Xoxocotla () is a town located in the southern part of the state of

Morelos Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuer ...

, about 30 km south of the state capital

Cuernavaca Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D. The na ...

. The name 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 smaller ...

language, ''Xoxo-oco-tlan'': “place where there are green pines". Formerly part of

Puente de Ixtla Puente de Ixtla is a city in the Mexican state of Morelos. It stands at . The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. The municipality reported 66,435 inhabitants in the year 2015 census. The town gets ...

, it became its own indigenous municipality on 1 January 2019. It recorded a population of 21,074 inhabitants in the 2010 Mexican census. The new municipality is formed by the colonies: ''Cerrado del Venado, Hermosa, Loma Linda, Arboledas del Sur, La Toma, Palo Prieto, Campo Corbeta, Shaya Michan, Tierra Alta, Campo Xolistlán'' and ''Palo Prieto Fraccionamiento''. It also includes the Xoxocotla

Ejido An ''ejido'' (, from Latin ''exitum'') is an area of communal land used for agriculture in which community members have usufruct rights rather than ownership rights to land, which in Mexico is held by the Mexican state. People awarded ejidos in ...

fields. Zacatepec challenged the inclusion of the of Shaya Michan. According to the agreement, the people of the new municipality will be ruled according to traditional ''usos y costumbres'' (uses and customs), and they will be required to assume part of the public debt of

. Eight months after its formation, the municipality is still struggling to resolve its differences with Puente de Ixtla. Other Indigenous communities that were granted autonomy are

Coatetelco Coatetelco or Cuatetelco is a pre-Hispanic archaeological site located next to the Coatetelco Lagoon, two kilometers from Alpuyeca, in the Miacatlán municipality, Morelos, Mexico, near Xochicalco. It had its greatest development between 500 a ...

and

Hueyapan San Andrés Hueyapan is a small town in the rural northeastern part of the Mexican state of Morelos, formerly in the municipality of Tetela del Volcán. It lies at an elevation of ca 2000–2500 metres above sea level on the southern slopes of t ...

History

was established as a municipality in 1869, and on July 12, 1871, it annexed Xoxocotla, Tehuixtla, and the hacienda of San José. Later Xoxocotla became part of the municipality of

Jojutla Jojutla is a municipality in the state of Morelos, Mexico. Its municipal seat is the city of ''Jojutla de Juárez''. The name ''Jojutla'' comes from Nahuatl ''Xoxōuhtlān'' () and means, ''Place of abundant blue skies''. Another interpretation is ...

. Xoxocotla had to be evacuated in 1913—1914 due to fighting during the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

. In 2010 the ''Pueblos Magico'' ("Magical Towns") program was created to promote tourism in certain states and municipalities of the country. Puente de Ixtla did not qualify for the program, but in 2018 Morelos set up its own promotional program called ''Pueblos con Encanto'' ("Charmed Towns") including Puente de Ixtla (and by extension, Xococotla). The Third Indigenous Book Fair took place in Xoxocotla on February 18, 2016. Poet Arnulfo Soriano of Xoxocotla presented a book of poems. Xoxocotla and Santa Ana Tlacotenco,

Milpa Alta Milpa Alta is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. It lies in the southeast corner of the nation's capital, bordering the State of Mexico and Morelos. It is the least populated, second largest and most rural of all the boroughs ...

were declared Sister Cities. Members of the

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

were sent to Xoxocotla during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico The COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to ha ...

to help enforce

lockdown A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison ...

orders and social distancing. As of May 4, 2020, there were 505 infections and 59 deaths in the state of Morelos and nine confirmed infections from coronavirus in Xoxocatla. Rumors of hundreds of cases in three days caused residents in Alpuyeca and other nearby communities to block the entrance of Xoxos (as the people are called). The state health department (Coprisem) closed a clandestine crematorium in Xoxocotla on June 2 as the state reached 1,477 cases and 290 deaths. Xoxocoatla reported 100 cases, 62 recuperations, and 38 deaths from the virus as of August 31. One hundred eighteen cases were reported on December 27, 2020.

Famous people

*Lucio Carpanta, writer and teacher of Nauhtl language *Ricardo Alberto Castañeda, traditional healer and author * Sergio Jimenez Bénitez, novelist, ''La Huella de Tata'' (Great-grandfather's footprint)

Points of Interest

*''Acuaski Action Park'' is a club for extreme sports, including water skiing, Kneeboard, and Wakeboard, as well as land sports such as BMX, Trial, and Enduro.Acuaski Extreme Sports Park
accessed Dec 24, 2018

References

Municipalities of Morelos Populated places in Morelos Nahua settlements {{Morelos-geo-stub