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Mexico Travel :: States around Mexico City

State of Morelos

The mild climates of the state of Morelos have always attracted more powerful cultures from less agreeable lands. Chalcatzingo lay on the western frontier of the Olmec expansion; a series of bas-reliefs on boulders here give glimpses of the Olmec religion. Xochi-calco, just southwest of Cuernavaca, became an important center after the fall of Teotihuacan around AD 700. The city was probably inhabited by a tribe of Chontal-speaking Putun Maya, called the Olmeca-Xicallanca (no relation to the Olmecs), from the Gulf coast who worshipped the Feathered Serpent that surrounds the main temple here. In 1426, the kingdoms of Morelos were defeated by the Aztecs and huge piles of tribute were sent over the mountains to Tenochtitlan. The Aztec Emperor Motecuhzoma I built a luxuriant garden in Oaxtepec near Cuernavaca (then called Cuauhnahuac), which may have inspired the first European botanical gardens. In 1521, Cortes conquered the region, made it part of his encomienda and constructed the New World's first sugar refinery. He also built a palace in Cuernavaca, to which he retreated whenever the colonial politics became too much for him. Many other Spaniards also purchased sugar plantations in Morelos and imported African slaves to replace the Indians who died of disease and overwork. For centuries most of Morelos' land has been concentrated in the hands of a few, usually absentee landlords from Mexico City, and agrarian reform has been a burning issue here. Cuernavaca became the favorite vacation spot of first the criollo elite, then Emperor Maximilian, and now movie stars and politicians. The first bandoleros, peasant revolutionaries, sprang up in 1856 and were later crushed by Porfirio Diaz. Bandolerismo returned with a vengeance under the leadership of Emiliano Zapata. After his 'Liberating Army of the South' ousted Diaz' followers, he instituted his own brand of peasant communism and redistributed millions of acres of land to campesinos. The rich fled Cuernavaca for Mexico City. Zapata was assassinated on April 10, 1919 in a treacherous ambush ordered by President Carranza. At the end of the Revolution, Morelos' economy lay in ruins and reconstruction took decades.

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