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Nahuatzen 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 Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
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 ...
of
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 west 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 Nahuatzen is located in the
Tarascan Plateau The Tarascan Plateau (Spanish: ''Meseta Tarasca''), also Purépecha Plateau (''Meseta Purépecha''), is a plateau and region in the Mexican state of Michoacán, in Southwestern Mexico. The plateau begins at the southwestern foot of the Trans-Mex ...
west of
Lake Pátzcuaro Lake Pátzcuaro (Spanish: ''Lago de Pátzcuaro'') is a lake in the municipality of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico. Lake Pátzcuaro lies in an endorheic basin, which does not drain to the sea. A watershed area of 929 square kilometres drains int ...
at an elevation between . It borders the municipalities of
Zacapu Zacapu (''Place of Stones''), is a city and surrounding municipality in the Nahuatzen mountains of Michoacán, Mexico. It is located at . The municipality has an area of . Geographic features in Zacapu include the Cerro del Tecolote mountain ra ...
to the north,
Erongarícuaro Erongarícuaro, which means "Place of waiting" in the Purépecha language, Purepecha language, is a town in the Mexican state of Michoacán. It is located about an hour drive to Morelia or Uruapan and just 25 minutes from the famous colonial town ...
to the east,
Tingambato Tingambato is a municipality in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Its municipal seat is the city of the same name. The municipality has an area of 188.77 square kilometres (0.32% of the surface of the state) and is bordered by the north by the muni ...
to the south,
Uruapan Uruapan () is the second largest city in the Mexico, Mexican state of Michoacán. It is located at the western edge of the Tarascan Plateau, Purépecha highlands, just to the east of the Tierra Caliente (Mexico), Tierra Caliente region. Since the c ...
to the southwest,
Paracho Paracho de Verduzco (often called Paracho) is a small city located in Michoacán, Mexico. It is located about west of the state capital Morelia. The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of Paracho. It has a popula ...
to the west, and
Cherán Cherán () is a municipality located in the Mexican state of 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, c ...
to the northwest. The municipality covers an area of and comprises 0.52% of the state's area. As of 2009, the land cover in Nahuatzen consists of temperate forest (47%) and grassland (6%). Another 44% of the land is used for agriculture and 2% consists of urban areas. The western half of Nahuatzen is in the
Balsas River The Balsas River (Spanish Río Balsas, also locally known as the Mezcala River, or Atoyac River) is a major river of south-central Mexico. The basin flows through the states of Guerrero, México, Morelos, and Puebla. Downstream of Ciudad Alt ...
basin, the northeastern portion drains into 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, ...
, and the southeastern portion drains into Lake Pátzcuaro. Nahuatzen 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 ...
, Nahuatzen means "place where it freezes". According to oral tradition, it was founded in the mid-16th century by people from the settlement of Xaracatan located about to the southeast. It is depicted in the ''
Lienzo In ethnohistory, a lienzo (Spanish for "canvas") is a sheet of cloth painted with indigenous Mesoamerican pictorial writing. See also *Mesoamerican writing systems Mesoamerica, along with Mesopotamia and China, is one of three known places i ...
de Nahuatzen'', a cloth painting dating to the 17th or 18th century. Nahuatzen was one of the 61 municipalities created in Michoacán in 1831.


Administration

The governance of Nahuatzen has been a source of tension that has periodically erupted in violence. In principle, resources are to be shared between an Indigenous Citizens' Council, which was set up in 2015 and recognized by the state and federal governments in 2017; and the municipal government, which 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 Mayra Lucía Morales Morales, who was appointed after the previously elected president David Eduardo Otlica Avilés was murdered in 2019.


Demographics

In the 2010 Mexican Census, the municipality of Nahuatzen recorded a population of 27,174 inhabitants living in 6193 households. The 2015 Intercensal Survey estimated a population of 28,074 inhabitants in Nahuatzen. There are 10 localities in the municipality, of which five are classified as urban: * the municipal seat Nahuatzen, which recorded a population of 10,283 inhabitants in the 2010 Census; * Comachuén, which recorded a population of 4762 inhabitants in 2010; * Turícuaro, which recorded a population of 3388 inhabitants in 2010; * Sevina, which recorded a population of 3344 inhabitants in 2010; and * Arantepacua, which recorded a population of 2707 inhabitants in 2010. In the 2015 Intercensal Survey, 92.86% of people in the municipality identified themselves as
indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...
. The 2010 Census recorded 9789
Purépecha The Purépecha ( ) are a group of Indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico, mainly in the area of the cities of Cherán and Pátzcuaro. They are also known by the derogatory term " Tarascan", an exonym, app ...
speakers constituting 36% of the population in Nahuatzen. The lack of economic opportunities in Nahuatzen has caused many of people to find work elsewhere in Mexico and the United States.
Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...
is home to a community of people from Nahuatzen which numbers in the hundreds,
Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...
is home to vegetable farm workers from Comachuén, and
Tijuana Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...
has a community of Purépecha who emigrated from Arantepacua beginning in the 1980s.


Economy

The main economic activities in Nahuatzen are
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
, corn being the main crop, and forestry.
Remittances A remittance is a non-commercial transfer of money by a foreign worker, a member of a diaspora community, or a citizen with familial ties abroad, for household income in their home country or homeland. Money sent home by migrants competes ...
from the United States have enabled families in Comachuén to maintain
artisan An artisan (from , ) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, sculpture, clothing, food ite ...
traditions of embroidered textiles, woodworking and construction.


References

{{Michoacán, state=collapsed Municipalities of Michoacán 1831 establishments in Mexico States and territories established in 1831