Pueblo Culhuacán () is an officially designated neighborhood of the Iztapalapa borough of Mexico City, which used to be a major pre-Hispanic city. Ancient Culhuacán was founded around 600 CE and the site has been continuously occupied since. The city was conquered by the Aztecs in the 15th century, but the Aztecs considered the city to have status with early rulers marrying into Culhua nobility to legitimize themselves. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the Franciscans and later the Augustinians made Culhuacán a major evangelization center, with the latter building the monastery complex which remains to this day. Today, Culhucan is fully integrated into Mexico City physically and politically. This area was designated as a "Barrio Mágico" by the city in 2011.
Modern Pueblo Culhuacán
Culhuacan is one of the subdivisions of the borough of Iztapalapa, bordering the borough of Coyoacán. Geographically, it is located at the base of the Cerro de la Estrella mountain. Today, the area known as Culhuacan is politically divided into eleven units, called “colonias,” “barrios” or “pueblos” with the historic center designated as Pueblo (village) Culhuacán, due its earlier independent status as an altepetl and then as a recognized pueblo by the Spanish colonial government.
The area was separate and rural as late as early 20th century, made up of chinampas separated by a series of canals. The Culhuacan area is now physically, economically and politically integrated into Mexico City, covered in modern cinderblock and cement structures that continue uninterrupted into neighboring areas. Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro passes through the Pueblo with the elevated station Pueblo Culhuacán only a couple of blocks from the central 16th century monastery complex.
What is now Avenida Tláhuac was a canal in the colonial period. This canal was a main waterway connecting Mexico City with the agricultural areas of Chalco and Xochimilco with flat bottomed canoes called trajineras carrying produce to the city. In the mid 20th century, this canal was closed, filled in and paved over to create the current road. Line 12 of the Metro here is elevated following this same road.
To this day, the residents of this area maintain a kind of rivalry with those from the historic center of Iztapalapa on the other side of the Cerro de la Estrella. Both host passion plays during Holy Week and each has a small natural cave that contains an image of the buried Christ as a local pilgrimage site. Culhuacan's cave site is marked by a chapel called the Capilla del Señor del Calvario. It refers to the image was is said to have been found over 200 years ago by quarry workers in this cave.
The pre-Hispanic City-State (altepetl) The name comes from Nahuatl and means “place of the culhuas.” The term “culhua” means “ancient or venerable” but it can also mean “hunched” which might refer to the Cerro de la Estrella. However, the area was considered by the Mexica to be an ancient religious and mythical place as a connection to the cultural past.
Culhuacan was founded in 600 CE and was a center of influence in the lake are of the Valley of Mexico . The Ramírez Codex says that this city was recognized by the Mexica as a contemporary to the mythical Aztlán and of the ancestors of the peoples who were in the Valley of Mexico before the Aztecs. The early Mexica leaders married women from Culhuacan in order to legitimize their lineage.
Culhuacan's prime was between the fall of Tula and the rise of Tenochtitlan, making it a major power in the Valley of Mexico for three hundred years. Culhuacán was located on the north coast of the Lake Chalco/Lake Xochimilco, which has since dried up. According to archeological studies, the site appears to have been continuously inhabited since its initial founding. Until between 600 and 800 CE, it was an important provincial city under the domination of Teotihuacan. Between 800 and 900 CE, it became governed by a Toltec-Chichimeca dynasty, which dominated much of the south of the Valley of Mexico. Between 900 and 1000 CE, Culhuacan, along with Tula and Otumba, formed the nucleus of the Toltec empire. When this fell, Culhuacan became a haven for the last of the Tula ruling class. The city declined but despite this, it remained the most powerful in the valley until the rise of Tenochtitlan in the 15th century.
However, almost nothing remains of the pre-Hispanic settlement because it was completely destroyed, with the exception of the temple at the Cerro de la Estrella, which then became the center of the Aztec's 52-year renewal ceremony.