Study area

The study was carried out in 28 localities of the municipality of Pinos, Zacatecas (Figure 1) which is located between parallels 21° 47’ and 22° 45’ North latitude and meridians 101° 17’ and 101° 50’ of West longitude with an altitude between 1 900 and 3 000 m. Its extension represents 4.2% of the total surface area of the state and borders on the North with the municipality of Villa Hidalgo and the state of San Luis Potosí, on the South with the states of Guanajuato, Jalisco and San Luis Potosí, on the West with the municipalities of Villa García, Loreto, Noria de Ángeles, Villa Hidalgo and the state of Jalisco and to the East with the state of San Luis Potosí (^{INEGI, 2005}; ^{SECTURZ, 2016}).

Figure 1 Location of the study area.  

Collection and registration of heritage assets

To collect the information and register the assets, individual and group meetings were held with the following key informants from the Municipality of Pinos, Zacatecas: private secretary of the municipal president, agricultural producers, tourism department, municipal reporter, personnel of the Historical Archive of Pines, president of the Magic Town committee, responsible for museums and illustrious people of the municipality. It consulted about the heritage assets of the territory, location, use, state of conservation and tourist itinerary in case of being part of routes or routes. At the same time of the meetings, a documentary review was carried out in previous works on the study area to identify the potential assets of the municipality. The result of these two activities was a list of cultural and natural assets located in the 28 towns of the municipality. Once the patrimonial assets were identified, a map and a schedule of visits were prepared in which routes were programmed to make the photographic and documentary record of the goods during the months of March, April and May of 2017. Descriptive cards were constructed for each one of the patrimonial assets in which the following were registered, the name of the property, location (geographical coordinates), type of resource, state of conservation, type of property, current use and accessibility, the list of properties grew as the sites initially disposed of were visited due to the contributions of local inhabitants.

Knowledge, perception and social valuation

In order to determine the knowledge and the social value that the inhabitants of the ‘Magic Town’ of Pinos, Zacatecas have of their cultural and natural heritage, surveys were carried out in the municipal capital based on a simple random sampling with a confidence level of 90% and an error of 0.1 using the formula for finite populations (equation 1) (^{Hernández et al., 2003}), according to the total population of the locality (5 611) registered in the census of population and housing of the Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) for the year 2010 obtaining a sample of 67 surveys.

Where: N= is the total population; n= is the sample size; P= is the expected proportion; Z∝2 = is the confidence level, q= is the probability of failure; and d= is the absolute precision. The survey was divided into three segments that included the following items: I) general data (age, sex, schooling and place of residence); II) identification of cultural and natural heritage (knowledge of appointments and patrimony, economic benefits, attendance to fair and pride); and III) Identification of priority landscape (importance and valuation of cultural and natural heritage). To determine the pride of the inhabitants, a Likert scale was used (^{Guil, 2006}) with values from 1 to 10 where 1 is little proud and 10 very proud. In the valuation of cultural and natural heritage values from 1 to 6 were used, in which 1 corresponds to very important and 6 little important. The data obtained were processed for statistical analysis in the SAS 9.4^© package. TS Level 1M1. To determine the factors that influence the valuation and pride for the cultural and natural heritage of the municipality of Pinos, a logistic regression analysis (stepwise) was carried out under the Wald method, discarding the variables with an X² <0.05.

Processing and classification of heritage assets

There are several classifications of patrimonial assets in the literature that are distinguished by the type of classification criteria they use. Authors such as (^{Burkart and Medlik, 1986}; ^{Gunn, 1988}; ^{Navarro, 2015}; ^{Blanco et al., 2015}) use a mixed classification criterion; that is, they consider both types of heritage: cultural and natural. While organizations and authors such as the Organization of American States (1978) and ^{Romero (1986)} catalog both types of goods according to the quality of the tourist heritage as such. On the other hand, authors such as ^{Clawson and Knetsch (1966)} focus their classification on the tourism potential of goods, although according to their hierarchy not all heritage assets are considered as tourist attractions, this does not mean that they cease to be part of the heritage of a territory. In spite of the fact that these models have been proposed for 30 to 50 years, they have not ceased to be a necessary reference for the inventory of goods and tourism resources.

In this study, the classification of patrimonial assets was made using the proposal of the Organization of American States (OAS) of 1978 as a basis, taking into account the modifications made to it by the ^{National Tourism Service of the Government of Chile (2013)} and ^{Blanco et al. (2015)}. The categorization of the natural protected areas of Mexico of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CNANP), the classification of constructed hydric heritage mentioned by ^{Parejo (2013)}, as well as the proposal of ^{Navarro (2015)} to classify tourist resources were also used. Taking into account the geographical distribution of the goods, the accessibility to the rest of the localities from the municipal seat, their evaluation within the hierarchy of the OAS (^{OEA, 1978}) and the perception and social value of the inhabitants of the municipality, were drawn tourist routes in order to facilitate knowledge of the heritage of both visitors and residents through an indoor tourism network.

Tourist routes add value to localities (^{Blanco et al., 2015}), contribute to the cultural appreciation of heritage, complement, diversify and boost the economy of the inhabitants of a region through tourism (^{Torres and Barragan, 2016}). Pinos is located near 3 major tourist poles (San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes), which facilitates the creation of mixed routes whose products are formed from the sum of several cultural and natural heritage components (^{González, 2011}; ^{SECTURZ, 2014}). The location of Pinos places it within the routes proposed by ^{González (2011)} that covers the southeastern region of the state of Zacatecas (Noria de Ángeles, Villa González Ortega, Villa Hidalgo and Pinos). And it is close to the routes proposed by ^{Blanco et al. (2015)} and ^{Castellanos et al. (2017)} in the Potosino Altiplano with mixed itineraries such as Salinas and Villa de Ramos that have a historical relationship with the Magic Town de Pinos.

Classification of the assets of Pinos

^{González (2011)} reports as assets with tourism potential for the municipality of Pinos 18 archaeological zones, cathedrals and museums, nine gastronomic dishes and a single party. In this study, 132 cultural and natural interest goods present in 28 towns in the municipality of Pinos, Zacatecas were classified into six of the following seven main categories proposed (Figure 2): 1) natural sites (11.3%); 2) protected natural areas (0%); 3) museums and cultural events, testimonies of cultures of the past and contemporary cultures (3.8%); 4) historical architecture and archaeological sites (57.6%); 5) folklore (9.1%); 6) contemporary technical, scientific or artistic achievements (5.3%); and 7) scheduled events (12.9%). It was found that 16% corresponded to intangible heritage, 73% to tangible heritage and 11% to natural heritage according to the proposed classification.

Figure 2 Patrimonial assets classified by category.  

The intangible heritage consists of eight religious festivals during the year, held in the parish of San Matías, the Temple of San Francisco and the Temple of Tlaxcala, these are also part of the culture and identity of the territory (^{Fernández, 2010}), relate to the development of tourism activity (^{González, 2011}). The festival of lanterns is an example of this, it is one of the oldest in the municipality, held from November 30 to December 8 of each year since 1601 in honor of the Immaculate Conception (^{González, 2011}), on this holiday the Tlaxcala neighborhood is filled with colorful lanterns, pilgrimages are made and you receive the ‘torch of faith’ that arrives from Mexico City. As part of the patrimony, the four gastronomic manifestations, the three civic festivities (^{García and García, 2014}) and three cultural traditions, including the dances of matlachines that recreates the Chichimecas subjected during the conquest (^{Valdez, 2013}), appear in the list immaterial. The Prickly Pear and Nopal Fair held since 2012 in the town of La Victoria, exposes typical gastronomy of products derived from the region and organizes rural tourism activities such as the cut of the prickly pear.

The characteristic material patrimony of the municipality consists of ten haciendas and four stays located in the territory, of which there is still physical evidence and which are found with different degrees of degradation. Corrals, mills, silos, warehouses, houses, ditches, drinking troughs, rodeos and wells are also part of the infrastructure of these buildings and constitute 43 material goods. To distinguish a hacienda from a ranch, it was considered that the hacienda docklands have churches with at least one nave with an altarpiece and a choir, while in the estancias, which were sites for cattle (^{Chevalier, 1975}; ^{Dávila, 2014}), they observe chapels built after the agrarian distribution in attached wineries. The establishment of latifundios in the municipality of Pinos began around 1 600 with the development of the mining sector in the region (^{Acosta, 1986}), so that localities such as Espiritu Santo and El Nigromante to date are about 420 years old (^{Sifuentes, 2005}).

The twelve churches of the municipality of Pinos are another manifestation of the material heritage, the municipal head has four religious buildings of great importance: the temple of San Francisco and its convent erected in 1591, home of the black Christ or Lord of the Esquipulas patron of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (^{Pacheco, 2005}), its lateral walls house two 17^th century Salomonic altarpieces (^{UNESCO, 2012}), the San Francisco convent is currently the cultural center of the municipal seat and hosts multiple events throughout the year. Year, the Parish of San Matías, viceregal building built between 1682 and 1697 modified in 1795 to make it of three naves that was left unfinished, so that the current aspect of this enclosure is unique in the region with uncoated vaults and different construction materials (^{UNESCO, 2012}) and the temple of the Immaculate Conception of Tlaxcala from the second half of the 18^th century, this church has two towers of two bodies each one and its interior is roofed by a vault of run cannon (^{UNESCO, 2012}). During the festivities of easter week, the temple of Tlaxcala is visited by the figure of Father Jesus, who is one of the most venerated saints of the region.

The municipality of Pinos is located in a semi-arid zone with a predominance of microphylla desert vegetation (^{SECTURZ, 2014}). Its natural heritage is characterized by large expanses of Yuca (Yucca filifera) forest located between the towns of Espiritu Santo, Las Cabras and Santa Gertrudis in the north and El Nigromante in the west of the municipality. The agave (A. salmiana) incorporated into the cultural heritage is used to make mezcal in places such as La Pendencia and Saldaña (^{Esparza et al., 2015}). In addition to the agave, the cactus pear (Opuntia spp.) Is another of the native elements of the natural heritage of Pinos, is part of the landscape, economy and culture (^{García et al., 2004}) and is cultivated in plantations throughout the municipality.

The geological formations of Pinos such as Los Frailes, similar to Sierra de Organos in Sombrerete, Zacatecas (^{Enríquez et al., 2003}) together with Cerro El Picacho, represent a point of reference for the municipality’s natural heritage. There are caves of natural formation such as the Sauz de San Martín locality where the population still lives, as well as the Duraznillo, Canyon, where cave paintings have been found and which has a waterfall during the rainy season (^{SECTURZ, 2014}). In the vicinity of the municipal seat is the Sierra de Pinos, of which Cerro de la Gallina stands out. Thanks to the discovery of silver mines in this mountainous formation, the now Magic Town was founded in 1594 (^{Acosta, 1986}).

The classification of ^{Blanco et al. (2015)} taken from the Organization of American States (^{OEA, 1978}) presents a proposal of hierarchy in four levels, with values of three to zero, of the importance of a good in the tourism field. Using this classification, it was found that 19% of the assets of Pinos are in the hierarchy category 3; that is, they are ‘exceptional attractions and great significance for the international tourism market, capable on their own of motivating a significant stream of visitors (current or potential)’, 34% in the hierarchy 2 as ‘attractive with exceptional features in a country, capable of motivating a current (current or potential) of visitors of the internal or external market, either alone or in conjunction with other attractions’, 33% in hierarchy 1 classified as ‘attractive with some striking feature, capable of interesting to long-distance visitors either from the internal or external market who had arrived in their area for other tourism reasons, or to motivate local (current or potential) tourist currents’ and finally 14% in the hierarchy 0 denominated as ‘attractive without sufficient merits to consider them at the level of the previous hierarchies, but that equally form part of the tourist heritage as elements that can complete others of higher hierarchy in the development and operation of any of the units that make up the tourist space’ (^{OEA, 1978}).

Knowledge, perception and social valuation

Of the 67 surveys: 51 were made to residents of Pinos, 13 people from the towns of Chiquihuitillo, El Chino, El Obraje, La Pendencia, La Victoria, Noria de San Pablo, San Carlos and San José de Espíritu Santo of the municipality of Pinos and 3 inhabitants of the zacatecans municipalities of Momax and Villa Hidalgo. The 67 respondents were in the municipal seat when the information was collected. As general characteristics of the respondents it was found that 58% were women and 42% men, the average age was 36 years and 10 years of educational level (basic education), 24% performed unpaid activities (housewife, student, support agricultural activities and family business), 7% is dedicated to the primary sector and 69% is dedicated to the tertiary sector and 76% resides in the municipal seat. Regarding the identification of cultural and natural heritage by respondents, 99% said they were aware that Pinos is Pueblos Mágico, 67% of which is a World Heritage Site and 46% have heard about the Camino Real de Tierra In. 54% believe that the appointment of Magic Town has not increased tourism in the municipality and that the economic benefit of the program is concentrated only in the municipal seat (52%), so it does not benefit the rest of the municipality (58%). To the question, how do you perceive your quality of life since Pinos was named Magic Town to date? 21% answered that better, 54% said the same and 24% said that worse.

With regard to the importance and value of the 7 natural and cultural assets that make up the municipality’s heritage, the results showed that the population has a greater knowledge of cultural heritage (16%) than natural (6%). Regarding the pride in both types of heritage, 9% of the respondents mentioned being not proud, while 40% said they were very proud of their heritage. According to the results of the logistic regression, the factors that best explain the value of pride for the cultural and natural heritage of the municipality of Pinos are: knowledge that Pinos is part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (X1), the achievement of local economic benefit by the appointment of Magic Town (X2), the improvement in the quality of life (X3), knowing Los Arquitos (X4), Hacienda Santiago (X5), the stream of flowers (X6) and Hacienda de San Martín (X7) the model that includes these variables explained 43% of the pride value of the Pinenses (γ).

The respondents considered that the patrimony has no economic value (61%), nor cultural value (35%), nor emotional value (48%) but it has natural value (48%), which is why the inhabitants do not consider that the landscape encompasses the concept of cultural patrimonial dimension, nor that these goods can provide economic benefits. Finally, questions about the valuation of cultural and natural heritage positioned the goods as shown in Table 1.

Tourist routes of the municipality of Pinos, Zacatecas

According to the geographic location of the heritage of interest and the results on the valuation of heritage assets, 12 interior tourist routes are proposed starting from the municipal head of Pines (Table 2) that includes five of the twelve goods valued by the surveyed population. Within route 1 (Magic Town) five of the twelve valued goods are contemplated. Visits to the former convent of San Francisco (PC3), to the Parish of San Matias (PC1), as well as the temple of Tlaxcala (PC2) declared in 2010 world heritage of humanity by UNESCO as part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (^{UNESCO, 2012}).

In the Magic Town of Pinos, there are buildings that have passageways, large courtyards and original paintings that are currently used as hotels, shops and private homes, seventeenth and eighteenth century mansions that were home to historical figures such as Luis de la Rosa Oteiza and the storyteller Amparo Dávila. There is also the Pottery of Colonia La Cuadrilla (PC4), unique in the municipal seat that is located at the foot of Cerro de la Gallina (PN1). In addition, Pinos has around 20 religious, civic and entertainment festivities that take place throughout the year. The estimated time of arrival from San Luis Potosi is 1 h with 20 minutes 97.9 km; from Zacatecas it is 1 h 37 min 145 km.

Route 2 included the towns of La Victoria and El Chino. The first is characterized by large areas of nopal cultivation and the establishment of an integrator of prickly pear, where each year in October, rural and agroecological tourism activities such as the Regional Fair of Nopal and prickly pear are carried out. On the other hand, the community of El Chino offers a historical panorama with the helmet of the former hacienda mezcalera that bears the same name (^{Canizales, 2008}). It is still possible to see remnants of the liquor craft industry, as well as traditional hydraulic infrastructure. The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 25 min 17.7 km.

Route 3 considers one of the twelve assets valued, in its itinerary are the localities of El Porvenir and La Pendencia, in the first one, tuna cheese is produced in the months of August to October of each year with a typical craft process of the municipality. While in the town La Pendencia you can visit the former hacienda, which was one of the most important mining-agricultural landholdings in the region (^{Canizales, 2008}). The La Pendencia wine factory (PC5) is located a few meters away from the hacienda. It is still operating with a mixed process of mezcal production, you can enter the factory’s facilities and later purchase its products. The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 21 min 21 km.

As for route 4, it considered the towns of Noria de San Pablo, El Nigromante and El Remanente. Noria de San Pablo is distinguished by having traditional hydraulic infrastructure, as well as by the buildings of a ranch established a few kilometers from the municipal seat. In its case, the town of El Nigromante houses the San Nicolás de Quijas estate complex (^{Sifuentes, 2005}) which is one of the twelve assets valued by respondents (PC6). Its church part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and therefore a cultural heritage of humanity declared by UNESCO (^{UNESCO, 2012}). The big house, the mill, the rodeo, the stables and several old mansions where the workers lived are still standing. Finally, the town of El Remanente maintains an old canal that was part of the Hacienda de San Nicolás de Quijas. The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 43 min 34.1 km.

Route 5 exclusively included mezcal complexes (^{Canizales, 2008}), such as those located in the towns of Saldaña, La Pendencia, La Trinidad and Santiago, located north of the municipality. At present, only the mezcal factories of Saldaña and La Pendencia remain in operation, where the production process can be witnessed, as well as the purchase of their products. Although the buildings of the four former haciendas are in conditions ranging from regulars to bad, the complexes can be visited. The Hacienda de la Trinidad has the church inside the big house, warehouses and traditional hydraulic infrastructure. For its part, in the former hacienda Santiago there are still buildings of the mezcal factory, which stopped operating about 15 years ago, in its vicinity are the big house, sentry boxes and one of the largest and best preserved aqueducts in the municipality. The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 60 min 67.4 km.

Route 6 was integrated with two of the twelve natural assets valued in the localities of Espiritu Santo, Las Cabras and Santa Gertrudis, the latter were estancias of the hacienda of Espiritu Santo, an old latifundium of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Mixed vocation (^{Sifuentes, 2005}; ^{Canizales, 2008}), was one of the largest and most important in the region. Of the ex-hacienda a complex is conserved constituted by the church, big house, warehouses, corrals, wall and sentry boxes. In its vicinity is the local pantheon, as well as other buildings attached to the hacienda helmet.

The presence of a forest area of giant biznagas in the section that connects Espiritu Santo with the town of Las Cabras, as well as an area of cassava forest in the Espiritu Santo-Santa Gertrudis (PN5) section. From the old estancia of Cabras you can visit the wineries, part of the mezcal factory, Ojo de Agua (PN2) with a ferris wheel, as well as traditional drinking bowls and ditches that are still in operation. In Santa Gertrudis, where mescal was also produced, there are still mills, ovens and cellars in good condition, as well as a rodeo used by the inhabitants of the town during the festivities, in addition to a traditional hydraulic infrastructure similar to that of the town of the goats. Finally, as representative natural landscape it was possible to observe in its surroundings an extensive forest of yucca or palm as the inhabitants of the region call it. The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 120 min 100 km.

As for route 7, the towns of San Carlos, Santa Ana and La Trinidad were contemplated. From the estancia of San Carlos there are some wineries accounts and in its surroundings, there is a dam. On this route is Santa Ana which was a mixed hacienda of the seventeenth century (^{Sifuentes, 2005}) currently privately owned and in good condition due to an exhaustive restoration, next to it is the church whose cult is dedicated to Mr. Santana. From Hacienda La Trinidad, you can visit part of the big house, the church that is inside the hull, several of its cellars, ovens and work rooms. It is one of the best preserved in the region and is part of the itinerary of visitors to the Magic Town Los Pinos, carried out by the Department of Tourism of the Municipality Los Pinos. The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 60 min 50.9 km.

San José de Bernalejo, La Estrella and San Martín represent route 8 of the inventory. In this regard, San Jose de Bernalejo has an admirable natural landscape in which highlights the Peña, valued as one of the twelve goods by respondents as PN6, to enter the territory is located La Estrella whose entrance has a waterhole surrounded of ancient poplars. La Estrella was another large estate of mixed vocation from which the silos (used as houses), the church and the big house are still preserved. On the same route, the town of San Martín preserves the farm that gives it its name. The complex consists of a large house, church, warehouses, remains of factories, irrigation ditches and adjoining buildings (^{Canizales, 2008}). It is one of the most remote settlements of the municipal seat and one of the best preserved. The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 144 min 76.1 km.

Route 9 included a site of natural heritage that is used by the inhabitants of the area as houses, warehouses and corrals. It is about the caves of the Sauz de San Martín locality in which the natural degradation of the soil has allowed the formation of caves. A few meters from the settlement, a dam with the same name is located, as well as a large area of geodes. A few minutes away is the Chorro Canyon, also known as the Duraznillo Canyon (^{SECTURZ, 2014}), a natural formation pit that houses a waterfall during the rainy season; its landscape is singular because it is located in a place that has little human intervention, this was valued by the inhabitants as (PN4). The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 36 min 24.5 km.

In the route 10 are the latifundios located to the west of the municipality. This includes the towns El Chino and El Nigromante, described above, as well as Pedregoso in which the large house of the hacienda and the church is still standing (^{Sifuentes, 2005}). Pedregoso was acquired by its current owner thanks to the inheritance of the last landowner in the year of 1973. Although the original altarpiece of the temple was removed towards the middle of the 20th century, the external structure of the building has original elements of the establishment of the latifundio as the quarry pink and ornamentation. The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 57 min 40.1 km.

Route 11 contemplated the towns of Estación Tolosa and Tolosa. Tolosa Station is an old train station that began operating around 1890 (SIC, 2017), in its vicinity there is a chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe that celebrates its festivities in December of each year. For its part, the town of Tolosa houses a room that bears the same name, a complex that consists of ovens, cellars, sugar mills, a well and a church built in one of the attached wineries, a characteristic feature of the hacienda ranches. As an extra piece of information, there is the Escamol Collection Center, a product extracted by hand in different parts of the municipality, which is recognized in the most prestigious gastronomy in the country and has become the livelihood of some Pinones rural communities (Hipólito, 2016). The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 48 min 52 km.

Finally, on route 12 there is another of the twelve natural assets valued as PN3 by the respondents. Los Frailes, is a rock formation interned in the Pinense territory, next to it is Cerro El Picacho, which is visible from the municipal seat, since it is the highest point of the municipality. According to oral tradition, Los Frailes were formed after the expedition of a religious order that was on an evangelization mission. This is the only route that considers natural heritage sites exclusively and that can be complemented with the route of routes 8 and 9 of this proposal due to its proximity. The estimated time of arrival from Pinos is 29 min 24 km.