Why Cuernavaca Exists Here
A city between volcanoes and ravines, about one thousand five hundred meters above sea level, famous for its eternal spring.
Location: The Plaza de Armas, Historic Cuernavaca.
Before we talk about monuments, let’s talk about the place, because almost everything you will see on this tour was born from it. Cuernavaca is the capital of Morelos and lies south of Mexico City. It sits at about one thousand five hundred meters above sea level. Its territory is divided between two major regions of the country’s terrain: the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and the Sierra Madre del Sur, according to INEGI. Put simply, volcanoes and mountain ranges meet here, and the land rises and falls with every step.
Altitude also changes the climate. In the municipality, average temperatures range from twelve to twenty-four degrees, and the rains come mostly in summer. It does not have the extreme heat of the coast or the cold of the high mountains. That is why Cuernavaca is called the City of Eternal Spring. The nickname is attributed to Baron Alexander von Humboldt, the German scientist who was in the region at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is an attribution that is repeated often in books and guides.
What most distinguishes the city cannot be seen from the street: the ravines. They are deep gorges that cross Cuernavaca and that, according to the government of Morelos, add up to about five hundred kilometers in length. They were formed by the erosion of volcanic materials. Those materials came from the eruptions of the Chichinautzin mountain range, to the north, over the last two or three million years. Rainwater and water from streams kept cutting through that rock until it left the channels that cross the city today.
The ravines serve several functions. They carry water: almost the entire municipality belongs to the sub-basin of the Apatlaco River, which is part of the Balsas River basin. They also help regulate the climate, because the air that passes through them is cooled, according to the state’s environmental authorities. And, according to one source, the Amanalco Ravine was a natural barrier that made access to the citadel of the Tlahuicas from the north difficult. When we reach the Palace of Cortés we will come back to this idea.
With water, fertile land and a mild climate, the region drew people long before the conquest. The Tlahuicas were a Nahuatl-speaking people, settled in the region since the twelfth century. They made this place their provincial capital, Cuauhnáhuac, a Nahuatl name usually translated as near the trees. Over the years, the Spaniards pronounced it Cuernavaca. According to one source, the Tlahuicas grew cotton, and that aroused the interest of the Mexica. According to the Mendoza Codex, Cuauhnáhuac appears among the places conquered by the Mexica. According to Maldonado Jiménez, it was the head of a province of sixteen towns. It paid tribute to the Mexica for about eighty years, from around 1438 until the arrival of the Spaniards. Hernán Cortés took the city in 1521.
The appeal did not end with the conquest. For a long time, powerful families from Mexico kept weekend homes in Cuernavaca to spend weekends and vacations far from the capital. That custom is part of the city’s personality, and you will see it reappear several times during the tour.
That is why this audio guide speaks of three layers: power, faith and rest. Power, because first the Mexica and then Cortés wanted to control this valley. Faith, because the Franciscans built here one of the first monasteries of the sixteenth century. Rest, because over the centuries the city became a refuge for the rich and famous, from the Borda family to Cantinflas.
Now raise your eyes and get your bearings. You are in the Plaza de Armas, right in the Historic Center. Before you move, imagine a city without buildings: only hills, ravines, trees and water. That is the city the Tlahuicas chose, and every stop that follows is a layer placed on top of it. When you are ready, walk toward the equestrian monument of Zapata, in this same plaza.
Listen to the full audio guide for Historic Cuernavaca
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