As there was no pre Hispanic settlement at the site, the first half of the name, �Tuxtla� refers to the valley area. Originally, this valley was called Coyotoc by the native Zoque population, which means �land or house of rabbits.� The Aztecs intruded into the area and named it �Tochtl�n� which means the same thing. �Guti�rrez� was added to the city�s name in 1848 to honor Joaquin Miguel Guti�rrez, a Liberal politician.
After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and the subjugation of the Chiapa people in 1528, the Dominicans constructed a monastery in nearby Tecpat�n, which today is an independent municipality. There is no official founding date for Tuxtla, but it is known that in the middle of the 16th century, these monks gathered dispersed Zoques in the valley into communities centered on churches. Today�s San Marcos Cathedral is the parish church founded by the Dominicans for one of these communities in 1560. During much of the colonial era, this was a relatively small community, governed by nearby Chiapa de los Indios, today Chiapa de Corzo.
By 1611, the community had a population of about 900 people, almost all Zoques, and in 1693, a group of these people rebelled and killed the then governor of the area Captain Manuel Maisterra y Antocha. The community remained mostly indigenous. In 1762, it had a population of about 1,400 with about half still paying tribute to the Spanish as conquered peoples. By 1768, it had grown enough to become the second �alcaldia mayor� in what is now the state of Chiapas, after San Crist�bal (de las Casas). Its population was about 3,700 by 1776. In 1786, the intendencia of Ciudad Real de Chiapas was formed, fusing the governments of Soconusco with those of Tuxtla and Ciudad Real de Chiapas, today's San Crist�bal de las Casas, with the first governor being Francisco Saavedra y Carvajal. The city remained head of a local district with jurisdiction over thirty three other communities.
The village was
