[4] During the Porfiriato era, Aguascalientes was chosen to host the main workshops of the Mexican Central Railway company; bringing an industrial and cultural explosion.

Formed on a tradition of farming, mining and railroad and textile industry; contemporary Aguascalientes has attracted foreign investment of automobile and electronics companies due to its peaceful business climate, strategic location and existing infrastructure.

[10][11] Other companies with operations in the city include Jatco, Coca-Cola, Flextronics, Texas Instruments, Donaldson and Calsonic Kansei.

[13] The Cristo Negro del Encino ('Black Christ of the live oak'), is a widely venerated religious icon symbolic of this neighborhood.

[citation needed] The colonial square and the José Guadalupe Posada Museum, adjacent to the church, are one of the main attractions in the city.

The second neighborhood is the Barrio de San Marcos, which has its roots in the early 17th century as an indigenous settlement on the outskirts of the then-village of Aguascalientes.

[citation needed] Between 1628 and 1688, some communal land was allocated to the community, but the indigenous people still worked on Spanish-owned farms and produced goods to sell in Aguascalientes.

[citation needed] The third neighborhood is the Barrio de Guadalupe, which began its development as a string of shops and trading posts alongside the road leading from Aguascalientes to Jalpa and Zacatecas during the latter half of the 18th century.

[citation needed] The neighborhood's iconic Templo de Guadalupe was built between 1767 and 1789; it is recognized for its Spanish Baroque façade and its dome lined with Talavera tiles.

[citation needed] The final neighborhood is the Barrio de la Salud, which has its roots in a small chapel and a cemetery developed towards the end of the 18th century to deal with a number of disease epidemics that had struck the area.

[16] Therefore, despite its important role in the history of Aguascalientes, it is not strictly accurate to consider the Barrio de la Estación one of the city's original historical neighborhoods.

The two other municipalities considered parts of the Aguascalientes metropolitan area are Jesús María and San Francisco de los Romo; they had populations of 99,590 and 35,769, respectively.

[25] According to the latest census by the National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Data Processing (INEGI), Aguascalientes City was the 13th largest metropolitan area by population in the country.

[citation needed] Texas Instruments has one plant in Aguascalientes, which is dedicated to integrated circuitry (IC) manufacturing.

[citation needed] Aguascalientes houses the largest festival held in Mexico, the San Marcos Fair, which takes place from the middle of April to the beginning of May.

The celebration was held originally in the San Marcos church, neighborhood, and its magnificent neoclassical garden; since then, it has greatly expanded to cover a huge area of exposition spaces, bullrings, nightclubs, theaters, performance stages, theme parks, hotels, convention centers, and other attractions.

The most notable building here is the Baroque Government Palace, dating from 1664 and constructed out of red volcanic stone; it is known for its one hundred arches.

The neighborhood of La Estación takes its name from the old railway station, inaugurated in 1911 and one of Aguascalientes' architectural and historical treasures.

The Church of our Lady of Guadalupe possesses an extraordinarily exuberant Baroque facade designed by José de Alcíbar, a renowned architect of the period considered to be one of the most famous artists in Mexico in the 1770s.

Examples are the Morelos Theater, historically important for its role during the Mexican Revolution as a convention site; architecturally, the building is notable for its facade and interior, which houses a small museum.

The Alameda avenue, the railway hangars, the factory complexes, and its surrounding housing have been proposed to be placed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

[28] State-owned Radio y Televisión de Aguascalientes (RyTA) offers local programming as well as news shows.

The Aguascalientes Bicentenary Velodrome, designed by Peter Junek, hosted the 2010 Pan American Track Championships.