Atlautla de Victoria

Atlautla de Victoria is the seat of Atlautla municipality, in the far southeastern corner of the State of Mexico, about 70 km from Mexico City. It had 12,477 residents in 2020 and sits at roughly 2,360 m. The whole municipality is made of the foothills of Popocatépetl, running from the volcano's summit, shared with Puebla and Morelos, down to the farmed valley floor where the town stands. The Nahuatl name comes from atlautli, ravine, and is read as "where ravines abound".

According to the federal municipal encyclopedia, the local chief Cuauhpoltécatl founded the town in 1551 as San Jacinto Atlauhtlan, gathering families scattered across the hills after the epidemics of the period. The dedication to Saint Michael came later, when an image of the archangel was brought from Atlixco. Around 1599 the place had just 35 tribute-payers and a church roofed with thatch. It answered to Amecameca and later to Ozumba until it became a municipality on 9 October 1874; "de Victoria" honours Guadalupe Victoria, Mexico's first president.

Under Porfirio Díaz two railways reached the area, the Interoceanic and the line from Mexico City to San Rafael and Atlixco, and an American known as Mr. Hall founded Popo Park, a colony of stone houses that included one built for the president; it lies within the municipality today. The earthquake of 19 September 2017 hit the town hard and damaged many buildings, though nobody died.

The parish church of San Miguel Arcángel dates from the 16th century, and its feast on 29 September is the event to aim for: chinelos, Aztec dancers, Moors and Christians, and a colonial-era play called "El pecado" in which Saint Michael fights Lucifer. May brings a capulín cherry fair, and in December neighbouring San Juan Tehuixtitlán, a village of bakers about 3 km away, holds a fair for its cocol bread. Higher up, Tepecoculco and Tlalamac grow avocados, and Tepecoculco keeps the remains of a pre-Hispanic pyramid. Feast-day food means mole with chicken, mutton barbacoa, fava-bean mole with nopales and tlacoyos.