History of Tlanepantla

Tlanepantla is a heavily industrialized town located to the north-west of Mexico City which politically corresponds to the state of Mexico but is effectively a part of the mega metropolis capital.

During colonial and pre-hispanic times, the town was a religiuos centre. At the end of the 11th century, 12 nahuatl tribes who emigrated from the central valley of Anahuac (valley of central Mexico) in search for more and better lands founded the town of Teocalhueyacan.
At about the same time, Chichimeca tribes from northern Mexico also arrived under the command of general Xolotl and established the town of Tenayuca.

Both towns went into constant war until colonial times when Franciscan monks founded the monastery of Corpus Christi and accomplished peace between them. It was the monks who named the town Tlanepantla which means "the land in between."

After Mexico's independence war in the 19th century, Tlanepantla started to blossom as one of the most important towns in the state of Mexico thanks in part to its proximity to the capital city.

During the 1940's triggered by the second world war Mexican industry started to develop quickly and Tlanepantla became the centre of this growth. By the 1950's the town was already the biggest industrial site in all Latin America.

Today, Tlanepantla monopolizes almost all the heavy Mexican industry and at the same time is responsible for most of the pollution of Mexico City.