page_title: Villa de Zaachila
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Villa de Zaachila / History
caption_attribution_description: The Mixtec place sign for Zaachila.
context_page_description: Villa de Zaachila is a town and municipality in Oaxaca, Mexico, six km from the city of Oaxaca.
  It is part of the Zaachila District in the west of the Valles Centrales Region. In the pre-Hispanic era, it was the main city-state for the Valley of Oaxaca after the fall of Monte Albán, and the Zaachila Zapotecs were the prominent political force for much of the Valley of Oaxaca when the Spanish arrived. Since then, it has been mostly quiet, but political unrest has been prominent since 2006 and the municipality has two parallel governments.
  Zaachila is famous for its Thursday open air markets, which spreads over much of the center of town and has been a tradition since pre-Hispanic times. It is home to a mostly unexplored archeological site and is known for a dance called the Danza de los Zancudos, or Dance of the Stilts.
  The official name is Villa de Zaachila. The name Zaachila is from the Zapotec language and means “large leaf of the purslane.
context_section_description: After the fall of Monte Alban, the Valley of Oaxaca was divided into a number of city-states. They shared a religious center, Mitla, where the deities of the underworld were venerated. Late in the 13th century, the ruler of the Zaachila city-state began to grow in power to dominate much of the surrounding valley.  Starting from around 1400, there are five known rulers of the “Zaachila yoo” or “house of Zaachila.” These rulers are named  Zaachila I, Zaachila II and Zaachila III, Cosijoeza and Coijopij. The names of the first three probably come from the fact that these lords are depicted in codices without names or at least without legible names. The last two were alive during the Spanish Conquest and the last, Coijopij, is depicted in the Lienzo de Guevea in Spanish dress on a Spanish style throne.
  The territory of these Zapotecs was considered vulnerable since the Mixtecs’ eastern border was nearby.  Another threat was the Aztecs, who had  made incursions trying to control the trade route to the Isthmus.The city of Zaachila became key to defending Zapotec lands.  Despite these threats, Zaachila extended its power over a large area, so that the entire valley came to be known by the city’s name.  The history of the Zapotecs and Mixtecs is one of war, strategy and alliances. Most alliances between the Zaachila Zapotec and the Mixtec involved the common concern of keeping the Aztecs out of Oaxaca. Zaachila II defeated the Mixes and other peoples on the road to Tehuantepec but was in relative peace with the Mixtecs. Zaachila III fought the Mixtecs and the Aztecs, but lost the capital of Zaachila, moving to Tehuantepec.
  The last two rulers of the Zaachila Zapotecs were Cosijoeza and Cosijopii, who were father and son. Aztec pressure forced Cosijoeza to allow trade passage and the establishment of an Aztec military outpost in what is now the city of Oaxaca.  Cosijopii allied with the Aztecs and Mixtecs against the Spanish, regaining the lost city of Zaachila, but ultimately was unable to resist the Conquest. Both Cosijoeza and Cosijopii were alive during the Conquest and both were baptized by the Spanish as Don Carlos Cosijoeza and Don Juan Cortez respectively. They continued to control the key town of Tehuantepec after the Conquest.
  Since the 2006 Oaxaca protests, Zaachila has had two parallel governments, which have confronted each other numerous times. In June 2006, APPO took over the municipal palace, being one of the first captured by the dissidents during the unrest in Oaxaca state. This act eventually evolved into the creation of a parallel government, a “people’s municipality,”  headed by Miguel Angel Hernandez Vazquez.  This council rejected the government of then municipal president Jose Coronel Martinez and still rejects the “constitutional” government of Noé Pérez Martinez, accusing them of repression, abuse of authority, nepotism and other charges.  The town's support is divided between the two governments and each government has control of different aspects of the town. The constitutional government has control of police and other services. The people's government has control of business taxation, which raises about 6,000 pesos per month to provide services such as trash removal. However, the streets are dirty and there is no police presence in the ten neighborhoods of the town. Citizens’ patrols have been organized but nighttime is still dangerous. From its inception, the “people’s government” has received international support from countries such as Venezuela, France, Spain, Germany, Canada and Costa Rica.  In 2007 the state legislature recognized the “closure of powers” of the constitutional government but has not recognized the APPO supported government.
  There have been a number of confrontations between supporters of the two governments since 2006. The largest occurred in 2008, when there was a confrontation between APPO and supporters of municipal president Noé Pérez Martínez. The governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz was scheduled to appear in the town on a tour but opponents of the visit began to block st
caption: The Mixtec place sign for Zaachila (Ñuhu Tocuisi in Mixtec), from the Codex Zouche-Nuttall
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