Cuicatlan

Cuicatlán lies in a valley of the mountainous country north of Oaxaca, within the homeland of the Cuicatec people. The region contains striking contrasts between dry valleys and higher slopes. Its inhabitants lived in small settlements close to water, cultivating the land in a landscape that had been inhabited for centuries before the Spanish conquest.

In the fifteenth century the Cuicatecs allied with the Mexica during their campaign against Coixtlahuaca, seeking release from Mixtec rule. After the Spanish conquest, Cuicatlán became an encomienda. In the later sixteenth century colonial authorities gathered dispersed indigenous inhabitants into towns, where local rulers held offices in a form of government modeled on the Spanish municipality. Governors, alcaldes and regidores were drawn from the preconquest indigenous nobility.