Tlaltizapán

History

The early settlers of this area were Xochimilcas, who in pre-Hispanic times paid tribute to the Aztecs of the Valley of Mexico. After the Conquest, Tlaltizapán became part of the Marquesado del Valle de Oaxaca, the vast estate of Hernán Cortés, and in 1549 a horse farm was set up here. Dominican friars built the monastery of San Miguel Arcángel in the 16th century; historians disagree on the exact date, and a stone on the facade reads 1576.

Sugar haciendas spread across the area in the colonial period, among them San José de Acamilpa, founded in 1604, and San Miguel Treinta, built in 1732. During the War of Independence the insurgent Francisco Ayala was captured at the nearby Temilpa ranch and shot in Yautepec in 1812. Tlaltizapán became a municipality when the state of Morelos was created in 1869.

In 1916 Emiliano Zapata made the town the headquarters of the Liberation Army of the South, using a former mill that still stands. The fighting that followed hit Tlaltizapán very hard, and by 1921 it had lost more than half its people. The town's full name honors Zapata.