Xico

History

The name comes from Nahuatl, Xicochimalco, usually explained as nest of bumblebees or place of yellow wax honeycombs. The oldest archaeological traces in the area belong to a Totonac settlement. In 1454 a large number of Mexica arrived, driven by a famine that followed droughts and floods, and remains of their presence survive on the hill of Yoctipac.

Hernán Cortés passed through on his march inland and described the place in his second letter to the king: a strong town set on the side of a very steep range, reached by a single stairway-like pass, with many farming villages on the flat land below, all subject to Moctezuma.

The old settlement lost importance after the Spanish arrived, mainly because of the epidemics that struck the indigenous population. The parish of Santa María Magdalena dates from the 16th century. By the 18th century the town was still overwhelmingly indigenous, with only a handful of Spanish families. The mestizo population grew through the 19th and especially the 20th century, when Spanish gradually displaced Nahuatl. Coffee became the main crop of the lower, warmer lands around the town. Xico has been a Pueblo Mágico since 2011.