Santa María Tonameca

Tonameca
Town & Municipality
Santa María Tonameca
Municipal Palace
Tonameca Location in Mexico
Coordinates: 15°44′45″N 96°32′50″W / 15.74583°N 96.54722°W / 15.74583; -96.54722
Country	Mexico
State	Oaxaca
Government
• Municipal President	Fernando Mendoza Reyes (2014-2016)
Area
• Municipality	454.2 km2 (175.4 sq mi)
Elevation (of seat)	40 m (130 ft)
Population (2005) Municipality
• Municipality	21,223
• Seat	1,631
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
Postal code (of seat)	70946

Santa María Tonameca is a town and municipality located on the southern coast of Oaxaca, Mexico, about 268 km from the capital city of Oaxaca. It is part of the Pochutla District in the east of the Costa Region. It is a very rural area, which is best known for the beach communities of Mazunte, San Agustinillo and La Ventanilla. The National Turtle Center, a research center and aquarium is located in Mazunte, along with conservation centers for butterflies and iguanas. The town itself is the site of the largest annual festival in the area, celebrating the rescue of a cedar image of the Virgin Mary from the rubble of the town church after an earthquake on 11 May 1870.

The name Tonameca is derived from two Nahuatl words “tonahili” (sun or day) and ”mecatl” (place of origin) which can be translated as “where the people of the sun live.” Santa María refers the Virgin of the Assumption, the patron of the municipality.

This area was under the influence culturally of the empire of Tututepec. After the conquest, the area was governed first by Pedro de Alvarado, and then by Hernán Cortés, who then ceded the area to Gonzalo de Salazar. As in other parts of Mexico, most of the land here was controlled via the encomendero system, where natives not only had to work to meet their own needs but also to meet the demands of the Spanish overlords. One of the largest encomenderos here was owned by D. Tristano de Arellando, called Tututepec, who eventually took control of what was still Indian land to form an hacienda. Eventually, Tristano’s greed and maltreatment of the natives here got the attention of viceregal authorities and he was stripped of the encomendero. The land now known as Tonameca came under the control of Petrona Quiahua, who was a descendent of native chiefs. She suffered the genetic “pinto” skin color disorder that still affects a number of the population here. She managed to keep this area out of the hands of Tristano from then on.