Jala, Nayarit

Jala (Spanish   ) is both a municipality and a town in the Mexican state of Nayarit. The population of the municipality was 16,071 in 2005, in a total area of 364.60 square kilometers. The population of the municipal seat of the same name was 9,631.

The name Jala—place where there is a lot of sand—is derived from the Nahuatl word "Xali", which means "sand", and the variant "Tla", which means "place with an abundance of ".

The municipality of Jala is located in the southern part of the state of Nayarit; between parallels 21° 5’ and 21° 20’ latitude north and meridians 104° 18’ and 104° 31’ longitude west. It is bounded in the north by the municipalities of Santa María del Oro and La Yesca; in the south by the municipalities of Ahuacatlán and Ixtlán del Río; in the east with Ixtlán del Río and in the west with Santa María del Oro.

The Rio Grande de Santiago passes in the north of the municipality.

The economy is based on agriculture with the main crops being corn (maize), sorghum, peanuts, sugarcane, and fruit trees. There is also cattle and swine raising. There are sugarcane mills, sawmills, brickworks, furniture factories, a packing plant for peaches, and several small transformation industries.

Nayarit

Nayarit (Spanish pronunciation: [naʝaˈɾit]), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit (Spanish: Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit), is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.

It is located in Western Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Sinaloa to the northwest, Durango to the north, Zacatecas to the northeast and Jalisco to the south. To the west, Nayarit has a significant share of coastline on the Pacific Ocean, including the islands of Marías and Marietas. The beaches of San Blas and the so-called "Riviera Nayarit" are popular with tourists. Beside tourism, the economy of the state is based mainly on agriculture and fishing.

Home to Uto-Aztecan indigenous peoples such as the Huichol and Cora, the region was exposed to the conquistadores, Hernán Cortés and Nuño de Guzmán, in the 16th century. Spanish governance was made difficult by indigenous rebellions and by the inhospitable terrain of the Sierra del Nayar. The last independent Cora communities were subjugated in 1722. The state's name recalls the Cora's label for themselves: Náayerite, commemorating Nayar, a resistance leader.