Tehuantepec - History

History

The full name of the city and municipality is Santo Domingo Tehuantepec. “Tehuantepec” comes from Nahuatl and means “hill of the wild animals” or “hill of the demons.” The name was given to the area by the Aztecs because of the ferocity of the native Zapotec warriors. The Zapotec name for the area is Guie-Ngola, or Large Hill/Rock, with the city name being Guisi’si Gui. Santo Domingo was added by Bartolomé de las Casas as he passed by in honor of the Dominican church was had already been established here. From pre Hispanic times, the settlement has been represented by an Aztec glyph, the earliest example of which comes from the Guevea Codex, also known as the Zapotec Codex. This glyph is a hill with a jaguar. The hill is divided into sixty six parts and each part has a circle.

The archeology of the area around the city is little studied, in part because the main archeological sites are difficult to access and the climate of the southern Isthmus makes excavation work difficult. Much of the area’s early cultural interactions are only speculated about but it is known there was contact with Teotihuacan, Tula, Monte Alban and later, Tenochtitlan . The Tehuantepec area in the very early Pre Classic period was on the periphery of the zone where the Olmecs had influence as is noted by artifacts. The area’s initial importance was not as a center of a dominion but rather as part of a trade route which connected Central America with what is now central Mexico. Through its trade routes passed manta rays, jade, other precious stones, shells, sponges, gold, amber, salt, feathers, furs, cotton, spices, honey and cocoa. The main control point for this trade route in this area was mostly likely Lass Gui’e’e, according to recent excavations. This site has a history of at least 3500 years with Olmec and Chiapas-origin figures found in its oldest sections. This and the abundance of marine shells indicate that this site in the Cañada de Tehuantepec was the main axis of communication between the Oaxacan highlands the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and into Guatemala since early in Mesoamerican history.

The Zapotec kingdom of Zaachila expanded into the Tehuantepec area under Cosijoeza starting in 1487, pushing the native Huaves to the narrow coastal strips around the Tehuantepec lagoons. With this, the Zapotecs gained control of the salt deposits of the area, which was a valuable commodity. Tehuantepec became a second Zapotec capital. This dominion had relations with the Aztecs but did not pay tribute and controlled the trade route to Central America. The influence of this dominion extended west to Nexapa and along the coast to Tlapanatepec. Tequixixtlan and Xallapan were subordinate dominions, ruled by governors sent from Tehuantepec. Tehuantepec increased in importance as the original capital of Zaachila came under pressure from the Mixtecs and later from the Aztecs by the end of the 15th century. The Aztecs’ interest here was the control the trade route between the Mexican Plateau to Soconusco in Chiapas and into Guatemala . The Aztecs attacked Tehuantepec in 1496, and it was defended by an alliance of Mixtecs and Zapotecs. These two groups normally fought each other, but allied in the face of the foreign threat. This and the city’s formidable defenses led to a seven month siege under Aztec ruler Axayacatl. The next Aztec chief Ahuiztotl, decided to marry his daughter Coyolicatzin to the Zapotec king Cosijoeza. This ended the war.

At the time of the Conquest and for some time after, the area was dominated by three linguistic groups, Zapotec, Mixe and Chontal, which are unrelated. The Zapotecs occupied the area from the Sierra Madre del Sur and Xallapan up to Tehuantepec. The Chontales were found between Mazatlán and Tequixixtlan. The Mixes occupied the high mountain areas, centered in Utlatepec.

Cosijoeza’s son Cosijopii became the ruler of Tehuantepec shortly before the arrival of the Spanish in 1518. Pedro de Alvarado made two incursions from the west in 1522 arriving to the Mixe area of Ultatepec and Xoconochco. Alvarado entered Tehuantepec again in 1524, subduing the local population in Tequixixtlan and Xallapan. However, many years would pass before the Spanish had full control of the area. After the Conquest, Cosijopii remained the head of the city, but subject to Spanish hegemony from 1521 until his death in 1563.

There is little information about the development of the Tehuantepec area during the colonial period, especially economically. However, one of the first colonial shipyards was established in the area. At the end of 1532, two ships were built to become part of the flotilla of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza but they wrecked on the coast of what is now Jalisco. Between 1536 and 1537 more ships were built that went to Peru. This shipyard was placed near the Coatzacoalcos River which is navigable. However, soon after Hernán Cortés and other colonial authorities lost interest in the economic development of this area in favor of other areas. However, a main road called the Camino Real de Tehuantepec which connected it to other parts of what is now Oaxaca. The Spanish town of Tehuantepec was officially established by Dominican brothers Gregorio de Beteta and Bernardo de Alberquerer in 1538 and received a royal seal from Charles V in 1543. The church and monastery were constructed starting in 1544. By 1550, the city had forty nine neighborhoods.

Further development of the Tehuantepec area focused on the Camino Real or Royal Road of Tehuantepec, which was built to control newly conquered areas, facilitate the collection of tribute and for commerce. Along the road, ranches and haciendas were established that would regularize the commerce and give social and political unity to the area. This process would give rise to conflicts between hacienda owners and the indigenous peoples as possession of lands changed. In 1660, the indigenous rebelled against Spanish authorities. The rebellion ended in 1661 in part because Philip IV put the city under direct control of the Spanish crown and issued a pardon to the rebels.

In the mid 19th century, the United States pressured Mexico for transit rights across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with the aim of building a road, railway or canal for the purpose of connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for trade. Pressure was greatest during the Mexican American War, when these transit rights were part of the first attempts at talks to end the war. However, this was not included in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. During negotiations for the Gadsden Purchase, the issue came up again but transit rights were again denied. Despite strong interests in the area, the U.S. Army never invaded Tehuantepec, even though troops had gone as far south as southern Veracruz. However, the war drained the south of the country of soldiers and lessened control from Mexico City. As a result, the Isthmus area rebelled against rule from the city of Oaxaca. In 1850, the first plan to separate the Tehuantepec area from Oaxaca took shape. The result was regaining of a certain amount of autonomy. A second attempt took place in 1853.

Tehuantepec gained municipal status in 1857 and town status in 1857. The Reform Laws secularized most of the lands of the Dominican order in the area.

Tehuantepec’s “Golden Age” began in the early 20th century with the building and operation of the trans-Isthmus railroad, which then provided the shortest trade route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. At its height, the line carried fifty trains per day, making one of the busiest railways in history. The goods and travelers brought money to the town and it grew. However, the boom ended shortly thereafter with the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914. The Pan-American Highway came through the area in the middle of the 20th century, which connected it with the rest of Mexico and by extension all the Americas. Shortly after, a modern highway connecting it to the city of Oaxaca was constructed.

The southern Isthmus area of Tehuantepec and Juchitán have had sporadic bouts of unrest since the late 1960s, paralleling conflicts which were occurring in other parts of Mexico. This trend would continue from the 1970s to the 1990s, mostly focused on the activities of the Tehuantepec diocese under bishop Arturo Lona Reyes, who led from 1971 to his retirement in 2000. The Diocese of Tehuantepec was part of a movement to mobilize the poor and indigenous in the 1980s and 1990s, allied with other elements of the Catholic Church in Oaxaca, the CEDIPIO and others. This movement was based on the teachings of liberation theology. Bishop Arturo Lona was a strong supporter of the teachings of Vatican II calling for the creation of a “people’s church”. The Oaxaca church was allied with Diocese of Chiapas under Bishop Samuel Ruiz. The pastoral style of these Oaxacan and Chiapas churches came to be known as the “pastoral indígena” or indigenous pastoral and was focused explicitly on working with the most marginalized segments of society. He instituted a health clinic just outside the city of Tehuantepec basic hospital facilities and the promotion of natural medicine with the training of local healers called curanderos. There is also an ecological center on the same site promoting recycling and organic fertilizer for the area’s agriculture.

During the 1980s, the diocese faced violence by regional power-holders, with two serious assassination attempts in the years before Lona’s retirement. The goal of these groups was to suppress further political activitism similar to the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas. Attacks against Lona and allies would continue into the 1990s. Liberation theology remained center of the diocese while Lona remained bishop although it lost power in the 1990s as the country moved towards neoliberal policies as well as the Church’s own gradual abandonment of liberation theology. Arturo Lona Reyes was one of the last of church leaders aligned with Liberation Theology.

The retirement of Bishop Arturo Lona Reyes drew about four thousand people, mostly native Zapotecs and Mixes. His work was recognized by the Archbishop of Oaxaca over 29 years in Tehuantepec. Lona Reyes retired from the official post but remained head of a religious group called the Iglesia Universal. The bishop stated that his “Opción por los Pobres” (Choice for the Poor) program which he heads would remain intact after he hands his resignation to the Vatican. In the “Church of the People” the offering consist of food and gifts brought by hundreds of indigenous. The bishop’s sermons often contained references to those “excluded from the system,” “community cooperatives” and “human rights.” The current bishop of Tehuantepec is Oscar Armando Campos Cantreras.

The rail line that had been the source of Tehuantepec’s boom in the early 20th century steadily declined over the remainder of the century. It and the rest in the country were privatized in 2001, but the 24 km nearest the city has become virtually abandoned with workstations dismantled and equipment sold off. This put a final end to the rail based economy of the city, especially in the Reoloteca neighborhood.

Since then, there have been several attempts to resurrect the line crossing the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The purpose of the project is to create a competitor to the overcrowded Panama Canal. It would be a rail line between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific at Tehuantepec, modernizing and extending existing rail lines. This type of project was initially proposed in 1980 again in 1997, 2006 and 2009. Versions of the project would have infrastructure built in Tehuantepec and in the nearby port of Salina Cruz. However, the project has not come to fruition with the main impediment being the large initial investment.

Despite an income of 100 million pesos a year, the municipality has had problems with bankruptcy and few works to show for the money in 2009. The municipal president was accused of embezzling the money, leaving the city with one of its worst crises in its history.