The municipality and town of Totatiche is located in the northern extreme of the state of

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal En ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

between 21°48’30” and 22°06’00” latitude north and 103°20’00” and 103°34’00” longitude east at a height of above sea level. The municipality is bordered on the north and southeast by the state of

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

. On the northeast, it shares its border with the municipality of

Colotlán The municipality of Colotlán is in the northern extremity of the Mexican state of Jalisco. The municipality covers an area of approximately 505 square kilometers. Colotlán is located at . It stands at above sea level. Colotlán is bordere ...

and on the west it is bordered by the municipalities of Villa Guerrero and Chimaltitán. The municipality covers an area of . Its hydrology is defined by the Bolaños river, which demarcates its northern border with

and the Cartagenas River which crosses the municipality and flows into the latter. There are five dams in the municipality: Candelaria, Magallanes, Temastián, La Boquilla and Agua Zarca and smaller ones in Romita, San Francisco, and Totolco.

Population

The population of the municipality of Totatiche was 4,217 inhabitants in 2005, of which 1,287 lived in the municipal seat Totatiche. In 2000, there were 1,372 economically active individuals. Of these, the largest percentage (37.2%) were employed in ranching and agriculture, followed by the manufacturing sector (12.9%), commerce (10.9%) and construction (10.7%).

History

Totatiche is located in what was historically the convergence of territories of various indigenous tribes, namely tribes of the Tepehuan, Caxcan and Zacatec. This area, north of the Lerma-Santiago river, was known by the

Mexica The Mexica (Nahuatl: , ;''Nahuatl Dictionary.'' (1990). Wired Humanities Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved August 29, 2012, frolink/ref> singular ) were a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of ...

and later by the Spaniards as the Chichimeca, and the ethnic groups of the area, collectively referred to as Chichimecs, were considered bellicose and uncivilized. In April 1530, Captain

Pedro Almíndez Chirino Pedro Almíndez Chirino (or ''Pedro Almíndez Chirinos'') was a conquistador born in Úbeda and member of several councils that governed New Spain while Hernán Cortés was traveling to Honduras, in 1525-26. Almíndez was an ally of Gonzalo ...

is sent from El Teul towards

Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán (Spanish) or ( Catalan) is a masculine given name of Latin origin (, , , and so on). Its Portuguese form is . Its patronymic is (). Already in the Middle Ages the name was being confused with the similar but distinct name Munio. The meaning of ...

. On his return from Zacatecas, Alméndez Chirinos was to meet Beltrán de Guzmán in Tepic. The route from Zacatecas to Tepic led Alméndez Chirinos through the area of what is now Totatiche and west toward the Bolaños Canyon. Upon his arrival in Tepic, he informed Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán of the area's wealth of silver. Totatiche was founded in April 1595 by Captain

Miguel Caldera Miguel Caldera (1548–1597) was an important figure in the colonization of Mexico's northern frontier immediately following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Early life Caldera was the illegitimate son of a Castilian soldier named Pedro C ...

, Justice Major and protector of the pacified Chichimec tribes. The Viceroy of New Spain had sent several hundred

Tlaxcaltec The Tlaxcalans, or Tlaxcaltecs, are a Nahua people who live in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. Pre-Columbian history The Tlaxcaltecs were originally a conglomeration of three distinct ethnic groups who spoke Nahuatl, Otomi, and Pinome that compr ...

families to settle nearby

in 1591, in order to populate the region and help pacify the still unruly Chichimecs of the region. It is believed that some of these families were later moved to Totatiche with similar goals. After founding the convent in nearby Colotlán in August 1591, Fray Juan Gómez proceeded with the conversion of local indigenous tribes to Christianity. At that time, there were a mere seven haciendas in the region: Acatepulco, founded in 1571, Santa María de Gracia, Totolco, El Salitre, Juanacatic, Patagua and Cartagena. At the end of the 17th century the small Spanish population in the area was centered on Cartagena and a hacienda owned by the De La O family. A number of land grants in the region were made to Spaniards at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century. Among the grantees were Felipe Lemus, Juan Jose Pinedo and Francisco Gutierres del Palacio. In April 1711, Fray

Antonio Margil de Jesús Antonio Margil, OFM (18 August 1657 – 6 August 1726) was a Spanish Franciscan missionary in North and Central America. Life Margil entered the Franciscan Order in his Native city of Valencia, Spain on 22 April 1673. After his ordination to the ...

embarked on a mission in Totatiche whose historical legacy is the local vocation to the Virgen del Rosario, the town and the parish's patron saint. Population began to grow considerably after 1730 due to the local wealth created by the silver mines in nearby Bolaños. Totatiche depended on Colotlán for administrative and religious purposes until 1755 when a local parish was established. Construction on the currently standing parish temple in the town center was finished in 1901. Totatiche hosts an auxiliary seminary of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara. The seminary was founded in 1915 by Saint

Cristóbal Magallanes Jara Cristóbal Magallanes Jara, also known as Christopher Magallanes (July 30, 1869 – May 25, 1927), was Mexican Catholic priest and martyr who was killed without trial on the way to say Mass during the Cristero War. He had faced the trumped-up ch ...

, who was arrested in the town in 1926 and later executed in neighboring

as part of the persecution of clergy during the

Cristero The Cristero War ( es, Guerra Cristera), also known as the Cristero Rebellion or es, La Cristiada, label=none, italics=no , was a widespread struggle in central and western Mexico from 1 August 1926 to 21 June 1929 in response to the implementa ...

Rebellion.

Sources

*Esteban Valdés Salazar, Historia de Totatiche *

Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI by its name in es, Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática) is an autonomous agency of the Mexican Government dedicated to coordinate the National System of Stat ...

(INEGI) *State of Jalisco, Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México

External links

Totatiche, Temastian
{{Authority control Municipalities of Jalisco Populated places established in 1595