Buildings flanking the Central Park Square in Quetzaltenango

Building flanking the Central Park Square in Quetzaltenango

Quetzaltenango is the second most populous city of Guatemala, after Guatemala City, and is the capital of Quetzaltenango Department.

In 2000 it had an estimated population of 250,000. The population is about 50% indigenous or Amerindian, 49% Mestizo, and 1% other. Quetzaltenango is located in a mountain valley at an altitude of 2,333 meters (8,000 feet) above sea level.

History

In Pre-Columbian times Quetzaltenango was a city of the Mam Maya people called Xelajú, the name derived from "Xe laju' noj" meaning "place beside ten mountains". The city was said to already be over 300 years old when the Spanish first arrived. Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado defeated and killed Maya ruler Tecún Umán here. When Alvarado conquered the city for Spain in the 1520s, he called it by the Nahuatl name used by his Central Mexican Indian allies, "Quetzaltenango", generally considered to mean "the place of the Quetzal bird" (although see note on etymology below). Quetzaltenango became the city's official name in colonial times. However many people (especially but not only the indigenous population) continue to call the city "Xelajú" (pronounced shay-lah-WHO) or more commonly Xela for short, and some proudly, but unofficially, consider it the "capital of the Mayas".

From 1838 to 1840 Quetzaltenango was capital of the state of Los Altos, one of the states or provinces of the United States of Central America. As the union broke up the army of Guatemala under Rafael Carrera conquered Quetzaltenango making it again part of Guatemala.

In the 19th century coffee was introduced as a major crop in the area, and the economy of Xela prospered, and much fine Belle Epoque architecture can still be found in the city.

Etymology

The original Nahuatl name was quetzaltenänco, quetzal-tenäm-co, of which a likely etymology is:

• [erected]-[wall]-[place where exists]  meaning something like  "place where there are erected walls"

(Note that, contrary to popular belief, the term quetzal does not mean feather of the quetzal bird but erected, and it became associated with Quetzal feathers due to the fact that those were the kind of feathers that mesoamerican rules used in their erect head-dresses.)

See also

• Guatemala
• History of Guatemala
• History of Central America