By Rafe Calder
Paracho is a town where the question is not whether people make guitars, but how many sources agree on when they started.
Wikipedia places Paracho de Verduzco in Michoacán, about 100 kilometers west of the state capital, Morelia, with a population of 37,464. It says the craft tradition spans over 480 years and began in the sixteenth century when the priest Vasco de Quiroga assigned stringed-instrument crafting to the village. The surrounding forests provided pine as raw material. For over a century, the article says, local luthiers studied foreign guitars to improve their techniques, and from the 1980s Spanish master luthiers were invited to enhance craftsmanship. It also says Paracho was designated a Pueblo Mágico in 2020.
Two dates for the beginning
A Mexican technology site’s history agrees with the sixteenth century. It says Don Vasco de Quiroga, the first bishop of Michoacán’s diocese, taught the craft to the PurĂ©pecha people. An NPR report from 2018, however, says the guitar-making tradition dates back to the eighteenth century. Those are two different centuries, and we cannot settle it here. Two of our three sources give the sixteenth century, and we have not seen a primary record for either.
How big is the industry?
The technology site says there are more than 300 guitar makers in Paracho and quotes the Michoacán government as saying the town produces 98 percent of the guitars made nationally. That is a government claim relayed by a technology site, and we have not seen the underlying data. The NPR report says one guitar factory produces 1,500 instruments a week and that the town was estimated to export approximately one million guitars annually, and it ties part of that attention to the film Coco. Before the film, it says, 90 percent of exports were tan-colored. Now white guitars dominate orders. Those two sets of numbers are not easy to reconcile, and neither is dated precisely, so we are not combining them.
What goes into one
The technology site lists woods. Pinabete is used for tops, it says, with cedar and paloescrito for sides and backs, and ebony, granadillo or oak for fretboards. It calls the craftspeople lauderos, or luthiers. The NPR report says one guitar took a month to make, using pearl accents and wood from southern Mexico. Wikipedia lists the instruments handmade in town: mandolins, guitars, vihuelas, guitarrones and bajo sextos. These are the sources’ lists, and we have not seen a workshop describe its own wood supply.
Guitarrones are the large bass guitars used in mariachi ensembles. The NPR report introduces a third-generation artisan making them for mariachi bands and schools in Texas and California, and names others in the town. We are not naming the people from the report, because a news article’s profile is not a basis for a recommendation.
The festival
Wikipedia says the annual Feria de la Guitarra is held in August, usually in the second week, and lasts nine days. We have not confirmed the dates for the current year. It adds that many of the stores and workshops allow visitors to watch guitar making directly, which we have not confirmed either.
A bishop and his villages
Paracho is not the only Michoacán town the sources tie to Vasco de Quiroga. Wikipedia’s article on Santa Clara del Cobre says he granted that town exclusive rights to produce cazos, the large copper cooking vessels, and introduced new methods of smelting. A separate article on copper work says the town was founded by a different friar, and that Quiroga’s name is attached to it probably because of his own work with copper smithing. So the pattern, a bishop assigning a craft to a village, appears in two towns in two sources, and each source treats it with a different level of confidence. We would read it as local tradition until a primary record turns up.
The fair, and a bold claim
Mexico’s culture ministry listing for the fair gives its dates as August 9 to 17, nine days, and describes concerts, cultural exhibitions and commercial exhibitions. It describes a laud-making tradition with guitars that compete only with those manufactured in Spain, and says famous musicians travel to the PurĂ©pecha plateau town looking for instruments that meet their acoustic standards. It attributes the craft generally to Bishop Vasco de Quiroga, who founded workshops about 500 years ago that gave different artisan traditions to different Michoacán communities. The comparison with Spain is the listing’s own, and we have not seen a source that tests it. The listing does not say when the fair was first held. Check the organizers for this year’s dates.
A word on prices
The technology site and NPR both give peso and dollar figures, ranging from economy instruments to master guitars. They differ by publication date and by currency, and we are not quoting them. Ask the maker.
What to ask
Ask who built the guitar and in which workshop. Ask what the top, sides, back and fretboard are made of, and where the wood came from. Ask whether the instrument was built by one person or by a team, and how long it took. Ask whether it is a concert instrument or a souvenir. The sources suggest a wide range from workshop to factory, and the answer to that last question will tell you where on that range the piece sits.
What we have not found
We have not found a source that explains how Paracho’s makers are trained, how many workshops are family businesses, or whether any certification mark exists for guitars made in Paracho. If you know of one, a maker is the best person to ask about it.
We are not naming a workshop, because we have not sourced one for this piece.
Roam first. Shop later.