Apulco is a city in the

Mexican state The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

. The city serves as the administrative center for the surrounding municipality of Apulco. Apulco had a 2005 census population of 1,453 people.Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005
INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática

Origin of the name

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 ...

dictionary defines the word "Apoctli" (which people believe the name Apulco derived from) as smoke, water, water vapor.

History

The first inhabitants of what is now Apulco were the Tecuexes who populated the area approximately in the 10th century. Later that area was inhabited by the

Caxcan The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion in 1540-42. During the rebellion, they were described as " ...

, which came from the Teuitlan Valley (now Municipality of Villanueva,

), immediately a town arose which was known as Nochistlán, but they were expelled by its previous inhabitants, who later resided in the area due to the support of zacatecans and the

Huachichil The Guachichil, Cuauchichil, or Quauhchichitl, are an Indigenous people of Mexico. Pre-contact, they occupied the most extensive territory of all the indigenous Chichimeca Nations tribes in pre-Columbian Central Mexico. The Guachichiles roamed ...

. In the year of 1541, supported by the

viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...

, Fray Antonio de Segovia moved forward with the Christian evangelization and built a chapel in favor of

Saint Peter Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...

, patron of the place. Apulco was declared a town in 1821."Apulco", Encyclopedia de Municipios

References

External links

Official website
{{Zacatecas Populated places in Zacatecas