The Tepanecs or Tepaneca are a Mesoamerican people who arrived in the Valley of Mexico in the late 12th or early 13th centuries. The Tepanec were a sister culture of the Aztecs as well as the Acolhua and others—these tribes spoke the Nahuatl language and shared the same general pantheon, with local and tribal variations. However, some authors suspect the Tepaneca had partial Otomi or Matlatzinca origins. The patron deity of the Tepanec was Ototontecuhtli, also called Cuecuex, who was also a major deity among the Otomi, Matlatzinca and Mazahua people.