Autlan

Autlán lies in the Costa Sur of Jalisco, where valleys descending toward the Pacific meet routes northward to Guadalajara. Its Nahuatl name means “near the water channel,” and springs and irrigation supported maize, beans and fruit in a region with marked wet and dry seasons. The surrounding hills also supplied timber and pasture.

Before Spanish conquest, Autlán was one of the stronger chiefdoms of western Jalisco. Local Tecuexe and Nahua communities lived in a network of towns and farming villages. The region was brought under Spanish control around 1530 and attached to the province of Ávalos; Franciscan missionaries and an encomendero followed the military campaign. Colonial officials created a mayor's court in 1562.

Autlán became a regional market where indigenous farmers, ranchers and Spanish administrators exchanged food, livestock and imported goods. Roads joined the southern valleys to Guadalajara and the Pacific lowlands. Inequality and epidemic disease transformed the Indigenous population, but local agriculture and the crossroads position continued to sustain the settlement. Epidemics reduced the Indigenous towns, while Spanish and mixed communities rebuilt the valley around ranching introduced crops and roads.