Official Name: | Matatlàn |
Settlement Type: | Town |
Motto: | Pueblo de Fé[1] |
Pushpin Map: | Mexico |
Pushpin Mapsize: | 300 |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Type1: | State |
Subdivision Name1: | Jalisco |
Subdivision Type2: | Municipality |
Subdivision Name2: | Zapotlanejo |
Subdivision Type3: | Town |
Subdivision Name3: | Matatlàn |
Established Title: | Earliest Documented |
Established Date: | 1537 |
Population As Of: | 2016 |
Population Total: | 2,000 |
Timezone: | Central (US Central) |
Utc Offset: | -6 |
Timezone Dst: | Central (US Central) |
Utc Offset Dst: | -5 |
Coordinates: | 20.71°N -103.15°W |
Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
Postal Code: | 45435[2] |
Matatlàn is a town in the municipality of Zapotlanejo in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
According to the 2015 census, there were 2,000 inhabitants in the town.[3]
Matatlán is a hybrid word, half of unknown origin and half Nahuatl. In the earliest written record it is written as el peñole Nochislán y pueblo,[4] el Pueblo de Matatan[5] or Matastán.[6] [7] According to local folk etymology it is composed of "mata" (from Nahuatl net) and "tlán" (from Nahuatl place): the place of net fishing from its location near the Rio Verde.
The town of Matatlán was settled by pre-Hispanic inhabitants, the Tecuexes, who established themselves in the area about 1218. Nuño de Guzmán writes that there were more than 1,000 people (men, women and children) in the area upon his first exploration of the region on Friday 26 of February 1526.[8] [9]
Spanish settlement in the area began around 1523 and the town has been inhabited since that time. The early agricultural products of the area were wheat and piloncillo made from cane sugar[10] around the ruins of the Hacienda de Colimilla which can be found five kilometers to the east of the town.