Virgen del Refugio

We find the community of El Molino from its beginnings as a neighborhood belonging to the town of Namiquipa. It is there that we spatially locate the Virgen del Refugio temple, which, although there are not enough sources to provide precise temporal references regarding its origin, its site and construction show that it belonged to the province of Zacatecas, emerging during the 18th century with a contemporary adobe construction system, as mentioned in the INAH catalog of historical monuments. Based on the limited information available about the temple, it is assumed that it was a visita church close to the mission of San Pedro de Alcántara in Namiquipa. The latter housed the parish priest responsible for attending these sites, among many others in the region.

Thus, this sanctuary stands as a witness into the 20th century of how the El Molino neighborhood was consolidating at the time as an important commercial hub; as Dizan Vázquez notes in his book on the Mission of San Pedro de Alcántara: — “Also belonging to Namiquipa was the town of El Terrero, which at that time (1948) had a fairly large population and was beginning to develop as a prosperous commercial center; the same can be said of El Molino, which also had a sizable population and was a thriving commercial hub. Both towns were considered neighborhoods of Namiquipa.”