History of Tuxtla Gutierrez

Pre-Hispanic period

In the sixth century B.C. C. the zoques established a village on the slopes of the Mactumatzá hill and the region where it was located was called Coyatocmó. In the years 400 a. C., they established their first ceremonial centers. In the years 1486 and 1505, the Mexicas invaded the region and destroyed the town. Under Mexica rule, the region was called Tochtlán (Land where rabbits abound in Nahuatl) by those conquerors.

The dominated zoques were loyal to the Mexicas and also punctual in the payment of tributes, they rewarded them by giving them a sword and a shield with armor

Colonial period

In 1560, some Dominican friars, headed by Fray Antonio de Pamplona, formally founded the town of San Marcos Evangelista Tuchtla on the right bank of the El Sabinal river, in this region. From then on it belonged to the Tecpatlán convent and the Chiapa de Los Indios priory.

During colonial times, it was only a resting town before arriving in Chiapa de los Indios (currently Chiapa de Corzo). However, it had economic and geographical importance because it was located on the route that linked the province of Chiapas with those of Oaxaca, Tabasco, Campeche and Guatemala.

In the 16th century, the Jesuits promoted the growth of Tuxtla and ordered the creation of a greater Temple. The Dominicans ordered the creation of the temple of Santo Domingo, San Roque and San Jacinto.

At the end of this century, indigenous exploitation and viceregal despotism were intolerable. Captain Manuel Maestrerra y Antocha, then mayor of Ciudad Real (today San Cristóbal de Las Casas) and his accomplices, Zoque governor Pablo Hernández and sheriff Nicolás de Trejo, committed numerous abuses of authority. They prospered at the expense of the zoques, raising their taxes, overexploiting them, forcing them to buy only in their store and also to sell their crops very cheaply. Hernández and de Trejo pressured the Zoques to comply with the impositions. Although the Zoques sent a complaint to the Royal Court of Guatemala, the only thing that happened was the dismissal of the Zoque governor. In response to this apparent lack of interest, in 1693, the Zoques rioted and stoned Captain Manuel Maesterra, the governor, and the bailiff. Although a few were sentenced to death for the riot, the rest of the Zoque population was pardoned at the request of Fray Francisco Núñez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas.

On June 19, 1768, by decree of the King of Spain, the Royal Court obtained a warrant for Chiapas to be divided into two major mayoralties: Ciudad Real and the new mayoralty of Tuxtla and Chiapa, headquartered in San Marcos Tuxtla and its first mayor Juan de Oliver served in 1769. The mayoralty of Tuxtla and Chiapas had jurisdiction over the Zoques and Soctones parties and arose to control the large number of indigenous tributes collected there and because of its strategic location. The mayor's office of Ciudad Real (now San Cristóbal de las Casas) continued to have jurisdiction over the rest of the province.

In 1786, the mayors of Ciudad Real and Tuxtla, and the province of Soconusco formed the Intendance of Ciudad Real de Chiapas, whose capital was Ciudad Real, with subdelegates in Tuxtla, Comitán and Soconusco. Its first mayor governor was Francisco Saavedra y Carvajal. With Chiapas at that time divided into 3 parties, Tuxtla was the head of the second party, made up of 33 towns and 13 parishes.

19th century

In Tuxtla, the population of Afro-Americans never increased, because there was no important development in the haciendas or the appearance of mills; the majority settled on the San Lucas farm in the Valley of La Frailesca. At the beginning of the 19th century, and fearing the arrival of social changes, the friars sent the entire Afro-descendant population to Havana, in small groups and frequently.

On October 29, 1813, at the request of Canon Mariano Robles Domínguez before the Cortes of Cádiz, King Ferdinand VII granted Tuxtla, Tapachula, Tonalá and Palenque the category of town, in response to their good services and donations to Spain.

On January 1, 1821, the first constitutional council was installed in San Marcos Tuxtla with two mayors, two trustees and eight aldermen. That same year and some time later, Mr. Salvador Peralta returned from Mexico City, informed about the Independence of Mexico and gathered the Tuxtlecos in the main square to demand that the city council declare independence, which was finally achieved on December 5. September.

The Tuxtlecos opposed the annexation of Chiapas to Mexico, but on October 7, 1824, they agreed to recognize it as valid and official.

On July 27, 1829, by agreement of the Chiapas Congress, the interim governor Emeterio Pineda officially granted Tuxtla the status of city.

In 1833, due to an armed uprising organized by the conservative party, Governor Joaquín Miguel Gutiérrez planned to provisionally transfer the powers of the state of Chiapas from San Cristóbal to San Marcos Tuxtla, and his installation was formalized on February 9, 1834 In 1835, said powers were returned to San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

In 1837, Chiapas was under the centralist regime imposed by Antonio López de Santa Anna and was a department of Mexico. Tuxtla became the capital of the West district.

On June 8, 1838, conservative forces engaged in a battle for the powers and divided interests of the state. At the end of the armed conflict, the attackers managed to confront Joaquín Miguel Gutiérrez, who, after putting up a dignified and heroic resistance, was finally murdered on the vault of the church of San Marcos. When he died, his body fell behind the cathedral, in a narrow alley currently known as the Alley of Sacrifice . After that, his enemies gagged his body and dragged him, drawn by horses, through the streets of Tuxtla.

On May 31, 1848, Chiapas governor Nicolás Ruiz Maldonado changed the official name of San Marcos Tuxtla to Tuxtla Gutiérrez in honor of Joaquín Miguel Gutiérrez.

On January 4, 1858, Tuxtla was declared, for the second time, the capital of the state of Chiapas due to an armed uprising in favor of the Tacubaya Plan and against Governor Ángel Albino Corzo, but powers officially returned to San Christopher until January 18, 1861.

From February 1, 1864 to December 31, 1867, Tuxtla was officially the capital of Chiapas for the third time. Later, the powers returned to San Cristóbal.

In 1892, Chiapas governor Emilio Rabasa requested financial support from Ciudad Real, but its inhabitants denied any support for his government, with the intention of persuading him to resign. However, he managed to obtain economic support from Tuxtla. On August 11 of that year, Emilio Rabasa, grateful, once again declared Tuxtla Gutiérrez the capital of the state of Chiapas, transferring powers to this city and withdrawing them to Ciudad Real for the fourth and last time, on this occasion, definitively.

20th century

In 1911, Governor Manuel Rovelo Arguello organized the Hijos de Tuxtla battalion to protect the possession of state powers from the forces of San Cristobal and their Chamula allies.

On May 17, 1912, the forces of Captain Julio Miramontes frustrated the uprising of the twelfth battalion to loot and burn Tuxtla, instigated by the subordinate Juan Zúñiga. Both the captain and the subordinate died in the confrontation.

During his government, Victoriano Huerta ordered that all civilian governors in Mexico be replaced by military ones. Governor Reynaldo Gordillo León was replaced by General A.Z. Palafox, who served on July 19, 1913

In 1914, the 21st Division, commanded by General Jesús Agustín Castro, arrived in the city of Tuxtla. The general persuaded the governor to establish Carrancista policies and; a group of opponents organized the counterrevolutionary guerrilla group, the Mapaches, led by Colonel Tiburcio Fernández Ruíz. This revolutionary conflict lasted 6 years.

In 1915, the political leadership of the department of Tuxtla was temporarily abolished and free municipalities were created in its place. It was then that the free municipality of Tuxtla was born, with delegations in the towns of Terán and Copoya, whose first municipal president was Noé Vázquez Rincón.

On June 5, 1917, raccoons assaulted the city and set fire to the Government Palace, destroying all the archives.

On January 6, 1923, the now Ancient, Dignified, Loyal and Persevering Respectable Symbolic Lodge "Dr. Domingo Chanona No. 5", which is active to this date.

In 1925, during the government of Carlos A. Vidal, the city council of Tuxtla Gutiérrez temporarily disappeared and the municipal administration was delegated to a government section.

In 1934, images of Catholic saints were destroyed and churches were closed, as a consequence of the Cristero movement.

In 1983, with the establishment of the Mexican planning system, Tuxtla Gutiérrez was declared the head of the I Centro economic region.

Less relevant events

In 1784, the monopoly of wild grana was prohibited and its free trade was allowed.

In 1795, the first urbanization of Tuxtla was built, at the request of the inhabitants to the lieutenant sub-delegate of the Municipality of Chiapas. Some streets were paved, an aqueduct and the first font in the public square were built.

In 1826, the first school was inaugurated.

In 1827, the first printing press was installed in Tuxtla. The first Chiapas newspaper was published, called Campana Chiapas, directed by Joaquín Miguel Gutiérrez.

In 1834, the first postal system was established from Tuxtla to Pichucalco, Palenque, and Ocosingo.

In 1848, the first legal delimitation of Tuxtla was made. The limits at that time were: to the north the Sabinal River and two properties, to the south the El Retiro property, to the east the Pog Pon stream and to the west the La Lomita hill..

In 1881, the National Telegraph Service began.

In 1884, the first civil courts were established.

In 1892, the town of Copoya was founded.

In 1901, the first electric public lighting works.

In 1906, a branch of the Banco Nacional de México was installed.

In 1908 the town of Terán was founded, which initially had its own municipality and many later, lost its town hall and was integrated into Tuxtla Gutiérrez, becoming a municipal agency. Some time later, it was integrated into the urban sprawl of the city of Tuxtla.

In 1910, the first Public Library of the State of Chiapas was inaugurated. The first car arrived in Tuxtla.

On December 8, 1913, the Hymn to Chiapas was sung for the first time in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

In 1915, the first high school opened.

In 1924, a small plane accidentally landed for the first time in Tuxtla.

In 1932, the first aeronautical company operated, under the direction of the pilot Francisco Sarabia.

On January 1, 1933, the Local Road Board was founded.

In 1941, the town hall re-adopted the old Tuchtlan coat of arms. In 1996, it was modified to the current version that was adopted on December 23 of that same year.

In 1943, the first radio broadcaster, XEXY, broadcast.

In the 1950s, drainage was installed and the streets were paved with concrete, several schools were built, and the Chiapas penitentiary in Cerro Hueco, which is currently relocated to Cintalapa.

In 1952, the General Archive of the State of Chiapas was inaugurated, whose first director was Fernando Castañón Gamboa, chronicler of the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

In the 1960s, the main streets were widened, and a peripheral was created. The first private residential subdivisions and the first neighborhoods of social interest appear. The majority of the working class is engaged in agriculture, teaching and commerce. Foreign investment is concentrated in businesses.

In the 1970s the municipality of Tuxtla grew much more. Due to the creation of the Chicoasén hydroelectric plant, many workers settle in the city and after several years the majority reside there permanently.

On October 22, 1972, the Technological Institute of Tuxtla Gutiérrez was inaugurated.

On April 17, 1975, the first Chiapas university, UNACH, was inaugurated.

On May 11, 1990, Pope John Paul II visited the city.

In 1992, the Chiapas Convention Center, the Mesoamerican Polyforum and the Marimba Park were inaugurated.

On April 3, 2000, the Jaime Sabines Cultural Center was inaugurated.

In 2002, the professional soccer team Jaguares de Chiapas entered the Mexican first division.

In 2011 the Chiapas Tower was inaugurated, the first building with more than 100 meters high in the city.