Tuxtla Gutiérrez 7.72

Tuxtla Gutiérrez is the capital and the largest city of the Mexican southeast state of Chiapas. It is the most developed, populated and therefore the state's most important municipality. A busy government, commercial and services-oriented city, Tuxtla (as it is commonly known) had one of the fastest growing rates in Mexico in the last 40 years. Unlike many other areas in Chiapas, it is not a tourist attraction, but a transportation hub for tourists coming into the state, with a major airport and a bus terminal.HistoryThe Zoques made the first pre-Hispanic settlement at the site. They named the valley area name "Coyatocmoc", which means “land or house of rabbits”. The Aztecs intruded into the area and named it "Tuchtlan", which means the same thing. “Gutiérrez” was added to the city's name in 1848 to honor Joaquín Miguel Gutiérrez, a Conservative politician according to a legend.After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and the subjugation of the Chiapa people in 1528, the Dominicans constructed a monastery in nearby Tecpatán, which today is an independent municipality. There is no official founding date for Tuxtla, but it is known that in the middle of the 16th century, these monks gathered dispersed Zoques in the valley into communities centered on churches. Today's Saint Mark's Cathedral is the parish church founded by the Dominicans for one of these communities in 1560.The village was officially recognized as a villa by King of Spain in 1813 with a population of about 5,000, three-quarters of which were Zoques. In 1821, the authorities of the villa proclaimed independence from both Spain and the regional colonial government of Guatemala, along with other areas in what would become Chiapas. However, this declaration was not accepted by either Guatemala or Mexico.