Coatetelco, Morelos

Coatetelco is an autonomous indigenous municipality created on January 1, 2019 in the Mexican state of Morelos. Located 980 meters (3,215 ft.) above sea level, the municipality includes Lake Coatetelco and the Coatetelco archaeological site. It is one of the few indigenous fishing communities in central Mexico and has a population of 9,094.

The name Coatetelco comes from the Nahua language and means, "place of the serpents in the stone mounds." Quahtetelco (Coatetelco) was ruled by Xochicalco, and later by Cuauhnáhuac. When Cuauhnáhuac was conquered by the Aztecs in 1370, the commercially important Quahtetelco became a tributary area of Tenochtitlán.

Shortly after the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, Coatetelco became part of the Marquesado del Valle de Oaxaca, land was expropriated, and sugarcane planting began. When Mexico became independent in 1821, Coatetelco became part of the Third Military District of the State of Mexico and belonged to the municipality of Mazatepec starting 1823. In 1848 the hacienda of Miacatlan was to be incorporated into Mazatepec; the owners protested, and ten years later the municipality of Miacatlan was established, including Lake Coatetelco and the town of Coatetelco.^: 22–23

The state of Morelos was created in 1869, and Coatetelco became a part of the municipality of Miacatlán. Sugarcane production reached its peak during the Porfiriato, although the haciendas of Santa Cruz, Actopan, Cocoyotla, and Miacatlan were abandoned shortly after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The hacienda of Acatzingo is in ruins today.