Teotitlan

Teotitlan was an altepetl and religious centre at the gateway to the Oaxaca Canada. Three priest-lords ruled its Nahuatl-speaking Nonoalca inhabitants; Mazatec lived in the surrounding hills.

In the late 15th century Teotitlan rebelled against Axayacatl and was brutally reconquered. A Spanish account of 1581 described it at the Spaniards’ arrival as an independent republic of over a thousand people, allied to Moctezuma and paying no tribute. In colonial times its position on the road to Tehuacan gave it the name Teotitlan del Camino.