Compostela

History

Before the Conquest this region belonged to the lordship of Xalisco, and the valley of Cactlán, where Compostela now stands, was home to Indigenous groups the chroniclers called Cacnos and Tepehuanos. Francisco Cortés de San Buenaventura, a nephew of Hernán Cortés, explored the area in 1524 and 1525 without lasting effect.

The conquistador Nuño de Guzmán arrived in 1530, leaving a record of cruelty that Bartolomé de las Casas denounced. By a royal order of 1531, Queen Isabel of Portugal named the conquered territory the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia and called for a capital named Santiago de Galicia de Compostela, after the Spanish pilgrimage city. Guzmán first gave that name to the settlement that is today Tepic. Indigenous uprisings led the Spanish to look for another site, and in 1540 the capital was moved to the valley of Cactlán, the present Compostela. The town traces its founding to July 25, 1532, the feast of Saint James.

Compostela served for a time as the capital of a kingdom that covered much of western Mexico before the seat of government moved on to Guadalajara. What remained was a quiet agricultural town, surrounded by haciendas and, later, coffee farms. It was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2018.