One of the earliest references to the town during the Spanish Colony can be found in
Compendio de la Historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala (English:
Brief account of Guatemala City history) who in 1818 wrote Domingo Juarros. He said that the Spanish villa belong to Patzicía's "curato" in the mayor municipality of Chimaltenango. After the independence of Central America in 1821, the Constitution of the State of Guatemala from 11 October 1825, specified the town in the territory, and the villa appeared in Circuit #8 (Sacatepéquez), within
Chimaltenango and then, by the Constitutional Assembly of 1839, the town was assigned to Chimaltenango Department. Finally, by an executive action of 27 January 1892, the town was elevated to municipality, and its name was changed to "Zaragoza" because most of the Spanish people who lived there was from
Zaragoza, Spain. In 1895 British archeologist
Alfred Percival Maudslay and his wife, Anne Cary Maudslay, visited Zaragoza on their way from
Antigua Guatemala to
Santiago Atitlán. Anne Maudslay told her adventure in the book
A glimpse at Guatemala, from the
Victorian Era perspective: "After riding a mile or two along a road bordered by cottages bosomed in fruit trees we rose to a bleak tableland. It was one of the very few days of unpleasant weather which we experience during the whole of our journey; a fierce wind raised clouds of dust and rustled through the ugly dry
rastrojos, or stubbles of Indian corn, which covered the plain. We passed through the little Indian town of Zaragoza, chiefly noted for the manufacture of
aparejos, the native pack-saddles. I have been told that the Indians here have such a liking for dried alligator meat as a Lenten fare that the vendors of the highly-perfumed delicacy have to be locked up in the
carcel (English:
Jail for protection and sell the meat through the prison bars. The streets were full of gaily-dressed people assembled for a fiesta, and dancing was going on in a shed, to a monotonous sound of a
marimba. We were not tempted to loiter for long, and rode on again over the dull plan to uninteresting town of
Chimaltenango." ==Administrative division==