Coacalco de Berriozábal (; simply known as Coacalco) is one of 125

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 ...

in the

State of Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. The municipal seat is the city of San Francisco Coacalco. The municipality lies in the

Greater Mexico City Greater Mexico City refers to the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico ( es, Zona metropolitana del Valle de México). It encompasses Mexico City itself and 60 adjacent municipalities of the S ...

conurbation A conurbation is a region comprising a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most cas ...

, north of

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. The municipal seat is San Francisco Coacalco and the municipality is named after Felipe Berriozábal (1829–1900), a Mexican politician and military leader. The word ''Coacalco'' comes from the

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have small ...

''coatl'' (snake), ''calli'' (home) and ''-co'' (at), meaning "at the house of the snake", a name that was first recorded in 1320.

History

Coacalco de Berriozábal is part of the

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico w ...

. It is located at the site of what was once the city-state of

Xaltocan Xaltocan was a pre-Columbian city-state and island in the Valley of Mexico, located in the center of Lake Xaltocan, part of an interconnected shallow lake system which included Lake Texcoco; this place is now inside the village of San Miguel J ...

. Between 850 and 1521, the municipality was inhabited by

Toltec The Toltec culture () was a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, reaching prominence from 950 to 1150 CE. T ...

people. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the main economic activities were

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, startin ...

and

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

harvesting. On 12 February 1862, General Felipe Berriozábal, then-governor of the state, signed an order that declared Coacalco an independent municipality, ending a 343-year-old dependency of Ecatepec.

Economy

The economy of Coacalco has changed since the 1970s. It switched from being primarily agricultural and rural to an urban industrial area. Since the 2000s, the municipality has become one of the principal commercial districts of the northern part of the metropolitan area.

Population

Located next to Mexico City, Coacalco's population has increased by more than 200,000 since 1970. In 2005, the city had a population of 252,555 people; by 2010, the population grew to 278,064 inhabitants. As of 2015, the total population was 284,462 inhabitants. By 2020, the total population soared to 293,444 inhabitants. In the 2005 Mexican

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, w ...

(HDI) statistic, Coacalco was rated as the tenth best place to live in the country.

Towns and villages

In 2010, the geographical subdivisions and their respective population were:

Sister cities

The sister cities of Coacalco de Berriozábal are: *

Valle de Chalco Valle de Chalco, officially named Valle de Chalco Solidaridad, is a municipality located in the State of Mexico, Mexico, on the eastern outskirts of the metropolitan area of Mexico City. Formerly part of the municipality of Chalco, it was split o ...

, State of Mexico (2012). * Tangamandapio, Michoacán (2019).

Notable people

Notable residents include: * Aramís, Mexican wrestler. * Daga (b. 1987), Mexican wrestler. * Erik Pimentel (b. 1990), Mexican footballer. * Francisco Sierra (b. 1987), Mexican boxer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coacalco De Berriozabal 1862 establishments in Mexico Mexico City metropolitan area Nahua settlements Populated places in the State of Mexico