Zihuatanejo

History

Before the Spanish, this coast belonged to Cuitlatepan, the territory of the Cuitlatec people, who farmed and were known for tawny cotton cloth and carved seashells. The Mexica conquered it in 1497, and many inhabitants left. At La Madera, east of today's beaches, a large number of clay figurines suggest a shrine, possibly dedicated to Cihuatéotl, goddess of women who died in childbirth. One reading of the name Zihuatanejo ties it to the Nahuatl word for woman; another derives it from Purépecha words for water of the yellow hill.

The Spanish arrived in the 1520s, and the region's oak and red cedar soon served shipbuilding. In 1527 Hernán Cortés fitted out three ships here, the Florida, the Espíritu Santo, and the Santiago, which sailed on October 31 under Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón for the Philippines; only the Florida arrived. Through the colonial era Zihuatanejo was a tiny fishing settlement where ships took on timber, and pirates such as Francis Drake, William Dampier, and George Anson visited the bay. José María Morelos used it as a supply port during the War of Independence.

It stayed a small fishing village until the 1970s, when the federal government developed Ixtapa next door and tourism transformed the town. Zihuatanejo became a Pueblo Mágico in 2023.