Tetela de Ocampo

History

Tradition places the founding of Tetela in 1219, by four Chichimeca groups who arrived from the west and whose leading families ruled until the Spanish conquest. Nahuatl was the main language, though Totonac was also heard in the region. Trade thrived, and Tetela joined the Aztec Empire apparently through diplomacy rather than war, becoming the head of a strategic province that fought flower wars against Zacatlán and Tlaxcala. The name means place of many hills.

For a long time the town was called Tetela del Oro, after the gold mine in nearby La Cañada, and gold coins were once minted here. In June 1861 it was raised to the rank of villa and took the name Ocampo in honor of Melchor Ocampo, killed earlier that month.

During the French Intervention the Sierra became a Republican stronghold. In August 1865 forces under Juan N. Méndez, a native of Tetela who later served briefly as president of Mexico, fought Austro-Hungarian cavalry here, with support from Juan Francisco Lucas. Two captured cannons still stand in the center of town, and the museum of the Three Juans recalls the local generals who fought the French.