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Huatulco History

Brief Synopsis

Once the province of the refined pre-Columbian Zapotec civilization, Huatulco served as a provisioning base and distribution center during the Spanish administration of Mexico. But the area was sacked and looted in the late 16th century by pirates and freebooters, and the people fled.

Huatulco remained a small fishing village for the next 400 years until FONATUR, Mexico's Resort Development agency, decided that Huatulco would make an ideal resort area. In 1983, FONATUR bought the beachfront properties from the local inhabitants and began making plans for the resort.

Huatulco has never achieved the success of its sister developments--Cancun, Ixtapa and Cabo San Lucas--developed by FONATUR. Its plans for further development have been scaled back, in turn creating a "greener" Huatulco resort. But it remains a very pleasant place to visit.

Pre-Columbian Civilization

The word Huatulco comes from the Nahuatl word cuauhtolco, which means "the place where the wood is adored." Ancient legend has it that the god Quetzalcoatl gave the inhabitants of the bay and port of Santa Cruz a wooden cross.

The Zapotec civilization, an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization, occupied and flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca of southern Mesoamerica, including Huatulco. Archaeological evidence shows their culture goes back at least 2,500 years. The archeological treasures of Mitla were built by the Zapotec people.

Spanish Conquest and Administration

At the time of Spanish conquest of Mexico, when news arrived that the Aztecs were defeated by the Spaniards, the Zapotec King Cosijoeza ordered his people not to confront the Spaniards so they would avoid the same fate. The Zapotec were defeated by the Spaniards only after several campaigns, waged between 1522 and 1527.

During the first half of the 16th century, Huatulco thrived as a port under Hernan Cortes' control. Huatulco was used as a distribution centre for the produce grown on the coastal farms, turning Huatulco into an active port. Spanish galleons often visited the area.

Due to the presence of these galleons, the latter half of the 16th Century saw Huatulco ravished by pirates, including Sir Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish. The local population fled, and Huatulco devolved into a simple fishing village for four hundred years until it was targeted for development as a tourist resort by the Mexican government in 1983.

Thomas Cavendish

FONATUR

FONATUR, Mexico's National Fund for Tourist Development, was created in 1973 by the Mexican Congress to promote the development of new large tourist resorts throughout the country, and to raise the necessary capital for needed infrastructure spending through foreign and domestic investment.

FONATUR replaced two existing trusts that until then had held the responsibility of promoting tourist projects. Until its creation, Mexican resort development efforts were often impeded by local and national bureaucracies, retarding the growth potential of the Mexican tourist industry.

The first project to be tackled by FONATUR was Cancun, which proved to be a great success. It then focused on the development of Ixtapa, adjacent to the sleepy fishing village of Zihuatanejo, and then Cabo San Lucas. These two later projects also met with great success.

The Development of Huatulco

In 1983, FONATUR turned its attention to the development of Huatulco, a string of magnificent bays and beaches south of Puerto Escondido, which it then called the "tourism wonder of tomorrow."

At the time, there were only 1,000 people living in the Huatulco area. They lived a simple life, farming small cornfields and spending their days fishing in the bays of Huatulco. They lived in humble palapa homes with dirt floors, and had few worldly possessions. When FONATUR offered the residents cash for their waterfront lots and offered to relocate them to a nearby inland location, they jumped at the chance.

FONATUR then built a sprawling villa to show off Huatulco to investors, and began infrastructure investments. Their efforts attracted Club Med, which built its largest facility in the Western Hemisphere in Huatulco. FONATUR's Phase I plan, drawn up in 1988, called for the development of the bays of Santa Cruz, Tangolunda and Chahue. FONATUR built the town of La Crucecita to house the construction workers and others who were employed by the hotels and resorts.

However, the development of Huatulco has not proceeded as originally planned. Low occupancy rates at the area's hotels led Club Med to sell its facilities to a Mexican hotel chain, and other planned hotels have not materialized. Only the Santa Cruz and Tangolunda bays have been developed, with a marina in Santa Cruz as well as a park and villas. The resort's golf course flows down to the shores of Tangolunda, which also has several hotels.

The initial plans called for the Huatulco resort to be completed by 2018, with 30,000 hotel rooms. In light of economic reality, development plans for Huatulco have been scaled back dramatically. Originally designed to spread out over nine pristine bays, only one bay is part of the current development plan. To save face, FONATUR has decided to keep more of the land as a natural preserve, giving the resort area a very "green" appeal.

Today, 17 hotels with 1,800 rooms are in operation. But with little promotion, Huatulco remains an isolated paradise on the Pacific.