Mascota is a town and

municipality 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 ...

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 ...

, in central-western

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 ...

. The municipality covers an area of 1,591.63 km². The name Mascota comes from the root "Amaxacotlán", which means "place of deer and colubrids". The municipality has smaller villages such as Tecuani and La Plata, both a couple miles away. Mascota is surrounded by roads and pine-covered mountains and is a usual stop on the road to Talpa De Allende or Puerto Vallarta. As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 14,045.

History

In prehispanic times, Mascota was the head of a ''

cacicazgo ''Cacicazgo'' is a phonetic Spanish transliteration (or a derivative) of the Taíno word for the lands ruled by a ''cacique''. The Spanish colonial system recognized indigenous elites as nobles in Mexico and Peru, and other areas. Nobles could en ...

,'' which ruled over the populations of

Talpa Talpa may refer to: Places * Talpa, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran * Talpa, Teleorman, a commune in Teleorman County, Romania * Talpa, a village in Cândeşti Commune, Botoşani County, Romania * Talpa, a village in Bârgăuani Commun ...

, El Tuito and

Chacala Chacala is a beach-town set in small cove on the Pacific coast of Mexico in the State of Nayarit. It is located near pueblo Las Varas and about north of Puerto Vallarta. The name means "where there are shrimp" in Náhuatl, and is part of the coa ...

. In 1525, the Spanish explorer

Francisco Cortés de San Buenaventura Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

arrived to Mascota, who was commanded by

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...

to conquer the provinces north of Colima, which was subsequently renamed to "Valle de Banderas". 10 years after, in 1535, a rebellion of indigenous people was held in Mascota, along with other villages nearby. After the time of the Mexican Independence, in 1824, the Department of Mascota was created and the town of Mascota was declared ''Villa de Mascota''. On 10 April 1885, ''Villa de Mascota'' received the title of city. In 2015, the city of Mascota was declared a " Pueblo Mágico".

Climate

References

{{Jalisco Municipalities of Jalisco Pueblos Mágicos