Coatlinchan is a town in the Mexican state of Mexico.
San Miguel Coatlinchán (in Nahuatl: Coatl, in, chantli, 'snake, possessive prefix, home' 'In the home of the snakes') is a locality of the state of Mexico, in the municipality of Texcoco. Nearby was the original location of the monolith of Tláloc, located today at the entrance of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
San Miguel Coatlinchán is in the south of the municipality of Texcoco and about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of the municipal seat of the city of Texcoco de Mora, in the transition zone between the Valley of Mexico and the foot of the Sierra Nevada. Elevation is denominated Sierra Quetzaltepec of which descends the stream Coatlinchán through the Barranca of Santa Clara.
Its geographical coordinates are 19°26'56 "N 98°52'20" W, and its altitude is 2,300 metres (7,550 ft) above sea level. Its main route of communication is the Federal Highway 136, former Mexico-Texcoco Highway and with which it is linked by two secondary branches; along the road are other communities of the municipality as San Bernardino, Montecillo and Santiago Cuautlalpan.
According to the Census of Population and Housing, conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in 2010, the total population of San Miguel Coatlinchán is 22,619 people, of which 11,089 are men and 11,530 are women. [1] What makes it the second-most populated town in the municipality of Texcoco.
San Miguel Coatlinchán is a population of prehispanic origin, founded by towns of Chichimec origin, later the area was invaded by the Acolhuas that turned to Coatlinchán in the head of his señorío until around 1337 in which the head was moved to Tetzcuco, today Texcoco.
The inhabitants of this time were skilled in the work of the stone, from then on the main monument that in time would make famous the population and that was a huge sculpture made in stone in which later it would be called like Barranca of Santa Clara. This monument is known today as the monolith of Tlaloc. However different theories exist on whether he represents Tlaloc or his Chalchiuhtlicue sister or wife, both deities of water and rain in Mesoamerican cultures.
The monument remained buried from the time of the conquest until the mid-nineteenth century, when a peasant who sought to gather wood to make firewood unearthed part of it, and was later fully discovered. In 1889 the painter José María Velasco realized a painting of the monolith, identifying it like Chalchiuhtlicue. In 1903 the archaeologist Leopoldo Batres identified it as Tláloc. However the population always knew the Piedra de los Tecomates, due to the circular crevices that the monument has in its center and which has the shape of a jicara or tecomate. [2]
The population attributed to the sculpture various miraculous conditions, attributing to it the power to attract rain if the tecomates were wet or healing powers to the water that accumulated in them. The people gave offerings to the sculpture and asked for sufficient rains and good harvests. In addition, the monument was a tourist attraction of the population. [2]
In 1963, the government of then-President Adolfo López Mateos, who was building the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, expressed his intention to move the monolith from the Santa Clara Canyon to the new museum. Consequently, a desire was expressed to the community that held an Assembly in May 1963 in which it accepted the donation of the sculpture in exchange for several public works among which were: paving the junction with the Mexico-Texcoco highway, primary school until sixth grade, health center, water wells and pumping equipment. [3]
The work for the transfer of the monolith was delayed throughout 1963 and early 1964, during which time the population began to express their opposition to the transfer, mainly considering that would lose a tourist attraction and therefore the economy of the locality would suffer and also by considerations about the affectation to the rains that would bring its absence. [3]
With the imminence of the transfer, on February 23, 1964, the population rebelled, destroying the structures built to move it and deflating the tires of the trucks destined for the transfer. The government temporarily postponed the transfer, but on April 16 of the same year, it was supported by elements of the Mexican Army that occupied the population and prevented a new popular protest. [3]
A colossal statue over a thousand years old that was thought to represent Tlaloc was found in the town of Coatlinchan, Mexico. This statue was made of basalt and weighed an estimated 168 tons. It was moved to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City in 1964 on a special trailer with dozens of rubber tires. This did not happen until they promised the residents of the town to provide a large amount of public works. Some of the villagers still attempted to sabotage the vehicle, but the secular authority prevailed in the end. The village people lined up to watch the statue as it passed by. Then there was a large unseasonable downpour. The downpour continued through the night. Many people may have interpreted this as a sign from the gods. Some scholars believe that the statue may not have been Tlaloc at all but his sister or some other female deity. [4] [5] [6]
Tlaloc is the god of rain in Aztec religion. He was also a deity of earthly fertility and water, worshipped as a giver of life and sustenance. This came to be due to many rituals, and sacrifices that were held in his name. He was feared, but not maliciously, for his power over hail, thunder, lightning, and even rain. He is also associated with caves, springs, and mountains, most specifically the sacred mountain where he was believed to reside. Mount Tlaloc is very important in understanding how rituals surrounding this deity played out. His followers were one of the oldest and most universal in ancient Mexico.
A chacmool is a form of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican sculpture depicting a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, supporting itself on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its stomach. These figures possibly symbolised slain warriors carrying offerings to the gods; the bowl upon the chest was used to hold sacrificial offerings, including pulque, tamales, tortillas, tobacco, turkeys, feathers, and incense. In Aztec examples, the receptacle is a cuauhxicalli. Chacmools were often associated with sacrificial stones or thrones. The chacmool form of sculpture first appeared around the 9th century AD in the Valley of Mexico and the northern Yucatán Peninsula.
Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of the Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were Nahuatl-speaking groups living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures. According to legend, the various groups who were to become the Aztecs arrived from the north into the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco. The location of this valley and lake of destination is clear – it is the heart of modern Mexico City – but little can be known with certainty about the origin of the Aztec. There are different accounts of their origin. In the myth the ancestors of the Mexica/Aztec came from a place in the north called Aztlan, the last of seven nahuatlacas to make the journey southward, hence their name "Azteca." Other accounts cite their origin in Chicomoztoc, "the place of the seven caves", or at Tamoanchan.
Chalchiuhtlicue is an Aztec deity of water, rivers, seas, streams, storms, and baptism. Chalchiuhtlicue is associated with fertility, and she is the patroness of childbirth. Chalchiuhtlicue was highly revered in Aztec culture at the time of the Spanish conquest, and she was an important deity figure in the Postclassic Aztec realm of central Mexico. Chalchiuhtlicue belongs to a larger group of Aztec rain gods, and she is closely related to another Aztec water god called Chalchiuhtlatonal.
Tetzcoco was a major Acolhua altepetl (city-state) in the central Mexican plateau region of Mesoamerica during the Late Postclassic period of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chronology. It was situated on the eastern bank of Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico, to the northeast of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. The site of pre-Columbian Tetzcoco is now subsumed by the modern Mexican municipio of Texcoco and its major settlement, the city formally known as Texcoco de Mora. It also lies within the greater metropolitan area of Mexico City.
The National Museum of Anthropology is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, the museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage, such as the Stone of the Sun and the Aztec Xochipilli statue.
San Salvador Atenco is the municipal seat of Atenco, in the Mexican state of Mexico. The name "Atenco" comes from a Nahuatl phrase meaning "place on the edge of water".
Tlalnepantla de Baz is one of 125 municipalities of the state of Mexico, north of Mexico City. The municipal seat and largest city in the municipality is the city of Tlalnepantla. Tlalnepantla comes from the Náhuatl words tlalli (land) and nepantla (middle) to mean the middle land. The city was known in prior times as Tlalnepantla de Galeana and Tlalnepantla de Comonfort, to honor Hermenegildo Galeana and Ignacio Comonfort, respectively. The current addition of Baz comes from the last name of Gustavo Baz Prada, an important politician and soldier of Emiliano Zapata's army during the Mexican Revolution. After the Revolution, Baz Prada became Governor of the State of Mexico and President of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). It is located in the northeastern part of the state of Mexico, in the Valley of Mexico north of Mexico City proper. Together with Atizapán, it comprises the dense Region XII of Mexico State.
Acolman de Nezahualcóyotl is a town and municipality located in the northern part of State of Mexico, part of the Greater Mexico City area, just north of the city proper. According to myth, the first man was placed here after being taken out of Lake Texcoco. In the community of Tepexpan, the fossilized bones more than 12,000 years old of a man were found in the 20th century. The settlement was founded in the eighth century and was an important commerce center at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.
Texcoco de Mora is a city located in the State of Mexico, 25 km northeast of Mexico City. Texcoco de Mora is the municipal seat of the municipality of Texcoco. In the pre-Hispanic era, this was a major Aztec city on the shores of Lake Texcoco. After the Conquest, the city was initially the second most important after Mexico City, but its importance faded over time, becoming more rural in character. Over the colonial and post-independence periods, most of Lake Texcoco was drained and the city is no longer on the shore and much of the municipality is on lakebed. Numerous Aztec archeological finds have been discovered here, including the 125 tonne stone statue of Tlaloc, which was found near San Miguel Coatlinchán and now resides at the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
Chimalhuacán is a city and municipality located in the eastern part of State of Mexico, Mexico. It lies just outside the northeast border of Mexico City and is part of the Greater Mexico City urban area.
Tlaxiaco is a city, and its surrounding municipality of the same name, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is located in the Tlaxiaco District in the south of the Mixteca Region, with a population of about 17,450.
Santa Clara del Cobre is a Magical town and municipality located in the center of the state of Michoacán, Mexico, 18 km from Pátzcuaro and 79 km from the state capital of Morelia. While the official name of the municipality is Salvador Escalante, and the town is often marked as "Villa Escalante" or "Salvador Escalante" on maps, both entities are interchangeably called Santa Clara del Cobre. The town is part of the Pátzcuaro region of Michoacán, and ethnically dominated by the Purépecha people. These people have been working with copper since the pre-Hispanic era, and led to this town's dominance in copper crafts over the colonial period (1519–1821) until well into the 19th century. Economic reverses led to the industry's near-demise here until efforts in the 1940s and 1970s managed to bring the town's work back into prominence.
Mount Tlaloc is a mountain and archaeological site in central Mexico. It is located in the State of Mexico, in the municipalities of Ixtapaluca and Texcoco, close to the state border with Puebla. Formerly an active volcano, it has an official altitude of 4,120 metres (13,517 ft) above sea level, thus being the 9th tallest mountain of Mexico.
Acatitlan is an archeological zone of the early Aztec culture located in the town of Santa Cecilia, in the municipality of Tlalnepantla de Baz in the State of Mexico, about 10 km northwest of Mexico City. In pre-Columbian times, it was located on the northwest shore of the great Lake Texcoco.
Tenayuca is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the Valley of Mexico. In the Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology, Tenayuca was a settlement on the former shoreline of the western arm of Lake Texcoco. It was located approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the northwest of Tenochtitlan.
San Miguel Ixtapan is an archaeological site located in the municipality of Tejupilco, in the State of Mexico.
Sculpture is one of the oldest arts in Mexico. In Prehispanic Mexico, it is present in pyramids, sanctuaries, esplanades and communal objects; examples of this are the Olmec, Mayan, Teotihuacan, Tarascan, Mixtec and Aztec sculptures.
The Young Woman of Amajac is a pre-Hispanic sculpture depicting an indigenous woman. It was discovered by farmers in January 2021 in the Huasteca region, in eastern Mexico.
