Map - Tlalmanalco

Tlalmanalco is a municipality located in the far south-eastern part of the State of Mexico. The municipal seat and second largest town in the municipality is the town of Tlalmanalco de Velázquez The name is from the Nahuatl language, meaning “flat area.” The municipality's seal shows flat land, with a pyramid on it, representing its pre-Hispanic history, surrounded by small mountains, which is how the area was represented in Aztec codices. The municipality is bordered by the municipalities of Chalco, Ixtapaluca, Cocotitlan, Temamatla, Tenango del Aire, Ayapango and Amecameca. It also shares a border with the neighboring state of Puebla. Much of the municipality borders the Iztaccihuatl-Popocatepetl National Park. For this reason, Iztaccihuatl volcano dominates the landscape. The town has been designated as a “Pueblo con Encanto” (Town with Charm) by the government of the State of Mexico.

According to archeological findings, there was a village stronghold in the area from about 3,100 to 600 B.C. The archeological zone is located just to the northwest of the main plaza of the town. Groups such as the Xochteca, Cocolca, Olmec-Xicallanca and Quiyahuizteca populated the area between the 10th and 13th centuries. However, these groups were later driven from here by the Toltecs and the Chichimecas. A subgroup of these two tribes, called the Nonohualcas, arrived to the area in the 13th century and formed a city-state in what is now Tlalmanalco in 1336. This city-state formed an alliance with ethnically-related populations such as those in Amaquemecan, Chimalhuacan and Tenango Tepopollan. This area was one of the last to be conquered by the Aztecs, but after 100 years of fighting, the alliance succumbed in 1465.

The founding of the Spanish town occurred in 1525 by Friar Juan de Rivas, the same year that evangelization of the native population was begun by Friar Martin de Valencia. The Annals of Chimalpain indicate that the indigenous shrine here was destroyed in 1525, and a church and open-air chapel were consecrated in 1532 even though the chapel was never completed. Tlalmanalco suffered the forced indentured servitude of the native population from 1550 to 1633, when this practice was abolished.

Attempts to industrialize the rural, farming economy began in 1858, when a copper smelting operation and various textile mills were introduced, as well as a railroad line. One of the more important factories by the turn of the century was the San Rafael y Anexas, S.A. paper mill, located in the nearby village of San Rafael. This mill elevated the area economically, and was considered one of the most important industries in Mexico from 1930 to 1970.