Zinapécuaro is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Mexican state of

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...

, located northeast of the state capital

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid; Otomi language, Otomi: ) is a city and municipal seat of the municipalities of Mexico, municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. It is both th ...

Geography

The municipality of Zinapécuaro is located in northeast Michoacán on the border with

Guanajuato Guanajuato, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato, is one of the 32 states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guanajuato, 46 municipalities and its cap ...

. In Michoacán it borders the municipalities of

Álvaro Obregón Álvaro Obregón Salido (; 19 February 1880 – 17 July 1928) was a Mexican general, inventor and politician who served as the 46th President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. Obregón was re-elected to the presidency in 1928 but was assassinated b ...

to the west, Indaparapeo and Queréndaro to the southwest, Hidalgo to the southeast, and

Maravatío Maravatío is a municipality in the Mexican state of Michoacán, representing 1.17% of its land area, or 691.55 km2. Etymology The modern word Maravatío comes from the Purépecha word Marhabatio, meaning a precious place or thing. Hi ...

to the east. To the north it borders the municipality of Acámbaro in Guanajuato. Zinapécuaro covers an area of and comprises 1.0% of the state's area. The flat western part of the municipality lies in the

Lake Cuitzeo Lake Cuitzeo () is a lake in the central part of Mexico, in the state of Michoacán. It has an area of . The lake is astatic, meaning the volume and level of water in the lake fluctuates frequently. It is the second-largest freshwater lake in Mexi ...

basin. Along the basin's eastern edge are a series of hills and ridges where the municipal seat is located. The Ucareo Valley in the eastern part of the municipality comprises part of an ancient caldera, and is over higher in elevation than Lake Cuitzeo. It is an agricultural area flanked by forested hills and ridges. Zinapécuaro's climate is temperate with summer rains. Average annual precipitation in the municipality ranges between 700 and 1600 millimetres.

History

Two

Purépecha The Purépecha ( ) 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 derogatory term " Tarascan", an exonym, app ...

words have been suggested as possible sources of the place name Zinapécuaro: ''tzinapo'' "

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

" or ''tzinápecua'' "healing". The obsidian quarries near Ucareo include one of the largest known pre-Hispanic quarries in

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

and were already exploited in the early

Formative period Several chronologies in the archaeology of the Americas include a Formative Period or Formative stage etc. It is often sub-divided, for example into "Early", "Middle" and "Late" stages. The Formative is the third of five stages defined by Gord ...

. In the late Classic period Ucareo was the principal source of obsidian at Tula and

Xochicalco Xochicalco () is a pre-Columbian archaeological site in Miacatlán in the western part of the Mexican state of Morelos. The name ''Xochicalco'' may be translated from Nahuatl as "in the house of Flowers". The site is located 38 km southwest ...

, and Ucareo obsidian was distributed throughout central Mexico,

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

and the northern

Yucatán Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. ...

, being found as far away as

Chichen Itza Chichén Itzá , , often with the emphasis reversed in English to ; from () "at the mouth of the well of the Itza people, Itza people" (often spelled ''Chichen Itza'' in English and traditional Yucatec Maya) was a large Pre-Columbian era, ...

. In the Postclassic period the area was controlled by the

Tarascans Tarascan or Tarasca is an exonym and the popular name for the Purépecha culture. It may refer to: * the Tarascan State, a Mesoamerican empire until the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, located in (present-day) west-central Mexico * the Purépecha ...

, who built a temple there to worship , the

mother goddess A mother goddess is a major goddess characterized as a mother or progenitor, either as an embodiment of motherhood and fertility or fulfilling the cosmological role of a creator- and/or destroyer-figure, typically associated the Earth, sky, ...

of Purépecha mythology. Around 1530, a Spanish settlement was founded at Zinapécuaro by the

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

Don Luis Montañez. Zinapécuaro was first incorporated on 15 March 1825 as a ''partido'' in the department of Oriente in Michoacán. It became a free municipality on 5 February 1918.

Administration

The municipal government comprises a president, a councillor (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''síndico''), and ten trustees (''regidores''), six elected by

relative majority A plurality vote (in North American English) or relative majority (in British English) describes the circumstance when a party, candidate, or proposition polls more votes than any other but does not receive more than half of all votes cast. For ...

and four by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

. The current president of the municipality is Alejandro Correa.

Demographics

In the 2010 Mexican Census, the municipality of Zinapécuaro recorded a population of 46,666 inhabitants living in 11,608 households. It recorded a population of 47,327 inhabitants in the 2015 Intercensal Survey. There are 97 localities in the municipality, four of which are classified as urban: *Zinapécuaro de Figueroa, the seat of the municipality located in its west-central part, which recorded a population of 15,875 inhabitants in the 2010 Census; *Jeráhuaro, a town located east of the municipal seat in the Ucareo Valley, which had 2822 inhabitants in 2010; *Ucareo, a town located east of the municipal seat, which had 2284 inhabitants in 2010; *Bocaneo, a town located south of the municipal seat, which had 2082 inhabitants in 2010.

Economy

Zinapécuaro's economy is largely dependent on foreign remittances. Fruit is produced in the area around Jeráhuaro and Ucareo in the eastern part of the municipality.

References