Acacoyagua Municipality one of the 122

municipalities of Chiapas Chiapas is a state in Southwest Mexico. According to the 2020 Mexican Census, it has the eighth largest population of all states with inhabitants and the 10th largest by land area spanning . Chiapas is officially divided into 124 municipalities, ...

, which in turn is one of the

states of Mexico The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a separate ent ...

. As of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 16,814, up from 14,189 as of 2005.

History

The area is notable for being the place where the first organized

Japanese immigrants The Japanese diaspora and its individual members, known as Nikkei (日系) or as Nikkeijin (日系人), comprise the Japanese emigrants from Japan (and their descendants) residing in a country outside Japan. Emigration from Japan was recorded a ...

settled in Mexico. In 1897, thirty five initial colonists led by

Enomoto Takeaki Viscount was a Japanese samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate and fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War. He later served in the Mei ...

arrived to work on coffee farms, making Mexico the first

Latin American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...

country to receive Japanese immigrants. Although the coffee endeavor failed, the colonists began farming vegetables and flowers. Over the following 30 years, six more "waves" of migrants followed. As most of the migrants were men, marriage with local women and conversion to Roman Catholicism was common. Nikkei have become

Municipal President A ''presidente municipal'' (English: "municipal president") is the chief of government of municipios in Mexico. This title was also used in the Philippines under the Spanish and American colonization; it is comparable to a mayor of the town or city ...

, the first being Juvencio Nishizama Cruz in 1954 and the latest being José Martín Nomura Hernandez in 2005. The main garden in town has Japanese influences and there is a monument commemorating the Japanese migrants. In May 1997, Prince Akishino, Ambassador Teresuke Terada and members of the Japanese Navy visited the town to mark the hundred year anniversary of the arrival of the first colonists.

Demographics

As of 2010, the town of Acacoyagua had a population of 7,515. Other than the town of Acacoyagua, the municipality had 152 localities, the largest of which (with 2010 populations in parentheses) was:

Hidalgo Hidalgo may refer to: People * Hidalgo (nobility), members of the Spanish nobility * Hidalgo (surname) Places Mexico * Hidalgo (state), in central Mexico * Hidalgo, Coahuila, a town in the north Mexican state of Coahuila * Hidalgo, Nuevo Le� ...

(1,209), classified as rural.

References

External links

Municipalities of Chiapas {{Chiapas-geo-stub