In this region, from five hundred years before our era we found the presence of agricultural peoples, whose footprints have been found in places like Chupícuaro, Guanajuato and Cerro de la Cruz, in San Juan del Río.
The North Center was occupied by diverse groups -otomies, nahuas, tarascos, pames and jonaces, among others- that moved in a field of encounter between the agricultural groups and the seminomadic groups, recognized generically by the Nahuas of the altiplano as chichimecos.
This town also had an Aztec presence, especially at the fall of the Great Tenochtitlán. It was precisely at that time when a group of Otomíes commanded by Mexici (baptized Juan) was established here and it was with this one when in 1531 the caciques of the already conquered Jilotepec, supported by the Spaniards, would found San Juan del Río.