Tozantlan

Tozantlan was a Nahua settlement in the eastern uplands of Michoacán, at present-day Tuzantla. Its Nahuatl name meant place where gophers abound; it was later absorbed by the expanding Purépecha Empire.

The Purépecha state lost its independence to Spain in 1530. Franciscan friars began evangelizing Tuzantla in 1533, and in 1648 a parish was established with Saint Francis as patron. By 1822 its 175 inhabitants traded crops including sugar cane and maize.