Tejupilco de Hidalgo is the seat of

Tejupilco Municipality Tejupilco is a municipality in the State of Mexico, Mexico, located approximately southwest of the state capital Toluca, along Federal Highway 134. Its municipal seat is Tejupilco de Hidalgo. The municipality has a total area of about , with ...

in the State of Mexico, Mexico. It is located approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) southwest of the state capital

Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. With a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census, Toluca is the fifth most populous city in Mexico. The city f ...

, along Federal Highway 34. The name Tejupilco comes from

Náhuatl 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 ...

meaning "between the toes". "De Hidalgo" was added to honor Father

Miguel Hidalgo Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or Miguel Hidalgo (), was a Catholic priest, leader of the Mexican ...

who initiated the

Mexican War of Independence The Mexican War of Independence ( es, Guerra de Independencia de México, links=no, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from Spain. It was not a single, co ...

. While the origins of the original settlers of the area have been forgotten, there are remains of many of their ceremonial centers and tombs atop various hills. The most important of these sites are in Ocotepec, Acatitlán, Acamuchitlán, Bejucos, San Simón, Tejupilco, Nanchititla, Hipericones and San Miguel Ixtapan. However, it is known that the area had been occupied for centuries by the

Otomi The Otomi (; es, Otomí ) are an indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region. The Otomi are an indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguisticall ...

who named the area "Talisca". Most Otomi were driven out by a people called the "Tecos" who were under the dominion of the Purépecha. Father Plancarte says in Book I of the ''Annals of the Museum of Michoacan'' that the Tecos were a group related to the Mexicas who lived in the

Purépecha kingdom The Purépecha (endonym pua, P'urhepecha ) are a group of indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico, mainly in the area of the cities of Cherán and Pátzcuaro. They are also known by the pejorative " Tarascan ...

. In 1052, the

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 ...

s arrived as refugees after the destruction of their kingdom, as well as the Matlatzinca who came later from the

Toluca Valley The Toluca Valley is a valley in central Mexico, just west of the Valley of Mexico (Mexico City), the old name was Matlatzinco. The valley runs north–south for about , surrounded by mountains, the most imposing of which is the Nevado de Toluca Vo ...

. By 1476 the

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

king Axayácatl conquered the Matlatzincas and took control of their lands including what is now Tejupilco. After the Spanish Conquest, Andrés de Tapia was assigned to subdue the old Matlatzinca lands where he met no resistance in this area.

The town

The current town of Tejupilco was a village by 1579 which was paying tribute to the Spaniards as late as 1676. In 1734, it was still an overwhelmingly indigenous community with only seven Spanish families recorded there. For most of its pre-municipal history, the town was governed by indigenous leaders subject to Spanish control. In 1874, the town was named head of the district of Tejupilco de Hidalgo, which included the current municipalities of

Temascaltepec Temascaltepec is a municipality located in the Ixtapan Region of the State of Mexico in Mexico. Temascaltepec has an area of 547.5 km2. It borders the municipalities of Valle de Bravo, Amanalco de Becerra, Tejupilco, San Simón de Guerrero, ...

Amatepec Amatepec is one of 125 municipalities, in Mexico State in Mexico. The municipal seat is the town of Amatepec and its largest town is Palmar Chico. The municipality covers an area of 624.9 km². The name Amatepec comes from Náhuatl meaning ...

, and Tlatlaya, but in 1881 the seat was transferred to Temascaltepec. The current population of the town is 22,041.

Economy

Agriculture is the most important economic activity here, using , growing corn, beans, avocados and peaches. Livestock raising includes pigs, goats, sheep and domestic fowl. There is also some logging. Mining is an important alternative activity as there are mineral and non-mineral deposits here, such as the marble deposit in the community of El Zapote. However, none have seriously been commercially exploited yet. Tourism is another possibility that needs to be explored.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tejupilco De Hidalgo Populated places in the State of Mexico Tejupilco Municipality seats in the State of Mexico

The town

Economy

See also

References