Tecali de Herrera is a town and

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 A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

, southeastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Town

The town of Tecali de Herrera is located about southeast of the city of Puebla. It is center of

onyx Onyx is a typically black-and-white banded variety of agate, a silicate mineral. The bands can also be monochromatic with alternating light and dark bands. ''Sardonyx'' is a variety with red to brown bands alternated with black or white bands. ...

artisan objects production in Mexico.Midwesternerinmexico.com: "Tecali de Herrera - Mexico’s hub of all things onyx"
posted 29 March 2010; accessed 11.11.2014 The Municipal Market Onyx is supplied by the local union craftsmen.

History

Pre-Columbian

Tecali was one of the most important cities of the

Toltec The Toltec culture () was a Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula (Mesoamerican site), Tula, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoam ...

−

Chichimeca Chichimeca () is the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who were established in present-day Bajío region of Mexico. Chichimeca carried the same meaning as the Roman term "barbarian" tha ...

nobility, in the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

era. It is registered in the "Matricula de Tributos" made during the time of Moctezuma. In the

Nahuatl language Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

the name ''Tecali'' derives from''tetl'' (stone) and ''calli'' (house), meaning 'where the houses of stone are.'

Convent of Tecali de Herrera

The ruins of the Spanish colonial era Convent of Tecali of Herrera (''Ex-Convento de Tecali de Herrera'') are a designated Cultural Heritage Monument in the municipality. The former Franciscan

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

was completed in 1540, in

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

(colonial México). It was designed in the Colonial Spanish Renaissance style by Diego de Arciniega.

References

External links

Mid-Westerner in Mexico Blog: Tecali de Herrera
— ''images and text''. Municipalities of Puebla History of Puebla 1545 establishments in New Spain {{Puebla-geo-stub