|
That was sometime around 1400. People had been attracted to
the Costa Grande much earlier than that: archaic pottery has
been uncovered at a number of sites, left by artists who
lived and died as long as five thousand years ago. Later,
around 1000 B.C., the Olmecs (famous for their monumental
Gulf coast sculptures) left their unmistakable stamp on
local ceramics. After them came waves of settlers, including
the barbaric Chichimecs (Drinkers of Blood), the
agricultural Cuitlatecs, and an early invasion of Aztecs,
perhaps wandering in search of their eventual homeland in
the Valley of Mexico. None of those peoples were a match
for the armies of Tarascan emperor Hiripan, who during the
late 1300s invaded the Costa Grande and established a
coastal province, headquartered at Coyuca, between
Zihuatanejo and present-day Acapulco.
- The name "Tarascos" (Taraskan) comes from the fact that
in order for the
kings to please the conquerors, they gave their daughters in marriage
and called them "Tarascues" ("son-in-law"). The
word was adapted into Spanish as "Tarascos". Its
was used
by the soldiers to refer to the inhabitants
of the Purepecha Kingdom.
- The name Zihuatanejo comes from
the nahuatl word Cihuatlan which
means "place of women". Probably because of
the incursions of the king with all his wives, who were
in the majority with respect to the few men that safeguarded them.
The Spaniards usually wrote the name as Ciguatan (because that is how the word "Cihuatlan"
sounded to them.) Later they added the diminutive ending of "ejo" to refer
it as a "small place" or "place without major importance".
In old Spanish books, maps and documents it is found
writen as Cigua,
Ciguatan and
Ciguatanejo. About two hundred
years ago, the name was changed to Zihuatanejo. We do not know how the change
came about, it just appeared
like that in documents.
Three generations later the star of the Aztec emperor
Tizoc was rising over Mexico. His armies invaded the Costa
Grande and pushed out the Tarascans. By 1500 the Aztecs
ruled the coast from their provincial town capital at
Zihuatlán, the “Place of Women”, not far from present-day
Zihuatanejo.
Conquest and Colonization
Scarcely months after Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs,
he sent an expedition to explore the “Southern Sea” and
hopefully find a route to China. In November 1522 Captain
Juan Alvarez Chico set sail with boats built on the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec and reconnoitered the coast to the Río Básas,
planting crosses on beaches, claiming the land for Spain.
An oft-told Costa Grande story says, when Chico was
exploring at Zihuatanejo, he looked down on the round
tranquil little bay, lined with flocks of seabirds and women
washing clothes in freshwater spring. His Aztec guide told
him that this place was called Zihuatlán, the “Place of
Women”. When Chico described the little bay, Cortés tacked “nejo”(little)on
the name, giving birth to “Zihuatanejo”, which later got
shortened to the present Zihuatanejo.
During the Spaniard colonization of Mexico, in a letter from Hernán Cortez to
King Carlos I of Spain, he mentions
the town of Zihuatanejo and a close-by
island known today as Isla Grande
or Isla de Ixtapa. He remarks that the place seems to be inhabited
only by women.
It is a good possibility that the natives saw Cortez’ fleet
heading for the bay and as they were accustomed to do, they
sent all their women to the island to keep them safe and away
from the eyes of foreigners while they hid in the bushes.
This then may reconfirm
the significance of the town's native name.
 |
Map dated from around
1542, it shows Zihuatanejo
with the name of "Cigua" and also Petatlan. |
Cortés, encouraged by the samples of pearls and gold that
Chico brought back, sent out other expeditions. A shipyard
and town were established at Zacatula, at the mouth of the
Río Balsas in 1523; then, in 1527, Captain Alvaro Saavedra
Cerón set sail for China from Zihuatanejo Bay. Not knowing
any details of the Pacific Ocean and its winds and currents,
it is not surprising that (although he did arrive in the
Philippines) Saavedra Cerón failed to return to Mexico. A
number of additional attempts would be necessary until
finally, in 1565, Father André de Urdaneta coaxed Pacific
winds to give up their secret and returned, in triumph, from
the Orient.
By royal decree, Acapulco became Spain's sole port of
entry on the Pacific in 1561. Except for an occasional
galleon (or pirate caravel) stopping for repairs of
supplies, all other Pacific ports, including Zihuatanejo,
slumbered for hundreds of years.
After 1575, many pirates made a stop at Zihuatanejo to
use the bay as a refuge from bad weather or to trade for
supplies with the town people. The most common and
profitable reason for their visit was to use it as a hiding
place while waiting to attack on the Spanish Armada and the
merchant galleon fleet. The town lies along the
prosperous commercial route from Mexico to the Philippines. The
pirates, "Privateers", that spend
some of their careers in Zihuatanejo's
bay, were
Sir Francis Drake and Admiral George Anson.
A cannon and the anchor from one of Anson's ships that sunk
in the bay are captured in pictures of Zihuatanejo dating
from the
50's.
|
|
PRIVATEER was a person
who by Commission or Letter of Marque from a government
was authorized to seize or destroy a merchant vessel
of another nation without being considered a pirate.
These types of letters were recognized by International
Law at that time. |
In 1704
William Dampier arrived at Zihuatanejo
and entered in his ship log the presence of more than
forty houses with more than a hundred people. He also
wrote that he wanted to
discourage disembarkation of his men at all cost.
Between the years of 1890 and 1910, Zihuatanejo begins to
be known as a fishing village with all its inhabitants
living near or very close to the shore. By 1923, Zihuatanejo
became famous as an exporter
of fine woods. La Madera (the wood)
beach, gets its name from the loading of wood in ships at
that particular point. La Ropa
(the clothes) beach got its name because of a Chinese shipwreck
that brought all the material to shore.
|
|
By this time Acapulco was becoming "The Resort of Mexico",
but some very adventurous tourists, looking for other nearby places,
discovered picturesque Zihuatanejo.
The increasing number of tourist arriving by land (it was very hard
to get here, it took more than 15 hours from Acapulco) and the construction of a small airport for
DC-3s (for the purpose of increasing the commercial trade
and the movements of tourist by air) forced the town to
begin construction of small hotels. Before that, visitors
had to stay in private homes. Zihuatanejo remained a fishing
village despite the affluence of tourists.
Zihuatanejo was one of the last to wake up. The occasion
was the arrival of the highway from Acapulco during the
1960s. No longer isolated, Zihuatanejo's headland-rimmed
aqua bay attracted a small colony of paradise-seekers.
It was not until the late 1970’s that Zihuatanejo
grew in number of hotel rooms and increased the quality of
services to meet the standards required by the tourist. The look of the original
fishing village remains today.
With the discovery in recent years of many ancient ruins close
to Zihuatanejo (including a big
pyramid still underground) and many relics and carved stones
in nearby Petatlán, scholars speculate that this area
was once a very important Indian civilization that went from the cities of Tecpan to
La Unión near the coast. Because of the differences between
this and other archaeology and culture sites in Mexico, it is believed that this civilization was self-ruled,
self-sustained and could have been semi-independent from the
others. Future investigations will probably tell us more.
For archaeological tours to vestiges of this civilization
, see "Tours
on your own and with operators" on the
www.ixtapa-zihuatanejo.com web site.
Due to the considerable influx of tourist
to this area, a need developed to build luxury, high-rise hotels.
In 1968, Fonatur (Federal Bureau for Tourist Development),
expropriated a large coconut tree plantation near
Zihuatanejo to create a new resort.
The government tried to develop in Zihuatanejo, but the
town people refused the idea of drastically changing the look
of the town and having very tall buildings blocking the view
of the bay.
Zihuatanejo had grown to perhaps 5,000 souls by the late
1970s when Fonatur, decided Ixtapa was a perfect site for a
world-class resort. The idea
was to develop a first-class complement to the popular Zihuatanejo
and make a small world-class resort for the tourists that do
not like big cities or big destinations. Investors agreed,
and the infrastructure-drainage, roads, and utilities-was
installed. The jetport was built inseparable twin resorts of
Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo (combined pop.70,000) were attracting
a steady stream of Mexican and foreign vacationers.
The first hotel, Aristos,
in
this very well planned and carefully designed resort, was built
in 1971. It was demolished in 2003 to make room for a new luxury hotel complex.
To keep with the tradition
of naming new Mexican tourist destinations
in a native tongue, the nahuatl word Ixtapa was chosen. It means "the white place" in reference
to the white sands in the area.
During the development stages the locals referred to is as "The
New Zihuatanejo". Once it got on the map, it took about a year
for the town people to decide how to call the double destination... Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo or
Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa.
|
Send
mail to
