The name Huatulco comes from the Náhuatl word cuaúhtolco, meaning “the place where the wood is adored.” Ancient legend says that the great civilizing god Quetzalcóatl left the inhabitants of the bay and port of Santa Cruz a wooden cross.
The seat of the refined Zapotec culture, the region witnessed the movement of Spanish boats and violent pirate raids. Hernán Cortés used it to distribute the produce of his farms along the coast, which turned Huatulco into an extremely active port.
This attracted pirates during the second half of the 16th century, including Drake and the famous Thomas Cavendish, causing the local inhabitants to flee. Famously, Cavendish commanded his men to destroy the cross, but it miraculously withstood their axes and ripsaws. Today a splinter from the cross can be found in the chapel of the Holy Cross in Santa Cruz.
Huatulco was a fishing village thereafter until Mexico's Tourist Development arm, FONATUR, began developing it as a planned tourist complex in 1982.
The Huatulco area is also an ecological preserve. It is the first community in the Americas and third in the world to achieve Green Globe status, a certificate from the travel and tourism industry that measures economic, social, and environmental management.