Atolinga is one of the 58

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the state of

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. It is located on the southern part of the state of Zacatecas and is bordered by the municipalities of

Tepechitlán The municipality of Tepechitlán is located in the southwestern portion of the Mexican state of Zacatecas. It is located between 21º33'49" and 21º44'00" latitude north and 103º09'07" and 103º32'01" longitude west with an average altitude of ...

and

Florencia de Benito Juárez Benito Juárez Municipality is a Mexican municipality located in the southern extreme of the state of Zacatecas on the edge of the Canyon of Tlaltenango. Overview To the north, the municipality is bordered by the municipality of Tepechitlán, ...

. To the east it is bordered by

Tlaltenango de Sánchez Román Tlaltenango, Mexican toponym, may mean: * Tlaltenango de Sánchez Román, Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates ...

and to the north and west by the state of

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal En ...

. The municipality covers a total surface area of ."Atolingo", Encyclopedia de Municipios

History

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish to the area, the region around Atolinga was inhabited by indigenous people of the

Caxcan The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion in 1540-42. During the rebellion, they were described as " ...

and Tepecan ethnic groups. The first Spanish contact with these people must have been in 1530 when

Pedro Almíndez Chirino Pedro Almíndez Chirino (or ''Pedro Almíndez Chirinos'') was a conquistador born in Úbeda and member of several councils that governed New Spain while Hernán Cortés was traveling to Honduras, in 1525-26. Almíndez was an ally of Gonzalo ...

went through the Valley of Tlaltenango on a northbound expedition. The first land grantee of the area was Pedro Sernosa, who later sold his land to Juan Fernández de Jara Quemada. The town formed part of the jurisdiccion of Tlaltenango for both ecclesiastical purposes and governmental purposes until the beginning of the 1800s. In 1814, a plea was made by the citizenry that the community be granted its own town council and status as a municipality due to the long distance from the municipal seat and the ascending local population. The plea spells out that the town counted with nearly 700 "souls" and that within a radius of two leagues lived more than 3,700 people. Most of this towns families are large families with the same last name. The most common are : Carlos, Bugarin, Castaneda, Saldana, Nanes and Salinas.

Population

In the 2005 census Atolinga, reported a population of 2,738.Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005
INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática Of these, 1,453 lived in the municipal seat and the remainder lived in surrounding rural communities.

References

{{Zacatecas Municipalities of Zacatecas es:Municipio de Atolinga