History of the City of Oaxaca
| ||
| Brief description: We will start in the Alameda in front of the building occupied by López de Berrio, the first mayor of Antequera. We continue towards the San Pablo Cultural Center to finish at the Santo Domingo church and the Museum of Cultures. This tour will take us approximately 3 hours. Schedule: We will start in front of the cathedral at 9:40 am where we will talk about the use of this area before the arrival of the Spanish. We will walk over to the San Pablo Cultural center at 10:30 followed by a visit to the Santo Domingo Church and the museum at 12:00 noon. Indigenous predecessors: Where the city of Oaxaca is now, there were urban centers during the Prehispanic era and those urban centers were almost as important and close to the same size as the modern city. During the colonial times, building a city on the vestiges of another was a very common practice. Some researchers theorize that this is what was done in the case of Oaxaca (González-Jiménez-Galarza 1996). The environment of the Central Valleys, according to comparative studies, could have supported a population of up to 350,000 inhabitants without jeopardizing the survival of its ecosystem. This area's environment was suitable for agriculture as well as close to forested areas and two great rivers that provided a continuous supply of water. There are several archaeological sites in the Central Valleys that are still visible today. In 1531, "the city requested the lands that the natives had dedicated to their idols and sacrifices" and in 1538, the first bishop, Juan López de Zarate, requested the lands of the gods (Ochilobos, Huitziolopochtlis) and of the priests (paguas and teupiques) in order to build the cathedral. The architect Alonso García Bravo was responsible for the appearance of the city of Antequera. Peláez de Berrio ordered the construction of the prison houses and the pillory of three pillars, symbols of its Spanish origins. | ||
 |  |