Cocula

History

The town's old name was Cocollán, usually translated as "place of undulations". Around the 12th century, families of the Coca people who had been forced out of the kingdom of Tonalá founded a first Cocollán under a leader named Huehuetztlatzin. That settlement was destroyed at the start of the 16th century, and the survivors ended up on a nearby mountaintop. By 1520 Cocollán was an independent town under a chief called Citlali, with several tributary villages.

In 1521 Spanish forces under Alonso de Ávalos took the town and folded it into what became known as the Province of Ávalos. A few years later, probably in 1532, Franciscan friars persuaded the inhabitants to come down to the valley where Cocula stands today. Remains of the hilltop town, known as Cocula Vieja, can still be seen.

Cocula was declared a city in 1833. During the 19th century the local style of string music grew into what the world now knows as mariachi, and many well-known groups have come from the town and its surroundings. The economy is still based on farming, with sugar cane as a leading crop. Cocula was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2023.