the Souls) which has occurred each of the last five years in late September or early October. The 2007 festival brought in 4.5 million pesos to the area with 8 days of festivities, 151 programmed events centered on film, dance, art exhibitions, music, literature, workshops and theater, as well as Day of the Dead altars. It has spread to include events in Apaxco, Cuautitlán Izcalli, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Temascalcingo, Texcoco and Toluca. This event featured "Alan" State Dance Troupe from Ossetia Alania, Russia as well as artists from thirteen other countries. Roughly 160,000–170,000 people attended the event.

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