Agua Blanca de Iturbide

Agua Blanca de Iturbide is the seat of a 120 km² municipality in the Sierra de Tenango, in eastern Hidalgo. It stands at 2,188 metres on a plateau between the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and the Sierra Madre Oriental, with a temperate climate averaging about 13 °C. It has 2,325 residents, 22.5% of the municipality.

The name is explained by the many springs in the area; it is also said that near the spring in the upper part of town there was a well of whitish water. Iturbide honours the Franciscan friar Juan de Iturbide. Before 1804 the place was known as La Trementina, for the dense forest around it. In 1869 it belonged to the municipality of Tutotepec, the municipality was created in 1874 and in 1888 the seat moved from San Pedrito to the present Agua Blanca.

The parish church of the Inmaculada Concepción is single-naved masonry, with a gabled clay-tile roof and a plank floor; it was finished on 1 January 1890. Its feast day is 8 December, the Purísima, which draws pilgrimages from the municipality's communities.

The annual fair runs from 3 to 6 May, a date chosen because Mexican and French troops passed through on the way to the Battle of Puebla; it includes a craft expo of aguardiente and curados, and a food showcase. Carnival lasts four days, with dances and the raising of masks, and the traditional descabezada: six live chickens hung up for adult capas to pull on, to pick the future captains who will feed the whole comparsa.