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Copper
The Purépecha were the most advanced metalworkers of their time
Of the Mesoamerican cultures, only the Purépecha and the Zapotec of Oaxaca used copper extensively. Copper was rare among the Aztecs. The Purépecha were the most advanced in metallurgy, making bells, decorations, jewelry and tools such as axes, and they could inlay gold into copper. Burial grounds here have yielded copper axes, masks and pincers.
Cazos
Vasco de Quiroga gave the town the sole right to make cazos
After the Conquest most of the people here fled, and the Spanish enticed them back to their old trades. Vasco de Quiroga gave them the exclusive right to produce cazos, a cross between a large cauldron and a very large wok, still used in Mexico to fry pig skin into chicharrones. A large forge was built in 1540, and the town was officially founded in 1553. It became the most important copper smelting area in New Spain.
Fire
Two fires left the town poor, and a copper fair revived it in 1946
Copper production peaked in the second half of the 19th century. Then a huge fire destroyed the town, and it stayed poor into the early 20th century. It burned again in 1910, and the Spanish population left for Pátzcuaro and Morelia. In 1946 a group of local artisans organized a copper fair, which continues today, and the industry was revived. The nearest copper mines were tapped out in the mid 20th century.
Workshops
Most people in town work in copper, in family workshops
The source says 82% of the town's population is employed in making copper items, in 250 registered workshops in and around the town. The workshops are family-owned, and children learn the trade from their parents. A piece takes from four days to a month, and usually four people are needed to heat the metal, turn it and hammer it into shape. The Museo del Cobre holds hand-hammered copper from the pre-Hispanic period to the present.
82%of the town's people work making copper items
The fair
A hammered copper contest awards more than eighty prizes each year
The National Festival and Competition of Hammered Copper takes place in late August or early September, around the feast day of the town's patron saint, Saint Clare. Its main feature is a copper crafts competition that awards more than eighty prizes. Other attractions include a parade, music, dances, fireworks and food such as sopa rellena, corundas and atole. Santa Clara del Cobre was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2010.
Day 4, afternoon
It comes after Tzintzuntzan Yácatas.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Santa Clara del Cobre, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.