Santo Domingo Xenacoj is a town, with a population of 10,632 (2018 census),
Citypopulation.de
Population of cities & towns in Guatemala and 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 Guatemala
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
n department of Sacatepéquez.
Name origin
The native term Xenacoj has been evolving over the centuries: in 1625, Irish friar Thomas Gage
General Thomas Gage (10 March 1718/192 April 1787) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator best known for his many years of service in North America, including serving as Commander-in-Chief, North America during the early days ...
, call it Sinacao; later, friar Francisco Ximenes, O.P. in 1717, calls it Xencoc. In the San Pedro documents is shown as Senacoc and in 1806 was written as Xinacó, in 1880 as Xinacó and, finally, in the early 20th century is written as Xenacoj. The origin of the name comes from the word "Xe" which means under or beneath and Nacoj, which is the name of a hill; therefore, the name Xenacoj means "under the Nacoj hill". Another version claims that instead of Hill, Na means mouth and Coj means lion.
History
Santo Domingo Xenacoj is located in a valley that the Spanish conquistadores called "de Sacatepéquez" (English: Valle of Sacatepéquez) in the 1520s. That valley was bordered by the valley of Xilotepeque on the West, those of Mixco and las Vacas on the North, and by the Chiquimula province and the South and East. The town was described as having "warm climate" by Irish friar Thomas Gage
General Thomas Gage (10 March 1718/192 April 1787) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator best known for his many years of service in North America, including serving as Commander-in-Chief, North America during the early days ...
in his 1648 book about his travels through America in the 1620s and 1630s.
Historian Domingo Juarros wrote that in 1766 the Chimaltenango and Sacatepéquez municipalities tried to join, but it did not work out and they remained split until after independence from Spain in 1821.
Climate
Santo Domingo Xenacoj has a subtropical highland climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring c ...
(Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
: ''Cwb'').
Geographic location
References
Bibliography
*
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the Sacatepéquez Department