San Andrés Hueyapan is a small town in the rural northeastern part of the
Mexican state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
of
Morelos
Morelos, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos, is a landlocked state located in south-central Mexico. It is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Mun ...
, formerly in the municipality of
Tetela del Volcán. It lies at an elevation of ca 2000–2500 metres above sea level on the southern slopes of the active volcano
Popocatépetl
Popocatépetl ( , , ; ) is an active stratovolcano located in the states of Puebla, Morelos, and Mexico in central Mexico. It lies in the eastern half of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. At it is the second highest peak in Mexico, after Ci ...
. To the west of Hueyapan runs the
Amatzinac river, to the north is the Popocatépetl-Iztaccíhuatl natural reserve, and to the south the town of
Tlacotepec and to the east is the
municipality of Tochimilco which belongs to the state of
Puebla
Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...
located in the midlands.
Hueyapan became an independent municipality on January 1, 2019.
Other new municipalities are
Xoxocotla and
Coatetelco. Hueyapan was granted its "clave geoestadística" by
INEGI
The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI from its former name in ) is an autonomous agency of the Government of Mexico, Mexican Government dedicated to coordinate the National System of Statistical and Geographical Information ...
on July 15,
2020
The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
, making it eligible for federal funds.
Ethnography
82.7% of the 6,478 residents are indigenous and 43.13% speak an indigenous language; 0.08% do not speak Spanish. The inhabitants of Hueyapan are of
Nahua
The Nahuas ( ) are a Uto-Nahuan ethnicity and one of the Indigenous people of Mexico, with Nahua minorities also in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest Indigenous group in Mexico, as well as ...
ethnicity and the
Nahuatl language
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 Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...
is spoken by most adults. The name of the town comes from the Nahuatl language and means ''on the great water'' referring to the abundant water resources of the locality. The people of Hueyapan mostly practice subsistence agriculture: They produce maize, beans, squash, peach, avocado and plums. The people of Hueyapan are also known for their woolen products such as
poncho
A poncho (; ; ; "blanket", "woolen fabric") is a kind of plainly formed, loose outer garment originating in the Americas, traditionally and still usually made of fabric, and designed to keep the body warm. Ponchos have been used by the Indige ...
s (''gabán'' in the local Spanish),
shawl
A shawl (from ''shāl'') is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular piece of Textile, cloth, but can also be Square (geometry), square or tr ...
s (''rebozo'') and skirts (''chincuete'') of thick woolen cloth. The thread is made on traditional spindles called ''malacates'', dyed with
natural dye
Natural dyes are dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates, or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources—roots, berry, berries, Bark (botany), bark, leaf, leaves, and wood—and other biological sourc ...
s (such as
Añil
''Indigofera suffruticosa'', commonly known as Guatemalan indigo, small-leaved indigo (Sierra Leone), West Indian indigo, wild indigo, and anil, is a flowering plant in the pea family, Fabaceae.
''Anil'' is native to the subtropical and tropical ...
,
Walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...
husks,
St John's wort) and the fabric is woven on
backstrap looms.
Cultural aspects of Hueyapan and particularly the ethnic identity of the Nahuas of Hueyapan have been described in the book ''Being Indian in Hueyapan'' by
American anthropologist
An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...
Judith Friedlander. The
Nahuatl dialect of Hueyapan has been the object of a few small studies. Karen Dakin and Diana Ryesky have done an ethnolinguistic and dialectal survey of Nahuatl in Morelos, and they describe the dialect of Hueyapan as a typical central dialect with some traits particular of the Morelos varieties. In 1949 Miguel Barrios Espinosa, a teacher from Hueyapan, published a collection of folktales from Hueyapan in the nahuatl language in the journal ''Tlalocan.'' An article by Patrick Johansson (1989) deals with the grammatical encoding of honorifics in the Nahuatl language. Currently SIL linguists are working on Morelos Nahuatl, collaborating with speakers from Hueyapan and from
Cuentepec.
History
According to
Durán in 1524, Hueyapan was founded by people from
Xochimilco
Xochimilco (; ) is a borough () of Mexico City. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the precolonial period.
Today, the borough cons ...
around 902 CE, conquered by the
Aztecs
The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the ...
under
Moctezuma II
Moctezuma Xocoyotzin . ( – 29 June 1520), retroactively referred to in European sources as Moctezuma II, and often simply called Montezuma,Other variant spellings include Moctezuma, Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma, Motē ...
and in 1521, during the
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistad ...
, it fell to the
Gonzalo de Sandoval
Gonzalo de Sandoval (1497 – late 1528) was a Spanish conquistador in New Spain (Mexico)Diaz, B., 1963, The Conquest of New Spain, London: Penguin Books, and briefly co-governor of the colony while Hernán Cortés was away from the capital ...
, assisted by female
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 ...
María Estrada.
Between 1563 and 1573 the
Dominican order
The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...
constructed a convent dedicated to
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...
in Hueyapan. The Convent is now an ex-convent functioning as the town's Catholic church. Fray
Diego Durán
Diego Durán (c. 1537 – 1588) was a Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, ''The History of the Indies of New Spain'', a book that was much criticised in ...
stayed here for a while and is thought to have compiled much of the information for his Crónica here.
In colonial times Hueyapan was part of the
encomienda
The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish Labour (human activity), labour system that rewarded Conquistador, conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. In theory, the conquerors provided the labourers with benefits, including mil ...
originally given to the Estrada family, but was later laid directly under the Spanish throne. Until recently, access to Hueyapan from other communities was limited, but in the past twenty years infrastructure has made transport to and from Hueyapan much easier.
When Morelos became a state in 1869, Hueyapan was part of the municipality of
Ocuituco
Ocuituco is a town in the Mexican state of Morelos and the municipal head for the Municipality of Ocuituco which includes the towns of Ocuituco, Huejotengo, Huecahuaxco, Huepalcalco, Metepec, and Ocoxaltepec, as well as a number of settlements with ...
, and then passed to
Tetela del Volcan in 1937.
On January 1, 2019, Hueyapan became an independent municipality.
In the 1970s and 1980s
marijuana
Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
was produced in and around Hueyapan and the town received negative attention from the Mexican media. Government forces occupied the town for brief periods and arrested many citizens both rightfully and wrongfully.
The
2000 general election, in which Mario Soberanes (of the
Nueva Alianza
The New Alliance Party (, PNA or PANAL) is a state-level (previously national, until 2018) political party in Mexico founded in 2005.
Its creation was proposed by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE, National Union of Ed ...
party) was elected president of the Municipality of Tetela del Volcán, was the first time a citizen of Hueyapan had been elected to this position, and was also the first time a local president came from a party other than the
PRI. In 2012 Javier Montes became the second municipal president of Tetela del Volcan from the community of Hueyapan.
Hueyapan was devastated in the
September 19, 2017 earthquake. Although no deaths were reported, between 80% and 90% of the homes were damaged, some 30% of which could not be repaired, and there were fallen rocks and damaged bridges on both highways that lead to the town.
In response to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico
The COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ().
The virus was confirmed to hav ...
, Hueyapan temporarily blocked the entrances to the community in April 2020. Eight caseshad been reported as of December 27, 2020.
A long-standing conflict between the "Concejo Municipal" and the "Concejo Mayor" led to violence on March 8-10, 2021. Two police vehicles were sequestered in
Cuautla on March 8, which were then driven to Cuernavaca the next day. Police and dissidents battled in Cuernavaca, and councillor Lilia González Cortés was kidnapped and beaten in an attempt to get her to resign. Several police officers were wounded, residents were arrested, and lawyer Nava Espinosa, who had been beaten outside of his office, went missing. Later that evening, 16 people were arrested in
Tepoztlán
Tepoztlán () is a town in the central Mexican state of Morelos. It is located at in the heart of the Tepoztlán Valley. The town serves as the seat of government for the municipality of the same name. The town had a population of 14,130 inhabit ...
. Espinosa was still missing on March 10.
Monastery
The monastery of ''Santo Domingo de Guzman'' is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
. It is one of the monasteries closest to the volcano. It was founded by the Dominicans but its cloister was built of adobe and wood with a tile roof instead of stone. It disintegrated relatively quickly due to the elements and was abandoned.
It remains mostly closed to this day. Only the atrium area is open to visitors and this closes by 1:00 pm each day. The austere facade of the main church survives and it has a notable Barorque niche.
Notable people
*
Diego Durán
Diego Durán (c. 1537 – 1588) was a Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, ''The History of the Indies of New Spain'', a book that was much criticised in ...
, Chronicler and vicar of Hueyapan in the late 16th century
*
Modesta Lavana, indigenous healer and artisan
References
Bibliography
*Barrios E., M. 1949. Textos de Hueyapan, Morelos. Tlalocan 3:53-75.
*Dakin, Karen and Ryesky, Diana. 1990. Morelos Nahuatl Dialects: Hypotheses on their historical divisions. Morelos en una economia global. Proceedings of the Congress in Cocoyoc, Morelos, November 19023, 1989. Submitted in January 1990
*''The History of the Indies of New Spain'' by Diego Durán, translated, annoted and with introduction by Doris Heyden
* Friedlander, Judith. 1975. ''Being Indian in Hueyapan: A Study of Forced Identity in Contemporary Mexico''. New York: Saint Martin's Press.
*Johansson, Patrick, Johansson, Patrick. 1989. El sistema de expresion reverencial en Hueyapan, Morelos. Tlalocan XI. 149-162
External links
Pictures of Weaving designs from Hueyapan Morelos*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20041011164605/http://e-municipios.e-morelos.gob.mx/tetela_del_volcan.htm Mexican Governmental site about the municipality of Tetela del Volcánbr>
Historia y arqueología de Hueyapan, Morelos
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Morelos
Nahua settlements
Populated places in Morelos