Tequisquiapan - History

History

The name comes from Nahuatl and means “place of tequesquite (potassium nitrate)” a type of natural salt used to flavor food since pre Hispanic times. The municipality’s seal was adopted in 1989 at a contest held in conjunction with the annual Feria Nacional del Queso y el Vino. This seal contains elements related to the area such as the sun, grapes, the Tequisquiapan River and the parish church of Santa María de la Asunción.

The presence of humans in the modern state of Querétaro is estimated at between 1500 and 2500 BCE, with the oldest human remains found at a cave in the San Nicolás community. This site gives no indication that these early humans had either agriculture or pottery. Much later human remains in the same cave indicate the presence of both and perhaps influence from the Las Ranas site to the north. This would put the area within the sphere of influence of this culture, which was Huastec and part of the early Pre Classic period.

By the Post Classic period, the area was dominated by the Otomi people in the east near the Hidalgo border and by the Chichimeca in the rest. The main Chichimeca settlements were just south and west of the modern municipal seat, where fresh water springs were most abundant and the land was the most fertile. Around this same time, the area had a reputation for its fresh water and thermal springs for medicinal purposes. The area did not have any major cities during the pre Hispanic period but a number of important trade routes ran through it. By the time the Spanish arrived, most of the area was allied with the Otomi at Xilotepec, itself a tributary of the Aztec Empire. The Otomi outnumbered the Chichimecas but both lived in the area peacefully. The area around Tequisquiapan was taken over by the Spanish relatively peacefully, but the Chichimecas did resist. This resistance remained sporadic until the last battle of the Chichimecas in Querétaro against the Spanish called the Battle of Media Luna which occurred to the north in the Sierra Gorda.

The official founding date for the city is 1551 by indigenous cacique Nicolás de San Luis Montañez, who was allied with the Spanish. The settlement received its royal seal founded as Santa María de la Asuncón y de las Aguas Calientes. The foundation grouped local Chichimecas and Otomí onto the site and the foundation was celebrated with a Mass. With the pacification of southern Querétaro, lands in the area were redistributed among the Spanish and the evangelized Otomi, leading to three hundred years of intense agricultural development. However, much of this came at the expense of most of the indigenous population. By 1656, it had been definitively named Tequisquiapan.

Despite the exploitation, the population of the town and municipal area remained mostly indigenous. For this reason, the town has kept much of its rustic architecture.

In the decades before the Mexican War of Independence, Tequisquiapan experienced a number of small rebellions on area haciendas, by indigenous people whose socioeconomic status was still serf-like. However, during Independence and other major conflicts of the 19th century, there were no major battles in the area and little information as to how this area was affected. It was officially declared a town in 1861, with the name of Villa de Mateos Tequisquiapan.

During the Mexican Revolution, army loyal to Villa, Carranza and Obregón passed through but no battles were fought in the municipality. However, these armies did sack area haciendas and other locations, mostly for supplies. The Centenario Dam was inaugurated in 1910. Venustiano Carranza visited the thermal springs of the area before heading to the city of Querétaro to sign the 1917 Constitution. This Mexican president also declared the town as the “geographic center of the country.” There is a monument in the town to this effect; however, today the geographic center is considered to be in Zacatecas .

Shortly after the end of the Revolution, there was political instability in the state and Tequisquiapan was designated as the provisional capital in 1920.

Although its first municipal status was gained in 1861, but its current municipal organization was not formalized until 1939.

The growing of grapes in the municipality begin in the early 1960s, with the planting of 120,000 vines for wine grapes in the community of San José Buenavista by the Sofimar enterprise, affiliated with Martelli in France. Initial varieties were ugni blanc (used for brandy), cabernet sauvignon and Grenache, for reds, whites and rosés.

The latter 20th century saw significant population growth, as the town transformed from a small traditional farming village to a popular weekend getaway. This growth has also been spurred by the growth of the nearby industrial city of San Juan del Río . Since 1950, the population of the municipality has grown from 10,877 to 54,929 in 2005. However, the indigenous population has severely decline, from an indigenous majority in the 19th century to only 120 people speaking an indigenous language in the entity as of 2005.

In 2007, the PRD municipal president Noé Zárraga, was shot twice by unknown persons.