Renaming the pass

On Sunday, 9 August 2026, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum proposed renaming the "Paso de Cortés" mountain pass to "Paso de los Pueblos Indígenas" (Pass of the Indigenous Peoples). The announcement came during a public event at the Ejido de Santiago Xalitzintla in the state of Puebla, held as part of the National Reforestation Day and coinciding with the International Day of Indigenous Peoples. The pass sits between the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl in central Mexico.

The location takes its name from the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), who crossed it en route to Tenochtitlán after the Cholula massacre of 1519, nearly two years before the fall of the Aztec capital and the completion of the conquest in 1521. Sheinbaum argued that indigenous peoples had traversed the route long before Cortés.

“This day I propose that we stop calling this territory Paso de Cortés, because the peoples passed through here long before.”

She added that the pass should be called "Paso de los Pueblos Indígenas." In a message published on X, she framed the change as being "in the name of justice" and called indigenous peoples "the origin and source of our values."

A pattern of reclamation

The proposal fits a broader series of actions by the Mexican government to reclaim the memory of indigenous communities and revise symbols of the Spanish conquest. When Sheinbaum served as head of government of Mexico City, she promoted renaming the Avenida Puente de Alvarado to Calzada México-Tenochtitlan in 2021. That same year she backed renaming the Plaza and the "Árbol de la Noche Triste" (Tree of the Sad Night) to "Noche Victoriosa" (Victorious Night), in recognition of indigenous resistance to the Spanish invasion. According to legend, Cortés wept near the old cypress after suffering a defeat.

In 2023, then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–2024) urged dropping the popular name "Mar de Cortés" in favor of "Golfo de California." In 2024, as president, Sheinbaum stated that October 12 should not be commemorated as Día de la Raza or Día de la Hispanidad, but as a date of indigenous resistance.

Tensions with Spain

The renaming proposal also sits against a backdrop of strained bilateral relations between Mexico and Spain over the legacy of the conquest. In 2019, López Obrador sent a letter to Spain demanding that the Spanish Crown apologize for the violence committed during the Spanish Conquest, which opened the way to roughly 300 years of colonization. Sheinbaum subsequently reiterated the call for official apologies from Spain, contributing to cooler relations between the two countries.

In March 2026, King Felipe VI acknowledged the existence of "numerous abuses" committed during the Spanish conquest of the Americas in the 16th century. Sheinbaum's government, like that of her predecessor, has sought to highlight Mexico's indigenous past, and she has stressed the role of indigenous communities in reforestation and nature conservation, noting that some of the best-preserved areas of Mexico are under indigenous management.