Актопан: Мексиканың тарихи муниципалитеті

Municipality in Hidalgo, Mexico

Actopan (Otomi: Ma’yüts’i) is one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo, in central eastern Mexico, whose municipal seat and most populated locality is Actopan. This municipality covers an area of 280.1 km. It is crossed by the federal road that runs from Mexico City to Nuevo Laredo and it is located 30 km northwest of Pachuca, the capital city of the state of Hidalgo. Actopan is known as the city of the convent and the land of the barbecue. Its name derives from the word “Atoctli” meaning “firm, fertile, and humid land” and the word “pan” meaning “on” or “over” in Nahuatl. Thus, the name Actopan comes to mean “on the firm, humid, and fertile land”. Actopan’s original name in Otomi is “Ma'yüts'i” which translates to “my little pathway”.

It is estimated that the Toltecas arrived to an area close to Actopan in 674. By the year 1117, another indigenous group called the Chichimecas arrived to what is now Actopan and Mixquiahuila. In 1113, Xide gave Actopan the name “Mañutzi”. Actopan was under the rule of the chichimecas until the emperor Moctezuma II added the area that is now Actopan to his dominion. In 1521, the indigenous Otomies helped the leader Cuauhtémoc defend Mexico against Spanish colonizers. Juan Gonzalez Ponce de Leon was one of the first Spaniards given encomendero status over Actopan in the early 1520s. The movement to convert the population to Roman Catholicism begin in 1526 with the Augustine Friars. By the year 1548 the temple and monastery in Actopan had already been built. It was declared a historic and artistic monument on February 2, 1933. In 1531 Actopan was put under the jurisdiction of the corregidor of Iscuincuitlapilco. By 1568 it was made a separate jurisdiction with its own alcaldia mayor. Yolotepec was also within these domains. As of 1791 the population consisted of 20,000 Indios, 2,291 mestizos, 54 pardos and 1,474 Spaniards (this would be both creoles and peninsulares, and probably included some people with some indigenous ancestry). Actopan now consist of more than 20 communities, most of which names derive from the Otomi language.

As of 2015, the municipality had a total population of 56,429. About 3000 residents of the total population speak an indigenous language, mainly otomi. The principal religion is Roman Catholicism.