Xochipillan

Xochipillan, later called Juchipila, was a Caxcan city-state in the mountain valleys of present-day southern Zacatecas. Caxcan settlers had founded small altepetl in the region from the tenth century.

By the fifteenth century Xochipillan had absorbed rivals and become a regional market centre. In 1530 Nuño de Guzmán’s Tlaxcaltec troops broke its defences; its last ruler Xiutecutli was defeated again in the Mixtón War in 1541. After the towns were ruined and survivors fled to the mountains, Franciscan friars gathered some six thousand Caxcanes to refound Juchipila in 1542.