Atolinga
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Atolinga is the seat of Atolinga Municipality in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, located in its southwestern portion.
The coordinates of the municipal seat of Atolinga are 21° 44’ 15” north and 103° 28’ 30” west. The town is located at 2,250 meters (7,380 ft) above sea level and the municipality covers an area of 280 square kilometers (110 sq mi).
The municipality rests on a mesa that is the western border of the Tlaltenango Valley. The Atolinga River, which runs through the municipal seat is a tributary of the Bolaños River. A 2005 Census recorded 1,453 residents.
History
Prior to the arrival of the Spanish to the area, the region around Atolinga was inhabited by indigenous people of the Caxcan and Tepecan ethnic groups. The first Spanish contact with these people must have been in 1530 when Pedro Almíndez Chirino went through the Valley of Tlaltenango on a northbound expedition.
The first land grantee of the area was Pedro Sernosa, who later sold his land to Juan Fernández de Jara Quemada.
The town formed part of the jurisdiction of Tlaltenango for both ecclesiastical purposes and governmental purposes until the beginning of the 1800s. In 1814, a plea was made by the citizenry that the community be granted its own town council and status as a municipality due to the long distance from the municipal seat and the ascending local population. The plea spells out that the town counted with nearly 700 "souls" and that within a radius of two leagues lived more than 3,700 people.
In recent decades, Atolinga's population has decreased due to emigration. Migrants from Atolinga can be found throughout the United States, especially in Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta, and the San Gabriel Valley region of California. Journalist Sam Quinones has written about such migrants in his book Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration.
Sources
- Enciclopedia de los Municipios de Zacatecas, State of Zacatecas
- Insituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
- www.samquinones.com
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![Zacatecas](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Flag_of_Zacatecas.svg/23px-Flag_of_Zacatecas.svg.png)
and
municipal seats
- Apozol (Apozol)
- Apulco (Apulco)
- Atolinga (Atolinga)
- Benito Juárez (Florencia de Benito Juárez)
- Calera (Víctor Rosales)
- Cañitas de Felipe Pescador (Cañitas de Felipe Pescador)
- Concepción del Oro (Concepción del Oro)
- Cuauhtémoc (San Pedro Piedra Gorda)
- Chalchihuites (Chalchihuites)
- El Plateado de Joaquín Amaro (El Plateado de Joaquín Amaro)
- El Salvador (El Salvador)
- Fresnillo (Fresnillo)
- Genaro Codina (Genaro Codina)
- General Enrique Estrada (General Enrique Estrada)
- General Francisco R. Murguía (Nieves)
- General Pánfilo Natera (General Pánfilo Natera)
- Guadalupe (Guadalupe)
- Huanusco (Huanusco)
- Jalpa (Jalpa)
- Jerez (Jerez de García Salinas)
- Jiménez del Teul (Jiménez del Teul)
- Juan Aldama (Juan Aldama)
- Juchipila (Juchipila)
- Loreto (Loreto)
- Luis Moya (Luis Moya)
- Mazapil (Mazapil)
- Melchor Ocampo (Melchor Ocampo)
- Mezquital del Oro (Mezquital del Oro)
- Miguel Auza (Miguel Auza)
- Momax (Momax)
- Monte Escobedo (Monte Escobedo)
- Morelos (Morelos)
- Moyahua de Estrada (Moyahua de Estrada)
- Nochistlán de Mejía (Nochistlán de Mejía)
- Noria de Ángeles (Noria de Ángeles)
- Ojocaliente (Ojocaliente)
- Pánuco (Pánuco)
- Pinos (Pinos)
- Río Grande (Río Grande)
- Santa María de la Paz (Santa María de la Paz)
- Saín Alto (Saín Alto)
- Sombrerete (Sombrerete)
- Susticacán (Susticacán)
- Tabasco (Tabasco)
- Tepechitlán (Tepechitlán)
- Tepetongo (Tepetongo)
- Teúl de González Ortega (Teúl de González Ortega)
- Tlaltenango de Sánchez Román (Tlaltenango de Sánchez Román)
- Trancoso (Trancoso)
- Trinidad García de la Cadena (Trinidad García de la Cadena)
- Valparaíso (Valparaíso)
- Vetagrande (Vetagrande)
- Villa de Cos (Villa de Cos)
- Villa García (Villa García)
- Villa González Ortega (Villa González Ortega)
- Villa Hidalgo (Villa Hidalgo)
- Villanueva (Villanueva)
- Zacatecas (Zacatecas)
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