Oaxtepec

Oaxtepec is a town within the municipality of Yautepec in the northern part of the Mexican state of Morelos. Its main industry is tourism, mostly aimed at the inhabitants of nearby Mexico City, and the town possesses various aquatic resorts and hotels. The climate is tropical and the countryside very lush. It has 78,000 inhabitants. During the XIX Olympiad in 1968, Oaxtepec was the venue and staging area for the World Youth Camp component of the Cultural Olympiad. Not every Olympic country sent delegates, but participants from the Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Guyana, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom and a dozen other nations filled a resort operated the rest of the time for Mexican government officials and their families. Evan Wilson, 28, of Baltimore, was the USA delegation's Chief of Mission and while at Oaxtepec signed the so-called Oaxtepec Declaration, which he also negotiated, on behalf of the United States. The Oaxtepec Declaration called for expanded participation by world youth in sport, dialog, and encampments aimed at building international peace, friendship, and understanding.

In pre-Columbian times, already one of the largest towns in the region, it was conquered by the Aztecs under the rule of Moctezuma Ilhuicamina During Moctezuma Ilhuicamina's reign (1440–1469), the first leisure centre for nobles was created in the warm territory of Oaxtepec, as well as low lands to the south of Tenochtitlan valley, today's Morelos. Moctezuma ordered to use the water springs of Oaxtepec to create an irrigation system for agriculture and preservation of important vegetation of the Aztec empire. An elaborate royal garden was established here where both flowers and other plants were cultivated.

When the Spanish first arrived to the region, they marvelled at the beauty of the place. They praised Oaxtepec in their chronicles of the Aztec conquest.

In the 16th century, thanks to the great number of medicinal plants found in the region, the Spaniards decided to construct the Santa Cruz de Oaxtepec hospital. Bernandino Álvares directed the project in 1569 and for the next two hundred years it was administrated by the Hermanos de la Caridad.

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