Jocotitlán is a municipality located in the northwestern part of the State of Mexico on the central highlands of the country of Mexico. The municipal seat is the town of Jocotitlán and is located at the foot of the Jocotitlán or Xocotépetl volcano, while most of the rest of the municipality is in the Ixtlahuaca Valley. The area has culturally been Mazahua since the pre-Hispanic period, with this indigenous group's traditions strongest in a number of smaller communities in the municipality. Jocotitlán is also home to the Pasteje Industrial Park, which was established in the 1960s, and began the industrialization of the economy. Today, about half of the municipality is employed in industry.
The town
The town of Jocotitlán is located at the foot of the Jocotitlán or Xocotepetl volcano in the northwest part of the State of Mexico, near the cities of Atlacomulco and Ixtlahuaca. It looks over a relatively flat area which is the Ixtlahuaca Valley. The center of this town has cobblestone streets and houses with red tile roofs. The social center of the community is the main plaza, with the parish church on the east side. The main plaza has two levels. The upper level contains a kiosk and a number of trees. Next to the plaza and the church, there is an enclosed rink for futbol rápido (fast soccer).
The parish church is named the Jesús Nazareno (Jesus the Nazarene) Church. The church was established in the 1575, and since then, it has had three phases of construction. The atrium cross is from the original 16th century construction, which was built by the Franciscans. The current building was begun in the 1860s, built in black sandstone with brick accents in Neoclassical style. However, the bell towers were not completed until 1983, over a century later. The interior has a single nave, and contains a monolithic baptismal font which is probably from the 16th century. On the south side of the church, there is a large chapel decorated in white and gold in Neoclassical style called the Santísimo.
Across the street from the main plaza on the south side, there is a commercial center called the "portales." One of the structures here serves as the cultural center for the community, called the Casa de Cultura Lic. Diego de Nájera Yanguas. It is named for a former parish priest who published a book in the Mazahua language. This cultural center offers classes in dance, painting, English and other subjects.
The municipal market is located a bit further south at the intersection of Jesus Cardozo and Rivapalacio Streets. The market mostly sells staple products for local consumption. It also contains food stands which sell local and regional specialties such as barbacoa, mole, quelites (a name for various types of edible greens), and dishes which contains local specialty ingredients such as wild mushrooms, escamoles, maguey flowers, ant eggs and "cupiches" (a kind of butterfly larvae).
The municipality As municipal seat, the town of Jocotitlán is the governing authority for about eighty other named communities, which together cover a territory of 276.77 km2. This territory is also Jocotitlán. The municipality has a total population of over 26,000 people, but only about 3,600 live in the town proper. It borders the municipalities of Atlacomulco, Ixtlahuaca, Jiquipilco, San Bartolo Morelos, El Oro, Temascalcingo and San Felipe del Progreso. Only the town proper is considered to be urbanized, the rest of the territory is still relatively rural. This municipality is divided into three zones: the east centered on Santiago Yeche, the center centered on the town of Jocotitlán and the west centered on San Miguel Tenochtitlán. The city council is made up of a municipal president and representatives from the various communities of the municipality.
History The name Jocotitlán is from Nahuatl and means "among the sour fruit trees." The Aztec glyph for the municipal contains an image of the god Otonteuctli. It is not known if the Mazahuas worshipped the deity before Aztec domination, but this deity was recognized by neighboring Otomis and Tepanecs.
By the Classic period (200 to 600 CE), there were sedentary agricultural villages in the area, which had contact with Teotihuacan, and whose inhabitants spoke a language of the Oto-mazhaua family. However, Teotihuacan's influence in the area came late in the period, as the area was on the margin of the city's sphere. For the period of 600 to 900 CE, there is a lack of archeological evidence and ceramics do not show a great deal of sophistication. Jocotitlán was part of an area called Mazahuacan, or land of the Mazahua, and the town was originally a Mazahua settlement. This settlement, along with the rest of the area, was conquered by the Aztecs in 1478. It became the capital of a small tributary province, paid tribute in maguey mantas and food, and fought wars with Acámbaro.
After the Spanish subdued the area in 1520, lands were portioned out among the conquistadors as encomiendas. The area of Jocotitlán, then spelled Xocotitlán, along with Atlacomulco, was given to Francisco de Villegas. The Spanish town of Jocotitlán was officially established by royal decree in 1540. Diego Nájera was assigned as the area's priest in 1592, and by the time he died in 1635, was highly regarded by the Mazahuas. He learned both the culture and the language of the Mazahua people he served. Nájera wrote "La Doctrina y Enseñanza en la Lengua Mazahua" as a guide for priests to teach the Catholic faith in the Mazahua language. It was published in 1637. It is the only known book published in this language.
During the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and his army passed through the municipality on his way to Mexico City. The parish priest of Jocotitlán, José Ignacio Muñiz y Acosta issued the formal edit excommunicating Hidalgo. The following year, in 1811, the town of Jocotitlán was attacked by royalist forces under Juan Bautista de la Torre, eliminating the nascent insurgency here and leaving much of the town destroyed. However, a number of residents would still participate in the insurgency during the war, mostly under Francisco López Rayón.
The adoption of the Cadiz Constitution in Spanish controlled lands was formally recognized in Jocotitlán on 7 July 1820. However, this constitution required the naming of municipal authorities although there was yet no municipality. This was rectified on 19 July, with the formation of an “ayuntamiento” or municipal council and the marking of territory which contained 1,000 people. The municipality was created by joining the haciendas of Tiacaque, Villeje, Pasteje, Nenanci and Caro. The towns and villages at that time were mostly communities of laborers on these haciendas. The first municipal president was C. Antonio del Valle. In 1823, some of its territory, called Tapaxco, was separated from the municipality. The State of Mexico ratified the establishment of the municipality in 1825.
In the 19th century, political sentiment in the municipality leaned towards centralized government (as opposed to a federalist system), opposing Liberal leaders such as Valentín Gómez Farías. During the Reform War, they adhered to the Plan of Tacubaya, and Liberal forces sacked the town in 1859. That same year, there was also an uprising of the Mazahua population as well. During the reign of Maximilian I, a number of individuals gained control of large areas of land in the municipality. In the latter part of the century, there was a push to provide education, telegraph and telephone to the area, along with a number of public works. At the end of the century, it was the fourth most populous municipality in its district and participated in the World's Fair in Chicago, exhibiting its cereals production, along with others from the State of Mexico.
No major battles of the Mexican Revolution occurred here, but a number of people who went to fight for the various rebel forces. However, the war caused widespread hunger in the area as the economy suffered. It also suffered epidemics and an earthquake in 1912. In 1913, a merchant and city official by the name of León Paniagua managed to get the town spared from an attack by a rebel group looking for sack the area. However, in 1915, a group of 200 Zapatistas attacked taking money and supplies.
After the war, the haciendas of the area were broken up and the land redistributed. The rest of the 20th century is dominated by economic change with the introduction of technology and industrialization as well as the urbanization of the municipal seat. From the 1930s to the 1960s, electricity was introduced, along with water pipes and the construction of schools. A theatre and library were also constructed.
In the 1960s, a company named IUSA bought much of the former hacienda of Pasteje, as part of a move of its operations away from Mexico City. The property was about five percent of the municipality's territory, but it had no water or electrical services. The company had to drill its own wells and negotiate with authorities to get connected to the grid. The workers of the area at that time had no experience working in industry. The company set wages lower than the national average, but also opened schools and training courses to workers. Workers at that time were forbidden to travel to Toluca or Mexico City, likely to prevent them from knowing how low their wages were. Despite, the initial difficulties, this was the beginning of the Pasteje Industrial Park, and the start of the industrialization of the area's economy. In the 1970s, the company established a school, which would eventually offer classes from high school/technical school level all the way to preschool for local area youth, with much of the cost of attending paid for by local industries. The growth of the industrial park became the main impetus for the area's population growth from then to the present.
In 1983, the village of Jocotitlán was officially declared to be a town, with several smaller communities in the municipality elevated to village status. Starting from the 1990 Census, the municipality ceased to be officially considered a rural farming area, and considered to be industrial. Today, both are still part of the municipality's economy. Infrastructure remains a problem as it lags behind need. The number of those with professional studies have increased due to the improvement of the area's educational system.
Geography
The municipality is located between Ixtlahuaca and Atlacomulco, fifty four kilometers north of the state capital of Toluca. This area is in the northwest of the state, in the Ixtlahuaca Valley, which is formed by small mountain chains that belong to the Sierra Madre Occidental, with some formations as a result of being on the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. Elevation varies from 2,530 masl next to the Lerma River on the far south to 2,900, on one side of the Jocotitlán volcano, with an average of 2,770. However, much of the land in the area is relatively flat and covers much of the Ixtlahuaca Valley. The municipal seat is on the side of the volcano, with the rest of the municipality on the valley floor. Other elevations include hills in San Miguel Tenochtitlán, and Santiago Casandeje.