San Marcos is a town and
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
, in
Jalisco
Jalisco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in western Mexico and is bordered by s ...
in central-western
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
. The municipality covers an area of 305.5 km
2.
As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 3,533.
History
The area now incorporating the settlement of San Marcos was originally called Chistic or Xistic and was originally inhabited by the Toltec tribe under the rule of the Tonallan kings. Francisco Cortés de San Buenaventura arrived followed in 1530 by Nuño de Guzman, and Juan de Escárcena. In 1542 San Marcos was visited by the Viceroy D. Antonio de Mendoza on his way to put down a large indigenous rebellion.
The town itself was founded on June 28, 1740, by Fray Antonio de Jesus who was instrumental in construction of the church. As late as 1825 the town had no city hall and was subordinate to Etzatlán Township. The city was officially founded by decree on April 17, 1907, which became effective the following April.
In the early 1900s, during the rule of Mexican dictator
Porfirio Diaz Porfirio is a given name in Portuguese and Spanish, derived from the Greek Porphyry (''porphyrios'' "purple-clad").
It can refer to:
* Porfirio Salinas – Mexican-American artist
* Porfirio Armando Betancourt – Honduran football player
* ...
, the Mexican government forcibly marched thousands of Yaquis some 200 miles over the mountains from
San Blas to San Marcos and its train station.
[Turner, John Kenneth, ''Barbarous Mexico'', Chicago: C.F. Kerr & Co. (1910), pp. 43-47] There, the Yaqui survivors were sold at sixty pesos a head to the owners of
sugar cane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...
plantations
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacco ...
in
Oaxaca
Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...
and the tobacco planters of the
Valle Nacional, while thousands more were sold to the
henequen
''Agave fourcroydes'' or henequen is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to southern Mexico and Guatemala. It is reportedly naturalized in Madeira, Italy, the Canary Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Hispaniola, the Cayman I ...
plantation owners of the
Yucatán
Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida.
...
.
By 1908, at least five thousand Yaqui had been sold into forced slavery.
[Spicer, pp. 80-82] Most died within the first year of their captivity.
Government
Municipal presidents
References
{{Jalisco
Municipalities of Jalisco