30 May 2025 / 10 House
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Find out moreHow did the town of Mixtlan get its name?
The toponym for Mixtlan in the Codex Mendoza
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Diego: After visiting my family in Mixtlan Jalisco, i started wondering how it got its name. Do we know anything of what native people (if any) resided in or close to Mixtlan? And also does guachinango jalisco have anything to do with native people? May be coincidence but it reminds me of the guachichiles or guamares (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
Mixtlan - also sometimes found as Mixtitlan - (‘Where There Are Many Clouds’) is listed in the Codex Mendoza as a tributary town, though in the province of Tochtepec - some distance SE of Tenochtitlan. There’s some doubt as to which Triple Alliance ruler conquered it - Nezahualcoyotl, Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina or Axayacatl. Antonio Peñafiel clearly says this Mixtlan can’t be the town of that name in Jalisco (which was then independent of the Aztec empire). Tochtepec was largely a Nahuatl speaking region, though close to Chinantec and Mazatec peoples.
Guachinango - also found as Huauhchinango - is derived from Cuauhchinanco, meaning ‘Wooden Parapet’ in Nahuatl. Macazaga locates it today within the state of Tlaxcala, some 130 kms north of Puebla. Apparently conquered by Nezahualcoyotl, Berdan & Rieff Anawalt record the town as being in the province of Tlapacoyan, in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, and a tributary source of clothing, honey, wax and liquidambar.
Sources:-
• Berdan, Frances F. & Rieff Anawalt, Patricia (1992) The Codex Mendoza, University of California Press, vols. 2 & 4
• Macazaga Ordoño, César (1979) Nombres Geográficos de México, Editorial Innovación, Mexico
• Peñafiel, Antonio (2013, originally 1895) Nomenclatura Geográfica de México, MAPorrúa, Mexico.
Image scanned from the James Cooper Clark facsimile edition (1938) of the Codex Mendoza, London.
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The toponym for Mixtlan in the Codex Mendoza
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