Zinacantepec is a municipality located just west of the city of Toluca in Mexico State, Mexico. The municipal seat is the town of San Miguel Zinacantepec. Zinacantepec is Nahuatl for "bat mountain" and its Aztec glyph is a bat on a mountain. It is named after a small mountain which contained two caves which used to be filled with thousands of bats.
In the 18th century, the residents of this mountain moved to settle alongside the Franciscan monastery established here in the 16th century. This monastery is the best preserved of a network of missionaries established in the Toluca Valley in the mid 16th century. Today, the complex functions as the parish church, with the cloister dedicated as the colonial era museum of the state of Mexico.
History
The history of the town and municipality begins about 1500 years ago at an elevation now named "Cerro de Murciélago" or Bat Mountain. The hill contained two caves that used to be filled with thousands of bats. The presence of these animals was considered a sign of fertility. The hill remained populated until the 18th century, when a plague pushed the population toward the Franciscan monastery, which functioned as a hospital. A deity named Zinacan was associated with the mountain. Shortly after the Spanish Conquest, this deity would be believed to be an incarnation of the Devil. Today, the bat population of the area is limited to a few caves in the Nevado de Toluca National Park. The mountain is mined for gravel and alongside it is the Hacienda de Santa Cruz de los Patos, which is now part of the Mexiquense College, as a research center and library.
The earliest known ethnicity in the area is the Otomi, who still are present, especially in smaller communities in the municipality such as San Luis Mextepec and Acahulaco. In the south of the municipality, there are Matlatzincas; however, there are very few. The area was conquered by the Aztecs in the latter 15th century by Axayacatl. Zinacantepec was then ruled from Tlacopan as a tributary province.
During the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the Otomis sided with the Spanish and the Matlazincas against Aztecs. Gonzalo de Sandoval came to the Toluca Valley with 18 cavalry and 100 infantry. They were joined by 60,000 Otomi and conquered the Matlatzincas. The area around what is now the city of Toluca, including Zinacantepec, came under the rule of Hernán Cortés administrated by his cousin in what would become the County of Santiago de Calimaya. The west part of the valley became part of the encomendero of Juan de Sámano. This same family founded the Hacienda de la Gavia which owned much of the arable land in the municipality.
While no battles were fought here during the Mexican War of Independence, many here joined the army of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla against the colonial government, with many fighting at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces. After the war, Zinacantepec became a municipality in 1826.
During the Reform War, vandalism and general lawlessness gripped the municipality as well as neighboring Toluca. This was finally put to an end by Felipe Berriozabal in the 1860s. During the Mexican Revolution, Zinacantepec was taken in 1912 by General José Limón and Alberto Sámano in support of Francisco I. Madero. The Zapatistas camped in some of the smaller communities of the municipalities, confronting federal forces and sacking homes.