[1] Anenecuilco is known as the birthplace of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, and today the town is the home of a museum in the house of his birth.

Anenecuilco is first mentioned in Codex Mendoza as belonging to the prehispanic jurisdiction of Huaxtepec (Oaxtepec), and subject to tribute by the Aztec Empire.

The main tribute items that the Huaxtepec province rendered to the Aztec Empire were woven cotton cloth of various types (loincloths, women's skirts and blouses, lengths of cotton cloth some of which were decorated) along with red and yellow varnish bowls and reams of native paper (amatl).

The crown resettled indigenous population in the region (as elsewhere in central Mexico) in congregación, but Anenecuilco continued as an independent community as of 1603.

[3] Areas in the region left vacant by depopulation due to epidemics and resettlement elsewhere in congregación were "swallowed up by sugar haciendas.