Ixchiguán

Ixchiguán
Native women clothing from Ixchiguán.
Ixchiguán Location in Guatemala
Coordinates: 15°10′03″N 91°55′55″W / 15.16750°N 91.93194°W / 15.16750; -91.93194
County	Guatemala
Department	San Marcos
Government
• Mayor	David Pérez (LIDER)
Climate	Cwb

Ixchiguán is a municipality in the San Marcos department of Guatemala. The economy is based on temporary work force on the coffee plantations, respectively on a male migrating work force in Mexico.

Mam, which is one of the Mayan languages of Guatemala, is spoken in Ixchiguán and in the neighborhood of the city. In two or three villages around the city, the indigenous people speak also K'iche', another language that belongs to the Mayan languages group.

In 1690, Tejutla had a large area and included the modern municipalities of Comitancillo, Ixchiguán, Concepción Tutuapa, Sipacapa, Sibinal, Tajumulco, Tacaná and part of what is now San Miguel Ixtahuacán. According to the historical writings from Recordación Florida of Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán, Tejutla belonged to Quetzaltenango Department and it was a "prosperous land with rich weathers and comfortable forest with enough water".

Tejutla was an important commercial and religious center; in August 1767, Joseph Domingo Hidalgo described Santiago Tejutla as "El Curato" -i.e., the focal center of commerce of all the towns that were around it− in the Gaceta de Guatemala, the official newspaper of the times. Then, in the last quarter of the 18th century, bishop Dr. Pedro Cortés y Larraz, who arrived from Cuilco in 1770 as part of the inspection he was doing of the Guatemalan dioceses, called Tejutla "Santiago en la Cima del Monte" (English: Santiago at the top of the hill" and reported that there were "sixty four families who lived very well" in the area.