Zapotitlán de Vadillo

Zapotitlán de Vadillo is the seat of a municipality in the Sur region of Jalisco, right against the Colima state line, at roughly 1,127 metres above sea level. At the 2020 census it had 4,214 people, more than half of the municipality's 7,466. The name comes from Nahuatl tzapotl, sapote, and titlán, place; the state statistics institute's municipal profile says it was given almost as an irony, since neighbouring Cópala is full of black sapote trees while the original site had a single lonely one.

Local tradition says the town was founded in the year 542 by a small group of Toltecs fleeing wars, and that before the conquest the region was the large kingdom of Amollan. The Spanish arrived in 1525 and, in the same account, Hernán Cortés stayed in a house built specially for him. An earthquake in 1535 wrecked the first temple, and the eruption of the volcano in 1576 shifted the settlement again; fray Juan Leandro moved it to its present site, then a small ranch of three huts. Fray Diego de la Torre finished and blessed the parish church in 1579. In 1968 a decree added "de Vadillo" to the name, honouring the politician, educator and governor Basilio Vadillo.

The municipality's listed crafts include huaraches, drawn-thread embroidery (deshilado), papier-mâché and weaving in otate cane and palm. Four protected natural areas, including the Nevado de Colima, cover 26.8% of the municipal territory, and the town has the El Cristo park.