Templo de Fátima en Delicias
On the Pan-American Highway, 52.5 miles south of Chihuahua is Delicias, which originated at a hacienda belonging to Bartolomé Ortiz de Campos, the first Spaniard to have rights to this land, which he inherited to his daughter Rosa, who was married to Antonio de Trasviña y Retes.
This successful miner, with influence in the vice regal court, increased the size of the hacienda. After several owners, a portion of the hacienda was transferred to the Franciscan convent. In 1864, with the approval of the Disentailment Law, Benito Juárez auctioned it to José Cordero, a businessman that paid four thousand pesos and called it Hacienda de las Delicias. When the Central Railroad’s route from Ciudad Juárez to Mexico City was decided in 1884, the Delicias loading station was located within the hacienda’s limits. Many settlers arrived in this area, in 1930, with the creation of the Number 5 Irrigation System, located between the Conchos and San Pedro Rivers, giving place to the formal establishment of the city in 1933. The municipality of Delicias was created in 1935, occupying part of the neighboring territories of Meoqui and Rosales.
It is one of the State’s most progressive cities. It has an interesting Paleontology Museum, unique in northern Mexico due to the large variety of fossils found in the region.
While in the area, one can fulfill the day with other activities. 5.6 miles to the north, La Junta de los Ríos and El Delfín water parks are located. Pools are filled with warm water from the springs. Only 7.5 miles to the west, there is the Rosetilla Dam where one can fish for bass. Engineer Carlos Blake designed the city’s outline. At the city’s heart is the municipal market, where the four main streets meet.
Cotton and grape-growing and wine-making were the basis of the economy, but nowadays, due to the many routes that communicate the location with the rest of the State and the Country, Delicias has diversified its activities, and is developing some basic industry.
