Tezontepec de Aldama

The name means "on the hill of tezontle", though the INAFED municipal encyclopedia itself points out how odd that is in a plain with none of the volcanic stone. The original village stood at the foot of a hill where the Colonia Benito Juárez is now. Around 1530 its people, a mix of Nahua, Chichimec and Otomí, passed from the lordship of Tizayuca to that of Mixquiahuala, and in the 16th century came under the Spanish Crown; in colonial times they answered to the alcaldía mayor of Tlahuelilpan. It became a municipality in 1869 and took the surname of the independence leader Juan de Aldama. The town itself, at 2,007 metres, had 5,398 residents in 2020, a small share of a much larger municipality.

This is open Valle del Mezquital plain under a deep blue sky, with nothing to stop the wind, turned into irrigated farmland by the Tula River: more than 70% of the municipality's land is cultivated. Thermal springs rise on the bank of one of its rivers. In the centre, facing a garden with a bandstand and benches, is the parish church of San Juan Bautista, in the Diocese of Tula, whitewashed with red trim and a slender bell tower beside the façade. Nearby is the neoclassical town hall, built in 1910, with murals by a local painter known as Don Luis.

The year opens with the patron fair of the Virgen de la Candelaria on 2 February, which closes the Christmas cycle of the Levanta Niños. Then come Holy Week, with drums, reed flutes and rattles; the Holy Cross fair on 3 May; San Juan Bautista on 24 June; and the Independence festivities and 12 December, with charreadas, cockfights and bicycle races between villages. Pottery is the main craft, with water jars and casseroles, alongside ayate cloths and weaving. The kitchen leans on the maguey: chinicuil worms taken from the plant's heart and white maguey worms from its leaves.