Valle de Chalco, officially named Valle de Chalco Solidaridad, is a municipality located in the
State of Mexico,
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 ...
, on the eastern outskirts of the metropolitan area of
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
. Formerly part of the municipality of
Chalco, it was split off as a separate entity in 1994, during the presidency of
Salinas de Gortari, under his ''Programa Nacional de Solidaridad'' (National Solidarity Program). The municipality lies on the old bed of
Lake Chalco, which was substantially drained in the nineteenth century. Technically, the municipal seat is
Xico, after a high point of land that once formed an island, and now remains as a small hill within an otherwise monotonous, urban expanse. "Chalco" refers to the Chalca tribe, whose territory covered the area around the lake, prior to the
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico or the Spanish-Aztec War (1519–21), was one of the primary events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. There are multiple 16th-century narratives of the eve ...
.
As of 2006, Chalco included part of the world's largest mega-
slum, along with
Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl
Ciudad () is the Spanish Language, Spanish word for City
Ciudad may also refer to:
*La Ciudad (archaeological site), Hohokam ruins in Phoenix, Arizona
*La Ciudad, district of Durango City, Mexico
*''La ciudad'', novel by Mario Levrero 1970
*La Ciu ...
and
Ixtapaluca.
Pre-Columbian history
Archeologists date human settlement around Lake Chalco from about 2400 B.C, but major settlement occurred at approximately 1240 B.C., when the first tribe to call itself ''Chalca'' migrated to the region. This tribe was followed by others, ethnically and linguistically diverse, who added the name Chalca to their own. By 1410 the Chalca territory had developed into a loose confederation, divided into four, semi-sovereign domains. In the early 14th century the Mexica tribe of the Aztecs settled in nearby territory and began to build their city of
Tenochitlan, now Mexico City. Over time, the Chalcas and Mexicas engaged in a number of ritual wars, known as ''Xōchiyaoyōtl'' or
Flower Wars
A flower war or flowery war ( nah, xōchiyāōyōtl, es, guerra florida) was a ritual war fought intermittently between the Aztec Triple Alliance and its enemies from the "mid-1450s to the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519." Enemies included th ...
. During the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the Chalca allied themselves with
Hernán Cortés and his troops.
Modern history
Under the presidency of
Porfirio Díaz, much of the drained lake bed formed part of a
latifundia
A ''latifundium'' (Latin: ''latus'', "spacious" and ''fundus'', "farm, estate") is a very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, o ...
, the Hacienda de Xico. Following the
Mexican Revolution, land ownership was reformed into the ''ejido'' system of communal ownership, and was utilized primarily for dairy farming by the communal owners, or ''ejidatarios''. This began to change near the end of the 1970s, as hundreds of homesteaders, generally from Mexico City and adjacent urbanized areas, descended upon the region. Most purchased their homestead plots illegally from ''ejidatarios''. The new settlement grew despite the lack of basic infrastructure, such as potable water, sewers, electricity, public transport, medical services and schools. It was only with the initiation of the Programa Nacional de Solidaridad, in 1988, that the federal government began to install basic services and, ultimately, regularize the tenancy of 77,000 homesteads.
During the decades of the 1980s and 1990s, Valle de Chalco expanded dramatically in population; by 1995 the city had 287,073 residents. Growth has since slowed, as undeveloped land becomes less available; in 2005, there were 332,279 residents. By the 2010 census it had grown to 357,645.
Towns and villages
Localities (cities, towns, and villages) are:
2010 census tables: INEGI
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valle De Chalco
Municipalities of the State of Mexico
Mexico City metropolitan area