Huaniqueo is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Mexican

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...

. It is located approximately northwest of the state capital of

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid; Otomi language, Otomi: ) is a city and municipal seat of the municipalities of Mexico, municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. It is both th ...

Geography

The municipality of Huaniqueo is located in the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks have snow all year long, and dur ...

in northern Michoacán at an elevation between . It borders the municipalities of

Morelos Morelos, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos, is a landlocked state located in south-central Mexico. It is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Mun ...

to the north, Chucándiro to the east, Morelia to the south,

Coeneo Coeneo de la Libertad is a town and municipal seat of the Coeneo municipality, located in the north central area of the Mexican state of Michoacán. The name Coeneo means "place of birds". History In the year 1530 Friar Martín de la Coruña ...

to the southwest, and Jiménez to the northwest. The municipality covers an area of and comprises 0.3% of the state's area. As of 2009, the land cover in Huaniqueo consists of tropical forest (23%), temperate forest (21%), and grassland (17%). Another 36% of the land is used for agriculture and 1% consists of urban areas. Huaniqueo is drained by seasonal streams: about 94% of the municipality is in the basin of the Ángulo River, a tributary of the

Lerma River The Lerma River () is Mexico's second longest river. It is a river in west-central Mexico that begins in Mexican Plateau at an altitude over above sea level, and ends where it empties into Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake, near Guadalajara, ...

, while the easternmost 6% is in the basin of

Lake Cuitzeo Lake Cuitzeo () is a lake in the central part of Mexico, in the state of Michoacán. It has an area of . The lake is astatic, meaning the volume and level of water in the lake fluctuates frequently. It is the second-largest freshwater lake in Mexi ...

. Huaniqueo has a temperate climate with rain in the summer. Average temperatures in the municipality range between , and average annual precipitation ranges between .

History

In the

Purépecha language Purépecha ( autonym: or ), often called Tarascan (), a term coined by Spanish settlers that can be seen as pejorative, is a language isolate or small language family that is spoken by some 140,000 Purépecha in the highlands of Michoacán, Mex ...

, Huaniqueo has been translated to mean either "place where corn is roasted" or "place of those who give or bring a sign". It is believed that the first settlement was of

Otomi The Otomi (; ) are an Indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region. The Otomi are an Indigenous people of the Americas who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguistically rel ...

origin and was conquered by the

Tarascans Tarascan or Tarasca is an exonym and the popular name for the Purépecha culture. It may refer to: * the Tarascan State, a Mesoamerican empire until the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, located in (present-day) west-central Mexico * the Purépecha ...

by 1450. After the arrival of the Spanish, the place was given the name Santa Marta Huaniqueo after its patron saint. Huaniqueo was made a ''partido'' of Michoacán in 1825 and one of its original municipalities in 1831. On 23 April 1861, , governor of Michoacán, renamed the municipal seat Huaniqueo de Morales in honour of the parish priest Juan José Pastor Morales, a supporter of the struggle for Mexican independence.

Administration

The municipal government comprises a president, a councillor (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''síndico''), and seven trustees (''regidores''), four elected by

relative majority A plurality vote (in North American English) or relative majority (in British English) describes the circumstance when a party, candidate, or proposition polls more votes than any other but does not receive more than half of all votes cast. For ...

and three by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

. The current president of the municipality is María Trinidad Vázquez Herrera.

Demographics

In the 2010 Mexican Census, the municipality of Huaniqueo recorded a population of 7983 inhabitants living in 2369 households. The 2015 Intercensal Survey estimated a population of 8093 inhabitants in Huaniqueo. There are 27 localities in the municipality, of which only the municipal seat Huaniqueo de Morales is classified as urban. It recorded a population of 2566 inhabitants in the 2010 Census.

Economy

The main economic activity in Huaniqueo is agriculture. The municipality is responsible for 15% of Mexico's total

lentil The lentil (''Vicia lens'' or ''Lens culinaris'') is an annual plant, annual legume grown for its Lens (geometry), lens-shaped edible seeds or ''pulses'', also called ''lentils''. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in Legume, pods, usually w ...

production, behind only Coeneo which accounts for 57%. There is low-level production of other crops and livestock for local consumption.

References

{{Michoacán, state=collapsed Municipalities of Michoacán 1825 establishments in Mexico States and territories established in 1825