The mythical love story of
Popocatépetl and
Iztaccihuatl is well-known. What is less known is that the princess's father preferred she date the King of Yautepec, which she did on at least one occasion.
Prehispanic history Francisco Plancarte y Navarrete, Cuernavaca's second bishop (1898–1911), wrote
Tamoanchan—El Estado de Morelos y El Principio de la Civilizacion en Mexico in 1911. In it, he proposes that the first agriculturally based settlements in Mexico appeared around 1500
BCE in a place called
Tamoanchan which he associates with Morelos. While later archaeologists do not mention Tamoanchan, the remains of an elephant-like animal dating back 6,000 years, have been found near Yautepec. These remains can be seen at the
Museo Regional Cuauhnahuac (
Palace of Cortes) in Cuernavaca. The earliest findings are on the hill of
Atlihuayán; the first settlers in the region were the
Olmec. The Olmec were nomads, living from hunting, fishing, as well as gathering roots and wild fruit. Archaeologists Valentín López González and Ramón Piña Chan, have found an Atlihuayan figurine, now exhibited in the
National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. Also, nine pyramids and a ball court have been found in
Itzamatitlán. Yautepec and the entire Morelos Valley had a subordinate role in Mesoamerican history. From the Classic to the Postclassic the local populations developed under the influence of
Teotihuacanos,
Toltecas and
Nahuas. It is with these last ones that the Valley had a greater relevance in the regional dynamics, since it was occupied by Tlahuica population (Nahuatl language speakers), taking Cuauhnahuac (Cuernavaca) as its capital and expanding its dominion to other zones, including Yautepec. In 1389, the inhabitants of Yautepec, Tetlama, and
Jiutepec, fought the Tlahuicas.
Conquest & colonization The conquest of Morelos by the conquistadors under
Hernán Cortés was part of the strategy to achieve the ultimate goal: the fall of the Great
Tenochtitlán. Upon the arrival of the Spaniards, the Indigenous groups of the region were divided into two
cacicazgos: Cuauhnahuac and Huaxtepec. The conquistador sent an expedition to take the town of
Ocuituco; later
Gonzalo de Sandoval was sent to
Yecapixtla. A year later, 1521, Cortes explored the lands submitted by Sandoval, then went to Tlalmanalco and Huaxtepec. After some bloody fights and some peaceful deliveries, including Yautepec, Morelos fell into Spanish hands. Cortes made peace with the
Caciques in this area prior to his
Siege of Tenochtitlan. Once the military conquest was complete, catechization was carried out by
Dominican friars, who began the construction of the convent of the Ascension of the Lord in 1567. It stands out for its simplicity and austerity. This large building is unlike many others, simple in its spatial solutions and form in façade, nave of the temple, tower, and convent cloister. The church is rectangular, long, tall and rather narrow, interrupted in its length by two lateral chapels. The building has a popular Renaissance character. The choral window on the façade is rectangular and possibly the largest one of any 16th-century churches in the state. There is a large but simple bell tower in the southwest corner. The convent emphasizes the austerity and simplicity of the home or abode of the friars. There are no luxuries, no ornamentation and here lies the beauty of this set. On the southeast side is the large open chapel, perhaps the largest of the Indian chapels in the state. This chapel is beautiful although it is semi-destroyed and abandoned. The
Dominican convent of
Santo Domingo in Oaxtepec was founded by Fray Vicente de Sta. Ma. and Fray Domingo in 1533; it was the first built by that order in Morelos. This church does not have an atrium, and it was built on top of a prehispanic base some three or four meters above the level of the plaza. Both of these monasteries were recognized by the UNESCO as
World Heritage Sites in 1994, and are included in the
Ruta de los Conventos. While cotton was the most important crop in the pre-conquest era, sugar replaced cotton after the conquest. The sugar cane haciendas of
Cocoyoc and Atlihuayán were built in the 17th century. Cocoyoc is a Nahuatl word that means "place of coyotes". The city of Cocoyoc was founded in the 11th century by the Tlahuicas. After the conquest, Hernán Cortés was named Marquis of Oaxaca in recognition of his services to the Spanish crown. Cortés also married Isabel, daughter of
Moctezuma II. In 1614, the Hacienda received a license from the government to establish a sugar factory pulled by horses, in order to grind and process sugarcane. Elviro Ruiz, a descendant of Isabel, sold part of her inheritance to the peasants as farmland, but the hacienda later increased its lands through purchases, negotiations, and marriages. In 1698, the Hacienda consisted of three hundred and sixty-six hectares of irrigated land, a house, a chapel, the
trapiche (mill) and other buildings necessary for the operation of a sugar plantation. However, it was later reduced by forced sales by fines of tax evasion and other debts, and on more than one occasion the entire property was auctioned off. During the 18th century, Hacienda Cocoyoc was one of the twelve most important sugar mills in the country and by then it had already had numerous owners.
Independence & 19th century The haciendas established at Oacalco, Apanquetzalco, Atlihuayán, San Carlos Borromeo, Cocoyoc and Xochimancas generally prospered into the 19th century, and the
Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) had little direct effect on the lives of the people of Yautepec. Once Mexico achieved its independence, Yautepec became a community in the district of
Cuautla de las Ampilpas in the State of Mexico. Over the next 40+ years, the country suffered through power struggles between conservatives (who favored a strong central government) and liberals (who favored a federated government) as well as several foreign invasions. In 1854 this led to the
Plan de Cuernavaca which led to the ouster of dictator
Antonio Santa Anna and in 1857 the
Plan de Ayutla and
civil war. Yautepec in 1861-1862 is the fictional setting of
El Zarco, a novel about bandits called
Los Plateados written by Ignacio Manuel Altamirano and published after his death in 1901. The reality relating to the bandits who thrived during this time of anarchy, however, may not have been as thrilling and romantic as Altamirano suggests. The town was briefly called,
la Villa de Yautepec de Gomez Farias in honor of one of the signers of the Plan de Cuernavaca. After the French invasion and the Republic was restored, Morelos became a state in 1869 and Yautepec became a municipality. The city of Yautepec changed its name to
Yautepec de Zaragoza in honor of general
Ignacio Zaragoza, hero of the
Battle of Puebla. There is a bust of Zaragoza in
La Plazuela de Leyva in the town center. The plaza itself is named for
Francisco Leyva, first
Governor of Morelos as Yautepec became the first capital of the state (April 17, 1869). Leyva created the Literary and Scientific Institute of the State of Morelos with preparatory studies in agriculture and veterinary science; trade and administration; Arts and crafts; normal for teachers; and law. A telegraph line between Cuernavaca and Yautepec was laid in 1877 during the administration of
Governor Carlos Pacheco.
20th & 21st centuries One person died and the church was damaged during the
September 19, 2017 earthquake. Agustín Alonso Gutiérrez (PRD-PSD) was elected Presidente Municipal (mayor) in the July 2018 election. Morelos had its first case of infection during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico in mid-March, about the same time that Mexico entered Phase 2 of the pandemic and schools were closed. Mayor Agustín Alonso Gutiérrez announced on March 24 that he and other municipal authorities would donate half their salaries for buy food for low-income families in Yautepec. As of April 20, 2020, there were 12 deaths and 95 confirmed cases in the state, including one death and five cases in Yautepec, numbers that increased to 1,238 cases in the state with 248 deaths on May 25; Yautepec had 26 cases. The state office of
DIF sent food and water to vulnerable groups of people in eight municipalities including Yautepec on May 26. On July 2, Yautepec reported 24 infections and five deaths from the virus; the reopening of the state was pushed back until at least June 13. Yautepec reported 178 cases, 135 recuperations, and 35 deaths from the virus as of August 31. Three hundred thirty cases were reported on December 27, 2020. Yautepec reported 462 cases on January 14, 2021, sixth highest in the state. ==Tourism, points of interest, culture==