Nicolás Romero

For most of the colonial era this place was San Pedro Azcapotzaltongo, Nahuatl for "among the little anthills", and from 1821 to 1898 it was called Monte Bajo. In 1898 the state legislature made it a villa and renamed it after Colonel Nicolás Romero, who walked out of the Molino Viejo mill in 1859 to fight for the Liberals and was shot by the French in Mexico City's Plazuela de Mixcalco in 1865. The seat became a city in 1998. Today it is part of the Mexico City metropolitan area: INEGI counted 323,545 people in the city and 430,601 in the municipality in 2020, spread over hills at about 2,390 m.

This was Otomí country. Cahuacán, Magú, San Miguel Hila and Tlillan predate the Spanish, and the Aztecs made Cahuacán a tribute centre around 1430. Industry is what reshaped it. The San Ildefonso spinning and weaving mill started in 1847, La Abeja and La Colmena ran at Molino Viejo, Barrón began making thread in 1852, and in 1900 the El Progreso Industrial paper mill opened along with the Monte Alto railway. Each mill grew its own village, which still carries its name, and the mill hands formed brass bands that became known across the region. San Ildefonso, the oldest of the textile works, still turns out woollen cloth.

For visitors the city is more a gateway to the hills than a weekend destination, but there are things to see. The centre, now styled the historic centre of San Pedro Azcapotzaltongo, has the parish church of San Pedro Apóstol, the Jardín Hidalgo with an old Monte Alto railway station, and the Teatro Centenario, opened on 15 September 1910; it served as a barracks, cinema and boxing hall before it was rebuilt in 1993. The street market in the centre is worth a wander. To the west the Sierra de Monte Alto climbs to nearly 3,500 m, with fir and pine forest around Cahuacán, San Juan de las Tablas and Transfiguración; Cahuacán's church of Santa María Magdalena is considered the oldest in the area. In the rainy season wild mushrooms such as queximones and semas are sold locally, and local artisans do the beadwork used on stage costumes.