Jilotepec

History

Jilotepec is old Otomi country; its Otomi name is Madönxi. The name used today is Nahuatl and means on the hill of tender corn, and its glyph in the Codex Mendoza shows a hill topped by two young ears of maize. According to the record, the Mexica ruler Acamapichtli conquered the area in 1379.

After the Spanish Conquest the Franciscans took charge of evangelization, with friars Alonso de Rangel and Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo the first to preach here. In the 16th century they built the church of San Pedro y San Pablo as part of a convent, of which only the atrium cross survives. When silver was found in Zacatecas and Guanajuato in the middle of that century, the royal road north, the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, was laid through Jilotepec, and the town became a stop on New Spain's main trade artery. Spanish settlers arrived during the viceroyalty, and both Spanish and French families came in the Porfirian era.

The present municipality was created on March 11, 1824. The town was long called Jilotepec de Abasolo and has carried the name Jilotepec de Molina Enríquez since 1986. The Xhita carnival, danced to ask for a good harvest, keeps the Otomi roots of the place in view.