The rich and varied history of the town of Dolores Hidalgo is bound up with the beginnings of the Hacienda de la Erre. Originally a cattle ranch, part of the hacienda was bought and settled as a village. Subsequently, the parish priest, Father Miguel Hidalgo, set up a number of workshops where pottery, carpentry and textile production were taught. Hidalgo oversaw the planting of thousands of fruit trees and vines as well as the training of the workers that would tend them. As a result he wielded considerable influence over the people of the area, who gladly followed him to war after his famous "Cry of Independence" in the early nineteenth century.

Dolores Hidalgo played a fundamental part in Mexican history, as it was here, on the night of September 15, 1810, that Father Miguel Hidalgo initiated the struggle to liberate México from Spanish rule, causing the town to be known ever after as the "Cradle of National Independence".

Dolores Hidalgo was founded in 1610 and bears a rich legacy of architecture from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Buildings such as the church of Our Lady of Dolores, scene of the Cry of Independence, the Town Hall, tithing house, Casa de Hidalgo Museum, and even the main hotel all give evidence of the high quality of the architecture and of the townspeople who created it.