Villa de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción…

Villa de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de las Aguas Calientes (Village of our Lady of Assumption of the Hot Waters) situated in a mountainous area about two hundred and sixty miles (four hundred and twenty kilometers) northwest of Mexico City at an altitude of about sixty-two hundred feet (eighteen hundred and ninety meters), is founded on October 22, 1575, by Juan de Montoro and twelve families.

A fortified postal service rest stop between the city of Zacatecas and Mexico City on the trail from silver mines to the capital, its founders do not envision it becoming a major city, but it will become the capital of the newly formed state of the same name when its territory is split off from the adjacent state of Zacatecas in 1835.

The name, meaning "hot waters" in Spanish, originates from the abundance of hot springs in the area.

These thermal features are still in demand in the city's numerous spas and even exploited for domestic use.

People from Aguascalientes (both the city and the state) are known by the whimsical Spanish demonym hidrocálidos or "hydrothermal" people.

Today the thirteenth largest metropolitan area by population in the country, with over nine hundred thousand people in the year 2000, Aguascalientes is one of the fastest growing cities in Mexico.