Cuicatlan

Cuicatlan was the chief town of the Cuicatecs in the canyon linking the Tehuacan valley with the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. Its Nahuatl name meant Place of the Song People; the Cuicatec kingdom lay on a trade route to the Oaxaca coast.

After Coixtlahuaca’s ruler Atonaltzin had resident merchants killed, the Mexica conquered his city in 1458. Cuicatlan became part of the Aztec tributary province ruled from that city. Following the Spanish conquest, Hernán Cortés granted the town in encomienda to Juan de Jaso in 1524.