La Huacana Municipality 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 south-central part of the Mexican
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of
Michoacán. It has a population of 32,757. Its municipal seat is the
city of the same name.
Etymology
Huacana is a word of
Chichimeca
Chichimeca () is the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who were established in present-day Bajio region of Mexico. Chichimeca carried the meaning as the Roman term "barbarian" that d ...
origin that means "Place of Dresses". Another version as to the origin of the name is that it was described only as "A place where a grey hair is floated on the water" by an indigenous inhabitant when she was asked the region's name.
Populated places in the municipality
*
La Huacana, the largest town in the municipality, with a population of 9,395.
* Zicuiran, 20 kilometres from the head of the municipality, with a population of 2,921.
* El Chauz, 27 kilometres away, with a population of 2,220.
* Los Olivos, 40 kilometres away, with a population of 624.
* Cupuan del Rio, 48 kilometres away, with a population of 1,536.
* Copales, 15 kilometres away, with a population of 283.
* Oropeo, 20 kilometres away, with a population of 321.
Geography
The municipality has an area of 1,952.60 square kilometres and a population of 32,757 inhabitants according to the 2010 census.
La Huacana municipality is located in the southern part of the state 480 meters above sea level, and is bordered to the north by the municipalities of
Nuevo Urecho Nuevo Urecho is a municipality located in the center of the Mexican state of Michoacán. The municipality has an area of 330.66 square kilometres (0.56% of the surface of the state) and is bordered to the north by the municipality of Taretan, to t ...
and
Ario, to the east by
Turicato, to the south by
Churumuco and
Arteaga, and to the west by
Múgica and
Apatzingán. Its distance from 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 lar ...
is 161 kilometers. Its surface area is 1,951.91 km
2, representing 3.32% of the whole state.
Michoacán
''Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México''. Retrieved on October 7, 2007
Its orography is composed of southern foothills of the transverse volcanic system, the hills of Las Canoas, La Copa, El Estribo, La Sierrita and El Milpillas. Features of its hydrography are the rivers Huamito, Pastoria and Capirio, and the streams Zapiero, San Pedro Jorullo and San Antonio. The municipality contains Zicuiran dam and some cold water springs and one hot water spring. Its weather is tropical with summer rains and in other parts it is dry steppe. It has an annual rainfall of 800.0 mm and temperatures ranging from 10 to 54 degrees Celsius. Its forest is mostly made up of pine, oak, shrubbery of different types and hydrophilic
A hydrophile is a molecule or other molecular entity that is attracted to water molecules and tends to be dissolved by water.Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.
In contrast, hydrophobes are ...
vegetation.
History
During the wars before the Spaniards arrived, this place was conquered by the Tarascan state
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 ...
, by the successors of Tariacuri: Hiquingare, Tangaxuan and Hirepan. These rulers, in order to ensure the payment of tribute
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...
, appointed Cupauxanti as chieftain. In the 16th century, with the arrival of the Spaniards, shortly after the conquest of Apatzingan, La Huacana became an '' encomienda'' under Juan Pantoja. In 1789 Jose Maria Morelos was the curate of the parish of Tamacuaro de la Aguacana.
Notable people
* Ernesto Rodriguez, a social activist, who implemented land redistribution
Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...
in the area, establishing the first ''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 ...
'' in La Huacana in May 1936. He was killed on 4 December 1937 as a result of this land redistribution.
References
{{Michoacán
Municipalities of Michoacán
1907 establishments in Mexico