Valle de Guadalupe or Francisco Zarco is a village located in the municipio of Ensenada

Ensenada (municipality)

The municipality of Ensenada, with a land area of , takes up the majority of the state of Baja California. It is the largest in Mexico by area and the Americas. It contains all of Baja California apart from a strip at the north and, at the northeast extremity of the state, the municipality of...

, Baja California

Baja California

Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, 20 km (14 mi) north of the city of Ensenada

Ensenada, Baja California

Ensenada is a coastal city in Mexico and the third-largest city in Baja California. It is located south of San Diego on the Baja California Peninsula. The city is locally referred to as La Cenicienta del Pacífico, or, The Cinderella of the Pacific...

. The census of 2010 reported a population of 2,664 inhabitants.

History

The community was founded in 1834 by Dominican

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 missionary Félix Caballero

Félix Caballero

Félix Caballero was a Dominican priest. He played an important part in the history of the missions of Baja California.Caballero arrived at Veracruz on December 19, 1812 and traveled to Baja California in July, 1814...

 as Misión de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Norte

Misión de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Norte

Mission Guadalupe was founded by the Dominican missionary Félix Caballero in June 1834, at the site of the modern community of Guadalupe, Baja California...

, making it the last mission established in the Californias. Caballero had to abandon the mission in 1840, under attacks from the indigenous peoples.

One of the most important activities in the mission was wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

 production but in 1857, when the Mexican government stripped the Catholic Church of its land holdings the small wineries formerly tended to by missionaries were eventually abandoned. In 1888 the government sold the former lands of the nearby Santo Tomás Mission

Misión Santo Tomás de Aquino

Mission Santo Tomás was founded on April 24, 1791 by the Dominican missionary José Loriente, with the authorization of the president of the missions, Juan Crisóstomo Gómez....

 to a private group, which established the first large-scale winery in Mexico.

In 1904, the region received an influx of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n Molokan

Molokan

Molokans are sectarian Christians who evolved from "Spiritual Christian" Russian peasants that refused to obey the Russian Orthodox Church, beginning in the 17th century...

 immigrants, a religious

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

 group which opposed war and fled Russia so its men would not be drafted by the Czarist army. In Mexico they found freedom of creed and acquired about 0.4 km² (100 acres) of land to harvesting grapes for wine.

Tourism

Since the 1990s the association of winemakers of Baja California holds the Grape Harvest Fiestas in the Valley of Guadalupe and the town of Ensenada every year in August. The celebration includes wine tasting

Wine tasting

Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onwards...

 sessions, concert

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

s and soirées, and samplings of regional cuisine

Cuisine

Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...

 and Mexican wine

Mexican wine

Mexican wine and wine making began with the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, when they brought vines from Europe to modern day Mexico, the oldest wine-growing region in the Americas...

s.

External links

• History of the Valley of Guadalupe and other wine-producing villages.