Mexcaltitán

History

The name comes from Nahuatl and refers to a place among agaves. Little of the island's early history is documented, but it holds a special place in the Mexican imagination because of its possible link to Aztlán, the legendary homeland from which the Mexica set out on the long migration that ended with the founding of Tenochtitlan. The historian Alfredo Chavero was among the first to suggest, in the late 19th century, that Aztlán had been on this island. Later researchers, including Wigberto Jiménez Moreno, supported the idea, and in the 1960s it was widely discussed among Mexican intellectuals. Today most scholars have set the hypothesis aside, though it remains part of local identity.

The village, also known as Mexcaltitán de Uribe, belongs to the municipality of Santiago Ixcuintla and is the center of an ejido with extensive lands and waters. It was among the first places named a Pueblo Mágico, in 2001. The federal tourism ministry withdrew the title in July 2009 for failing to meet the program's requirements, and restored it in December 2020.