Huehuetenango

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Huehuetenango
Nickname: HueHue
Huehuetenango Location in Guatemala
Coordinates: 15°18′53″N 91°28′34″W / 15.31472, -91.47611
Country	Guatemala
Department	Huehuetenango
Municipality	Huehuetenango
Elevation	1,901 m (6,237 ft)
Population (census 2002)[1]
- Municipality	81,294
- Urban	57,289
- Ethnicities	Mam, Ladino
- Religions	Roman Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Maya

Huehuetenango is a city and a municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The municipalties' population was over 81,000 people in 2002. The city is located at 15°18′53, N°91′28, 269 km from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Panamerican highway before reaching the Mexican border at La Mesilla.

Huehuetenango was founded by Gonzalo de Alvarado in 1524 after the Spanish conquest of the Maya capital of Zaculeu, the Pre-Columbian capital of the Mam Maya people. The name 'Huehuetenango' means approximately place of the ancients (or ancestors) in Nahuatl. Many people of Mam descent still live in and around Huehuetenago, and the ruins of Zaculeu is a tourist attraction a short distance from town. These ruins are markedly distinct from other Mayan archeological sites; the original unearthed stones, comprising only a small portion of the original structures, were covered with concrete some time in the 20th century presumably to preserve them. There is also a small museum at Zacaleu which includes statues and small artifacts found on the site.

A small airport is currently under construction.

Former president Efraín Ríos Montt was born in Huehuetenango. Huehuetenango's primary export is coffee.

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