History

Tlayecac is a centuries-old community with much history yet to be revealed.

Pre-Hispanic Period

The origin of Tlayecac dates back to 1300 BC, when Olmecs from the state of Veracruz and Tabasco came to populate part of the state of Morelos, where they dedicated themselves mainly to hunting, fishing and agriculture. During the flourishing of the Toltecs, commercial relations were established between the center of Morelos and the great city of Teotihuacan, in what is now the State of Mexico.

By 1200 to 1300 AD the Tlahuicas and Xochimilcas, Nahuatl-speakers, occupied the state of Morelos. From this occupation was born Tlalnahuac, a province composed of fourteen villages:

• Tlayacac (now Tlayecac).
• Ayoxochiapan (Usuchapa)
• Jaloxtoc (Xalostoc)
• Jantetelco (Xantetelco)
• Jonacatepec (Xonacatepeque)
• Amacuitlapilco (Macuitlapilco)
• Tepaltzingo (Tepalcingo)
• Chalcatzingo (Chalcatzinco)
• Atlacahualoya (Atlacabaloya)
• Tlalistac (Telistaca)
• Pazulco
• Amayuca
• Tetehuamac (Tetehuamaco)
• Tetelilla

Of which the capitals of the province were Tetehuamac and Jonacatepec, although there are also versions that locate the capitals in Tlayecac and Tepaltzingo^[4]. The villages of Tlayacac, Xaloxtoc, Tepalcingo and Axochiapan appear in the Códice Mendoza^[3] and the Matrícula de Tributos, indicating that each had Mexica calpixque (tribute collectors).

Folio 55r of the Codex Mendoza (16th century) with the list of tributary towns. Tlayacac is located in the lower right corner, as the second glyph from right to left^[3].

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Tlayecac’s glyph

The Tlahuicas were under the domination of the Mexicas or Aztecs, as a result of the conquest undertaken by Metecuzoma Ilhuicamina in the towns of Tlalnahuac. As subjugated peoples, the Tlahuicas had to pay tribute to the Aztecs with products such as cotton, corn, beans, chia, amaranth, precious feathers, pottery, amate paper and various types of war goods; which were paid to the lordship of Yecapixtla.

The presence of the Tlahuicas dates from the early Aztec period (1100-1350) to the late Aztec period (1350-1521) and extended throughout the state of Morelos. Evidence of the pre-Hispanic presence in Tlayecac can be found in virtually every home and field of the community, such as human clay figures, spinning guides (locally known as “pirinolas” because of their pyramidal shape), remains of vessels and containers, and faces carved in stone.

It is presumed that there is a pyramid in the center of the town where construction work has already been stopped by the INAH, but until now the necessary excavations have not been carried out for its proper assessment and protection.

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Cotton spinning in the lordship of Tlayecac

The Conquest

After the conquest, the towns of Tlayacac (Tlayecac), Tecpatzinco (Tepalcingo), Atotonilco, Xalostoque (Jalostoc), Usuchapa, Tetelilla, Xonacatepeque (Jonacatepec), Xantetelco (Jantetelco) and Amayuca passed into the direct hands of the bloodthirsty conqueror from Extremadura, Hernán Cortés, and then passed to his natural son, Martín Cortés, who settled in Tepoztlán. The tributes previously paid to the Aztecs became a benefit for the foreign popolocas (“savages”, in the Nahuatl language), as the Spanish inquisitors were called.

But when they saw their behavior, their greed and their fury, forced by reality, they had to change their way of thinking: the foreigners were not gods, but popolocas or barbarians who had come to destroy their city and the ancient way of life.^[13]

During the colonial period, the sierra of Tlayecac gained economic importance: to the south of it, on Cerro del Cacalote, the Galván mine was established, considered the first ironworks founded by the Spaniards in the region^[4].

According to colonial records from 1631, Tlayecac appeared among the towns with the highest tribute burden in Tlalnahuac, contributing 30 fanegas and 2 almudes of corn annually, only behind Tepalcingo with 35 fanegas and 7 almudes^[5].

These towns were considered patrimony of the Spanish royal crown, since they paid tribute and were called realegas. The lack of male descendants on the part of the Cortés family forced the inheritance to pass through the female line to the Dukes of Terranova, and later to the Dukes of Monte Leone, who did not reside in Morelos, nor in Mexico; and were not interested in politics but in the rents of the lands and the tributes collected.^[2]

Marquesado del Valle, 1547. Image from “The New World of Martín Cortés” by Anna Lanyon^[9].

During the evangelization, the Augustinians were in charge of founding the Monastery of San Marcos in Tlayecac in 1605 AD, presumably on the base of a pre-Hispanic pyramid.

At the time it was common practice for the Spaniards to force the local inhabitants to destroy their ceremonial centers; to force them to deny their beliefs and to build churches over them and impose the Catholic faith on them.

The monastery depended, initially, on the monastery of San Agustín in Jonacatepec and later on that of Zacualpan. The patronage or assignation of the “saint” of San Marcos may be a consequence of the early evangelization of Tlayecac, since it was during the first fifty years that the friars used the names of the apostles to name monasteries.

In 1574, the governors of the fourteen towns of Tlalnahuac were informed that henceforth they would pay tribute directly to the Spanish Crown, although the heart of the Marquesado del Valle remained concentrated in the jurisdiction of Cuernavaca^[5].

Independence

The Siege of Cuautla (1812) was one of the most heroic episodes of the Mexican War of Independence. For 72 days, the insurgent forces under the command of José María Morelos resisted the siege of the Spanish royalist army commanded by Félix María Calleja^[8].

During the siege, the barranca of Tlayecac was a strategic point for ambushes. Morelos sent Colonel Ordiera with 300 men to contest the passage to the enemy —with the objective of preventing the forces of Brigadier Llano from joining those of Calleja—, but royalist scouts discovered the maneuver and dispersed the insurgents. From that same point, on March 27, Matamoros attempted to break the royalist siege to bring provisions to the heroic Cuautla, heading toward the fort of the Toma del Agua^[8].

Matías Zavala, priest of Tlayecac, warned Matamoros that he was being pursued, so he joined the insurgents of Colonel Francisco Ayala of Mapaxtlán, the former name of what is now the Municipality of Ayala. Zavala, together with other priests such as Mariano Matamoros of Jantetelco and Juan N. Galván of Hueyapan, abandoned the pulpits in 1812 to join the insurgency, gathering parishioners in favor of the cause.

The resistance of Cuautla demonstrated that criollos, mestizos and indigenous people could face the powerful viceregal army, inspiring the entire nation to continue the struggle for freedom.

19th Century: Peasant Movements and Banditry

In the mid-19th century, Tlayecac was the scene of important peasant movements. The context of the war with the United States (1846-1848) and the subsequent American invasion created favorable conditions for the increase of banditry and peasant organization in the region. The phenomenon of banditry, which had emerged intermittently, increased notably from this conflict.

In June 1849, the newspaper El Monitor Republicano reported that 400 men from Tlayecac gathered to demand land and better wages from the landowners of the region^[10]. The following year, in 1850, the prefect of the District of Cuernavaca, Alejandro Villaseñor, warned that in the town of Tlayecac in the district of Jonacatepec a large number of indigenous people had gathered, although he explained that those congregated had “no political plan other than the distribution of lands”^[6].

The peasants of Tlayecac, together with those of Tlayacapan and Yecapixtla, organized to recover their lands through arms, taking advantage in some cases of the war with the United States to modify boundaries and claim communal lands, even going so far as to move the boundary markers —the stones that marked the limits of the haciendas— into the courtyards of the hacienda main houses, as a symbol of reversing the territorial expansion of the landowners^[11].

During this period, the so-called “Plateados” (bandits) operated freely between the towns of Tecajec and Tlayecac, using ranches in the area as warehouses to deposit the proceeds of their robberies and hide livestock^[6].

Revolution

On April 4, 1911, the first documented combat of Emiliano Zapata was recorded in Tlayecac, where together with Juan Andrew Almazán and 800 men, he defeated 200 federal rural police under the command of Colonel Villegas after six hours of combat^[12].

Years later, during the final phase of the Revolution, Zapata, through a letter sent on April 6, 1919, requested Colonel Jesús María Guajardo to meet with Captain Salomé G. Salgado and 100 of his men in Tlayecac to subsequently take Jonacatepec, reinforce the troops and consider larger objectives.^[1]

As a result of the revolutionary victory, on May 25, 1927, Tlayecac was granted an ejidal endowment of 960 hectares for 60 heads of family^[12].

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The oldest color photos of Tlayecac: a historical and photographic treasure

Contemporary Economic Development

In 1975, the project for the Cuautla Industrial Park was designed, and construction began in 1982 on lands in the localities of Jaloxtoc and Tlayecac^[7]. Although it bears the name of Cuautla, the park was established mainly on lands of Tlayecac.

This industrial park represents a considerable source of employment for Tlayecac and other populations in the area. However, the largest companies established in this industrial park are foreign and, as is common in this type of investment, tend to reserve the best jobs for their compatriots, leaving mainly basic and lower-paying jobs for local workers.

By the end of 1994, thanks to improvements in its infrastructure, there were 33 companies operating in the Cuautla Industrial Park, employing more than 1,400 workers^[7].

Historical List of Ejidal Commissioners

Bibliographic References

1. Diccionario Histórico y Biográfico de la Revolución Mexicana / Tomo IVMuerte de Zapata: Páginas 681 a 697. Por Valentín López González.
2. http://www.morelostravel.com
3. Códice Mendocino. Siglo XVI. Folio 55r donde aparece Tlayacac como pueblo tributario.
4. García Castro, Leopoldo René. Microhistoria de un pueblo de la Tlalnahuac, Jaloxtoc en el actual estado de Morelos. Tesis de Licenciatura en Antropología Social, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F., 1985.
5. Crespo, Horacio (director). Historia de Morelos. Tierra, gente, tiempos del Sur. Tomo III: “De los señoríos indios al orden novohispano”. Coordinadores: Jaime García Mendoza y Guillermo Nájera Nájera. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, México, 2018.
6. Barreto Zamudio, Carlos. Rebeldes y bandoleros en el Morelos del siglo XIX (1856-1876). Prólogo de Horacio Crespo. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales y Estudios Regionales, México, 2018.
7. Crespo, María Victoria (coordinadora). Desarrollo económico del Estado de Morelos: indicadores y análisis histórico. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, México, 2018.
8. Morelos y Pavón, José María. Sentimientos de la nación / El sitio de Cuautla. Edición de Heriberto Frías Alcocer. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 2020.
9. Lanyon, Anna. The New World of Martín Cortés. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004. xiii, 272 pp.
10. Díaz Soto y Gama, Antonio. La Revolución del Sur y Emiliano Zapata, su caudillo. México, 1960.
11. Sánchez Santiró, Ernest. “El distrito de Cuernavaca en la primera mitad del siglo XIX” en Zapatismo: origen e historia. México, 2001.
12. Dromundo, Baltasar. Emiliano Zapata, Biografía. México, 1979.
13. León-Portilla, Miguel. Visión de los vencidos: Relaciones indígenas de la Conquista. Prólogo de Miguel León-Portilla. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, México, 1959.