Tequesquitengo receives its name from the native word “tequesquite”, saltpeter which is used to fabric soap and purge the cattle. The “tequesquite” production came from a very small lake at the west of Jojutla. Its limits are formed by the country estate of Saint Joseph at the north and the town of Puente de Ixtla. It is known that the people from Tequesquitengo came from several parts.

 

In 1650 the people built a temple and they settle down. It is supposed that the reason to stay here was the production of “tequesquite”, the duck hunting, fishing and the corn sowing. Stockbreeders came to Tequesquitengo to get this product so they could purge their cattle. The water used in the country estate made the small lake grow up and, little by little, that water got the houses so they had to go away to the closest hill. Later on, in 1856, the water went to the church.

 

Nowadays the top of the church is hardly seen in the middle of the lake. Its images were stored in a hut and its bells were placed on the branches of a tree. There was a person in charge of those images. The chapel, which was built 1827, is now under the water level and it continues being Saint John the Baptist its patron.