San Jerónimo Acazulco

San Jerónimo Acazulco is the only Otomí town in the municipality of Ocoyoacac, about 4 km east of the municipal seat at 2,760 m, already inside the Insurgente Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla National Park, which everyone calls La Marquesa. It had 4,827 people in 2010 and 5,245 in 2020. Once a farming community, its ejido and communal lands now live mostly from tourism in the forested valleys that fill up every weekend with visitors from Toluca and Mexico City.

That land has been fought over. In 1995 a presidential decree ordered the regularisation of the La Marquesa settlement to head off agrarian disputes with Acazulco, though it was never fully carried out, and in 1998 commoners from Acazulco and from neighbouring San Pedro Atlapulco clashed over 1,100 hectares that had belonged to the old La Marquesa hacienda. The town sits on the La Marquesa–Valle del Silencio–Acazulco road, which leads to one of the park's busiest meadows.

Language is the other mark of identity. Acazulco Otomí, a conservative Eastern Otomí variety, is spoken by about a hundred people; only those born before about 1950 are fluent, and revitalisation work is under way, including a beginner's learning guide. Religious life is still run through a cargo system, with fraternities taking turns to stage the year's fiestas, and Acazulco's New Year celebration counts among the main festivities of the municipality.

For about a decade the town's traditional cooks have run the Feria del Mole y la Gastronomía Indígena. The 11th edition, in 2025, was held in Acazulco itself from 19 to 21 July, with red and green moles, pipián and almendrado served with chicken, turkey or rabbit, plus quesadillas, tlacoyos, bean tamales, music, dances and paper cantoya lanterns.