Matlatzinca

The Matlatzincas were the Oto-Pamean people of the Toluca Valley in the central Mexican highlands, whose ceremonial capital was Calixtlahuaca. Their name comes from the Nahuatl word for net. The Toluca valley may be the original homeland of the Oto-Pamean peoples: Teotenango flourished from 750 to 1162, and the Matlatzinca emerged as a distinct people around 750.

Ruled by a theocratic nobility, they suffered Tepanec conquest in the eleventh century and, in 1475, invasion by the Aztec ruler Axayacatl, who valued the valley as a maize granary and a buffer against the Purépecha. Some served as Purépecha mercenaries, while Aztec colonists resettled their homeland.

During the siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521 they marched with the Malinalcas and Cohuixcas to relieve the Mexica, only to be defeated by Andrés de Tapia and Gonzalo de Sandoval. The valley then passed under Spanish rule.