Mixquiahuala de Juárez

Mixquiahuala paid tribute to Tenochtitlan in cloth, obsidian arrowheads, maize, chilli and amaranth greens. Franciscans based in Tula from 1539 handled the evangelisation, and titles of 1546 granted it six subject villages, such as Santa María Texalco and Malacaltepec. Republican defiance left its mark too: on 14 June 1865 the French army arrived and asked the mayor, Manuel Gálvez, to persuade the town to recognise the Empire; following Juárez's example, the people refused despite the threat that the town would be burned.

The town, with 27,713 residents in 2020, sits at 1,998 metres among the low hills of the Mezquital Valley, with a dry temperate climate, about 17 °C on average and some 509 mm of rain a year; local water drains to the Tula River basin. In the Taxhuadá cemetery stands the Doninja pyramid, now called the Taxhuadá pyramid, a stepped base raised on a low platform. The parish of Santa María de Guadalupe, formerly dedicated to San Antonio de Padua, dates from the 18th century, shows baroque elements and has two side chapels, the Santo Entierro and the Sagrario.

What sets Mixquiahuala apart is its carnival, rooted in Otomí farming ritual. Two weeks before, men walk to the hills, spending a night in Tetepango, to gather oak flowers, which women turn into rosaries and decorations; during carnival men offer them to the women they court. The xhitas, outlandishly dressed figures carrying two dolls that stand for fertility and evil, go door to door collecting alms and lie face down on a petate toward the four cardinal points. At the chapels of the Los Tigres and Taxhuadá neighbourhoods a flag is raised on triangular towers in honour of San Antonio and San Nicolás, and eight days later it comes down, marking the start of the planting season. In 2025 carnival ran from 1 to 9 March, with a parade of more than 50 floats.