Ameca

Ameca lies in the valleys of central-western Jalisco, where the Ameca River crosses a broken plateau of hills and cultivated lowlands. Its Nahuatl-derived name, Amecatl, means string of water. Streams descend from wooded slopes, and the river continues westward toward the Pacific. Mixed maize fields, orchards and livestock made the valley a productive base for a dense Indigenous population. Pack trails crossed the river at shallow fords and connected the basin with Autlán and the coast.

In the early sixteenth century Ameca was the centre of a small kingdom with close ties to the surrounding Nahua and Coca worlds. The Spanish conquest reached the area in 1524. Juan de Anesta arrived first from Colima, and in 1529 Antonio de Cuéllar and other Spaniards laid out an adobe chapel, royal house, square, jail, inn and houses at the present centre. Ameca became a colonial administrative seat in 1549, although it depended on Colima, Mexico, Sayula and Cocula at various times.

The town became a regional head in 1830 and was declared a city by the Jalisco Congress in 1833. Its history before that point was shaped by conquest, evangelization, Indigenous labour and the river valley’s mixed farming. The parish church of Santiago and the market square expressed the colonial order that had grown around the road crossing and agricultural plain.