A Brief History of Huajuapan
Huajuapan de León has witnessed the flourishing of Mixtec culture, the longest siege in the Mexican war for Independence, a city flattening earthquake and its recent expansion to more than four times its former size. It contains the ancient seat of a long gone Mixtec society and countless tales and legends from both its pre Hispanic and recent past.
The city as we now know it began inauspiciously as two villages, perched on the hills around the valley. In 1561 the local government became worried about the frequent robberies of tradesman travelling the route between Oaxaca and Puebla and the two were ordered down into the valley to form one town, which was later to be known as Huajuapan.
However, long before this the hill just to the North West of Huajuapan was capped with a magnificent miniature city in which the early mixtec people lived. This settlement, now known as "Cerro de Las Minas" boasted ball courts, palaces, temples, public spaces and residential areas. All this crammed into a space of 0.6 kilometres in which between 1 000 and 3 000 people dwelt.
The cultural potency of the region was such that even the most powerful governing mixtecs further North came down to seek alliances. Ceramics, documents and arquictecture all to steps forward in this time. Cerro de las Minas was also built in a powerful defensive position, useful amidst the continual conflicts of the region.
However, the Mixtec communities were to find a common adversary as the Spanish arrived, accusing them of idolatry, destroying local ceremonial grounds whilst local leaders felt the effects of the inquisition amongst other penalties.
By 1810 the fight for independence from Spain had begun. With it came the town's finest hour in 1812, when a 112 day siege by Spanish forces forced independence fighters to the brink of surrender. Fast running out of options, the town commander, Valerio Trujano, had sent Remigio Sarabio, popularly named "the Indian Nuyoo" to infiltrate the Spanish lines and deliver a message for help to José María Morelos, the nearest rebel leader.
Informed of the last ditch effort, the town crowded into the church to pray to the local sacred image; "El Señor De Los Corazones" (The Lord of Hearts), whilst Nuyoo stole through the Royalist troups, triumphantly setting off a pair of rockets on reaching the other side. Morelos' army then charged to the rescue, successfully liberating the town.
The heroes of the story, Morelos, Trujano and Nuyoo all have streets named after them in the town centre, whilst the icon "El Señor de Los Corazones" takes centre stage every year in the town's most important procession, in which many townsfolk still become overwhelmed by emotion.
No one event from the town's recent history has had such an impact as the earthquake of 1980 which flattened the cathedral, the hospital, the market and most of the city centre. The shock permanently altered the towns complexion. When it came to be reconstructed the style of the old buildings was lost and replaced by mainly squat, ugly concrete structures, a fact cruelly highlighted by photos of the town in its pre-earthquake days.
In the last 50 years the population of the town has quadrupled, an explosion accelerated by the 1991 opening of the Mixtec Technological University (UTM) just outside of Huajuapan. The arrival of the students has rejuvenated the town's small business scene, with cheap eateries, shops and computer cafes springing up on every street.
However, Huajuapan faces a difficult future as the fast expanding city outgrows even basic amenities. Water often runs short, the sewage system is in urgent need of replacement and cars and pedestrians crush together in the small streets now handling a stream of traffic that was originally never envisaged. The challenge now is to match population growth with infrastructure development and assure a positive continuation of the town's 2400 year history.
John Holman