Zumpango de Ocampo

Zumpango de Ocampo is the seat of the municipality of Zumpango, in the north of the Valley of Mexico, on a rise beside the lagoon that shares its name. The 2020 INEGI census put the locality at 53,362 people (figure from Wikidata). The name comes from Nahuatl Tzompanco, "place of the tzompantli", the skull rack, and "de Ocampo" was added in the 19th century for the liberal Melchor Ocampo. Around 1216, as the municipality tells it, the lord of Tzompanco gave refuge to the migrating Mexica, and that alliance led to Acamapichtli, first tlatoani of Tenochtitlan. The municipality was constituted on 31 July 1820, and in 1861 the seat was given the title of villa.

The centre keeps colonial and republican buildings: the parish of the Inmaculada Concepción, Plateresque and Baroque with a bell tower that rules the plaza; the municipal palace, begun in 1860; and the La Hortensia textile mill, a large metal-framed hall with adobe and brick walls. From Porfirio Díaz's era survive the drainage boxes, neoclassical works inaugurated in 1900 to carry water out of the Valley of Mexico.

The municipal market is the biggest in the region and on Fridays the tianguis sets up, with people from the surrounding area selling local produce. Zumpango is also a fireworks-making town, and on the lagoon shore there are stalls of rockets, crafts and food, plus boats. For another local industry, visit Esferas Zumpango, a workshop where Christmas ornaments are hand-blown from glass. The Felipe Ángeles airport (AIFA), opened on 21 March 2022, is 8 km away, on land where the remains of more than 300 mammoths turned up.