Cuernavaca (Spanish pronunciation: [kweɾnaˈβaka] ⓘ; Classical Nahuatl: Cuauhnāhuac [kʷawˈnaːwak], "near the woods" modern pronunciationⓘ, Otomi: Ñu'iza) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico.

[4] The coat-of-arms of the municipality is based on the pre-Columbian pictograph emblem of the city that depicts a tree trunk (cuahuitl) with three branches, with foliage, and four roots colored red.

An allied Chichimeca tribe also moved south into what is now northern Morelos state, making Techintecuitla lord of the Cuauhnahuac (as they called the city) area, with the Tlahuicas concentrated in the nearby towns of Yecapixtla and Yautecatle.

The Spanish troops pillaged and burned the city before retiring to nearby Acapantzingo, where they celebrated the first mass in Morelos on Sunday, 14 April 1521, before continuing their march on the capital.

[citation needed] Originally they lived at the San Francisquito hermitage, but later they constructed the open-air chapel, Capilla Abierta, at what was to become a monastery and eventually the Cuernavaca Cathedral.

[17] In 1834, Ignacio Echevarría and José María Tornel drafted the Plan of Cuernavaca, which permitted Antonio López de Santa Anna to disregard the laws protecting church property, exile Valentín Gómez Farías, reopen the university, and dissolve the tribunal that was set to convict Anastasio Bustamante for the assassination of Vicente Guerrero.

[17] Ministers from Guatemala, the United States, and Great Britain, as well as the Apostolic Delegate and the Consuls of Belgium, Chile, and some Asian countries, moved to Cuernavaca and recognized the Álvarez government.

[17] During the Reform War (1857–1860) when conservatives rejected the liberal constitution of 1857, Juan Vicario voiced the cry of "Religión y Fueros" (Religion and Immunity) in Cuernavaca on 13 January 1858.

[23] In 1909, the anti-reelection movement was established in Cuernavaca, and by the end of this same year guerilla operations against the Diaz government were headed by Genovevo de la O in Santa María Ahuacatitlán.

[23] Wealthy North Americans and Europeans established secondary residences in Cuernavaca and took long vacations there or frequently traveled back and forth, while servants maintained the haciendas in their absence.

For example, when the American designer, Michael van Beuren fled Germany with members of Bauhaus, where he was practicing his profession, he took up residence at the vacation hacienda of his parents in Cuernavaca, and stayed permanently, establishing his factory nearby and raising his family there.

In celebration of his daughter's engagement to Lindbergh and to thank the people of Cuernavaca, in 1929 Morrow commissioned Diego Rivera to paint the mural "History of Morelos, Conquest and Revolution" at the Palacio de Cortes.

[29] In 1956, Erich Fromm founded the Sociedad Mexicana de Psicoanálisis and from his house in Cuernavaca promoted new ideas in the field of psychiatry, incorporating Zen Buddhism and "communal psychoanalytic studies" (estudios psicoanalíticos comunitarios).

[30] In 1966, Austrian priest Ivan Illich founded the Centro Intercultural de Documentación (CIDOC) to teach Spanish language and culture to North American missionaries.

The Frente Civico which is now influential throughout the country, along with some 150 other organizations has promoted a boycott against Costco for having destroyed the Casino de la Selva to build a couple of warehouses.

One of its members, Professor Jaime Lagunez, lobbied a general agreement in the national congress for the purpose of protecting its sixty archeological sites, its vegetation, historic center, and neighboring forests, among other important cultural aspects of the city.

It has ten exhibit halls with maps, illustrations, photographs, works of art, and everyday items from various epochs representing the first human settlements in the state to the present day.

[47][48] There are a number of non-Catholic churches in Cuernavaca also, notably the Episcopal Cathedral of San Miguel Arcángel located at the corner of Calles Guerrero and Santos, Centro Historico.

Later, his son, Manuel de Borda y Verdugo, transformed the grounds of the house into gardens filled with flower and fruit trees to satisfy his passion for botany.

One of the most important is the Ravine of Amanalco, which served as a natural defensive line for the city of Cuauhuanauc during the Spanish conquest of 1520, until Hernán Cortés managed to cross it where the modern "Puente del Diablo" is located.

The Ravine of Amanalco Park opened in the 1990s and features a 352-meter long walkway beginning at the Porfirio Díaz bridge and ending at the arches of a colonial-era aqueduct of Carlos Cuagila Street.

[102] Museum of Contemporary Indigenous Art harbors works of 12 ethnic groups of Mexico: Rarámuri, Yoreme, Yaqui, Purhépecha, Huichol, Mazahua, Otomí (or Hñahñu), Nahua, Mixtec, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, and Zapotec, besides spaces dedicated to the cultural communities of Mata Ortiz and the peoples of Morelos.

[128] The bridge across the ravine is called La Emperatriz[129] Muralist Diego Rivera lived at a house located at the corner of Rufino Tamayo and Morelos St. in Colonia Acapantzingo from 1951 to 1957.

It is known as the Casa de las Tortugas (House of the Turtles) and has Louis XV beds, is adorned with silk brocades, Venetian mosaics, Talavera urns, marble fireplaces, sixteenth-century Spanish armor, Italian gilded chairs, and portraits of her created by Antoine Tzapoff.

Cuernavaca became the host of the CIDOC (Centro Intercultural de Documentación) in 1961, a Catholic institution that indoctrinated priests from developed countries before they were deployed elsewhere in Latin America.

CIDOC's lasting reputation was assured by its founding director Ivan Illich, though it closed, "a victim of its own success", ten years later under right-wing political pressure.

Another infamous resident was Sam "Momo" Giancana, a mafia boss associated with the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, made Cuernavaca his home from 1967 until his arrest and deportation in 1974.

Racquet Club (English) retrieved Dec 16, 2018 The trend continues today, with a large number of retirees, diplomats, business executives, royalty, and government officials living in Cuernavaca from all over the world.

Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy, the youngest daughter of King Umberto II of Italy, lived in Colonia Acapantzingo, Cuernavaca with her husband and Luis Reyna and their three children from 1971 until his murder on 17 February 1999.

In 1984, John Huston shot Under the Volcano from Malcolm Lowry's novel, with Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset in Colonia Acapantzingo, Cuernavaca and in Yautepec de Zaragoza.