Zinapécuaro is a

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 ...

in the

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

state of

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...

, located northeast of the state capital

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid) is a city and municipal seat of the municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital and larg ...

Geography

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

Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...

. In Michoacán it borders the municipalities of

Álvaro Obregón Álvaro Obregón Salido (; 17 February 1880 – 17 July 1928) better known as Álvaro Obregón was a Sonoran-born general in the Mexican Revolution. A pragmatic centrist, natural soldier, and able politician, he became the 46th President of Me ...

to the west,

Indaparapeo Indaparapeo is a Municipalities of Mexico, municipality in the Mexico, Mexican state of Michoacán, located approximately east of the state capital of Morelia. Geography The municipality of Indaparapeo is located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Bel ...

and Queréndaro to the southwest,

Hidalgo Hidalgo may refer to: People * Hidalgo (nobility), members of the Spanish nobility * Hidalgo (surname) Places Mexico * Hidalgo (state), in central Mexico * Hidalgo, Coahuila, a town in the north Mexican state of Coahuila * Hidalgo, Nuevo Le� ...

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. Hist ...

to the east. To the north it borders the municipality of

Acámbaro Acámbaro is a city and municipality in the southeastern corner of the Mexican state of Guanajuato, on the banks of the Lerma River, and the oldest of the 46 municipalities of Guanajuato. Acámbaro was originally a Purépecha settlement which w ...

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 Mexic ...

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 (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 ...

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. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

" 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 in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

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 Tula may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Tula Mountains *Tula Point India *Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar Iran * Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province Italy * Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...

and

Xochicalco Xochicalco () is a pre-Columbian archaeological site in Miacatlán Municipality 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 ...

, and Ucareo obsidian was distributed throughout central Mexico,

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

and the northern

Yucatán Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the political divisions of Mexico, federal entities of Mexico. I ...

, being found as far away as

Chichen Itza Chichen Itza , es, Chichén Itzá , often with the emphasis reversed in English to ; from yua, Chiʼchʼèen Ìitshaʼ () "at the mouth of the well of the Itza people" was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal ...

. 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 p ...

, who built a temple there to worship , the

mother goddess A mother goddess is a goddess who represents a personified deification of motherhood, fertility goddess, fertility, creation, destruction, or the earth goddess who embodies the bounty of the earth or nature. When equated with the earth or th ...

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

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

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 Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

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

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

and four by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. 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