Don’t miss Mascota’s museum (on Morelos, one block west of the southwest plaza corner, tel. 388/386-0189, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. and 5–8 p.m. daily), the labor of love of retired teacher Raoul Rodríguez. Here, Señor Rodríguez, who gives a personal guided tour (in Spanish, bring a friend along to translate), exhibits his fascinating personal collection of Mascota memorabilia.

Highlights include mementos of Mascota native daughter Ester Fernández, star of what has become the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. Other displays highlight the devotion of Mascota priest José María Roble, who was martyred during the Cristero rebellion of the late 1920s. A third section exhibits the oil paintings of noted Mascota landscape painter Gilberto Guerra.

The Mascota Casa de Cultura (Allende 115, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. and 4–7 p.m. Mon.–Sat., 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Sun.), half a block north of the museum, features a permanent exhibit of photos of some of the 12,000 petroglyphs discovered locally in 1999 and 2000. The rock carvings appear to represent rites of sun, water, and fertility. In three other rooms, a number of professionally arranged and labeled displays reveal a fascinating trove of handsome human- and animal-motif ceramic sculptures, dating from about A.D. 1000. All of these finds were excavated during recent years by a team led by Professor Joseph Mountjoy of the University of North Carolina.