Tzitacuaro

Tzitacuaro, the nucleus of the later city of Zitácuaro, was a highland settlement in eastern Michoacán, founded by Otomis and Mazahuas, perhaps in the twelfth century. Its name came from the Mazahua language.

Around the mid-fourteenth century, Mazahuas under Yquingari conquered the region. The town later lay on the Purépecha-Aztec frontier, and its people fought for the Aztecs at Tenochtitlan in 1521. In 1811 Ignacio López Rayón established an insurgent council at Zitácuaro; royalists retook and burned the town in 1812.