Ypoa

Ypoa was an Indigenous ranchería near Matehuala on the dry northern plateau of New Spain. Its name derived from Ypucha, a leader associated with the settlement, and appeared in several spellings in colonial records. Families described by the Spanish as Chichimeca lived here and at neighbouring Matehuala.

By the 1670s residents of Ypoa were producing charcoal. In 1682 the Audiencia of Guadalajara authorized the founding of a town at the sites of Ypoa and Matehuala after Indigenous people sought to establish one there. Their participation in that foundation reveals how local communities negotiated a place within an expanding colonial frontier, while retaining leaders and settlements of their own. The records place the ranchería a few leagues south of the Matehuala estate.