León

One line on the road through Guanajuato

In “Camino de Guanajuato”, José Alfredo Jiménez names León on a journey through his home state. The line about the city follows a severe reflection on life and death.

Jiménez was born in Dolores Hidalgo, not León. His song moves among several places in Guanajuato and ends by returning to his own town. León is one stop in the geography of the lyric, rather than the singer’s birthplace.

The Feria de León was also a place Jiménez visited as a performer. Local coverage remembers those visits while tracing the history of the song. His own recorded version offers a way to follow the words from León toward Dolores Hidalgo.