San Pedro Pochutla

Pochutla
City & Municipality
San Pedro Pochutla
Atrium and facade of the Church of San Pedro in Pochutla
Pochutla Location in Mexico
Coordinates: 15°44′40″N 96°27′55″W / 15.74444°N 96.46528°W / 15.74444; -96.46528
Country	Mexico
State	Oaxaca
Founded	700s
Government
• Municipal President	José Manuel Ricardez López (2008-2010)
Area
• Municipality	421 km2 (163 sq mi)
Elevation (of seat)	150 m (490 ft)
Population (2005) Municipality
• Municipality	38,798
• Seat	12,117
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
Postal code (of seat)	70900

San Pedro Pochutla is a city and municipality located in the south of Oaxaca state, Mexico next to the Pacific Ocean. It is an important commercial, transportation and administrative hub for the Pochutla District in the east of the Costa Region. Pochutla is located at the junction of coastal Highway 200 and Highway 175 to Oaxaca, with 175 functioning as the town’s main thoroughfare. Its name means "place of kapok trees (Ceiba pentandra)", and most of the city is built on a lakebed which was drained during the colonial period. The municipality is best known as being the home of the oceanside communities of Puerto Ángel and Zipolite.

The Pochutla area was settled by Zapotec tribes from Amatlán, Miahuatlán and Cuatlan in the 8th century. The settlement now known as Pochutla was founded around the same time as nearby Loxicha, Cozoaltepec and others. The area was part of the dominion of Tututepec. At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Spanish town of Pochutla was founded by Pedro Molina, Isidro Salinas, Julio Diaz and others, initially with the name of Huehuetan. The locals were converted to Christianity and the first church was founded just south of the modern town and called San Pedro Huehuetán Laguna. Much of the modern city is built on what was a lakebed. Because of illnesses such as malaria and yellow fever, this lake was drained. Later in the colonial period, the name was changed to Pochutla due to the number of kapok trees in the area.

According to tradition and archeological evidence located in the hills of Vigía, Espino and El Cometa, there were arms hidden here by pirates, who were called Pichilingües.

In 1833, Conservative rebels led by General Valentín Canalizo fled through here as they were pursued by government troops. Their last battle was at the nearby Soledad Ranch in which they were destroyed by federal forces, forcing the remaining soldiers to scatter.