Mazatepec

Mazatepec, later known as San Sebastián Agua del Venado, was a Guachichil settlement on the dry plateau north of San Luis Potosí. Its name, like the Spanish Venado, recalls the deer. A congregation of Guachichil families was already recorded here in the 1580s, as missionaries and colonial officials sought to establish communities along the northern frontier. In 1591 Tlaxcalan settlers arrived at Mazatepec as part of a wider movement to found towns among the Chichimeca peoples. The settlement brought together distinct communities under the new colonial order.