Municipio Tonatico 5.52

Tonatico Municipality is one of the municipalities of the State of Mexico, in Mexico located 153 kilometers from Mexico City, 105 from Cuernavaca, 84 from Toluca, 68 from Taxco and 5 from Ixtapan de la Sal. Tonatico, of Náhuatl origin, is from the Náhuatl word tonatihco, place of the sun.HistoryPrehistoric animal remains and cave paintings have been found in the area around the modern town.According to legend, the Aztec emperor Axayacatl conquered the area, then known as Tenati-Tlan, "behind the walls", which had by that time been populated for a few thousand years, and founded Tonatiuh-Co, which had the same borders as the current town. However, no records of this exist.The region had been originally populated by the Matlatzincas, but at the time of the Spanish Conquest the area belonged to Tlatoani Axayacatzin of Cuahnahuac(present-day Cuernavaca). In 1521 Hernán Cortés sent Andrés de Castro to keep the local peoples from supporting Cuauhtémoc and to subdue the area. Don Gaspar Alonso, a conquistador, forsook his heritage and sided with the natives of Tonatico, taking on the name of Tlachcolcatcal or Tlacatecutli. He most likely died in the town after the Spanish conquest.