Axochiapan

Axochiapan sits in the far southeast corner of Morelos, against the Puebla line, at about 1,030 m. The Nahuatl name, axochitl plus apan, reads as a lagoon of water lilies: the pond that gave the town its name fills with white blooms around August and looks like a carpet. Aztec records list it earlier as Ayoxochiapan, flowers of the squash on the water, and it appears in the tribute roll. According to the municipal history, Fray Juan de Alameda founded the town in 1542 as San Pablo de Axochiapan, and the municipality was created on 9 November 1898.

It is now the seat of a municipality of roughly 39,000 people (2020 census), with about 19,000 in the town itself. Trade, farming and gypsum run the place: the fields grow maize, sorghum, peanuts, roselle, onions and sugar cane, and local firms process minerals into gypsum. On 19 September 2017 the earthquake's epicentre fell a few kilometres southeast of town, and hundreds of homes in the municipality were damaged.

What a visitor notices first is religion and festivals. The churches of San Pablo and Padre Jesús date from the 16th and 18th centuries, according to the municipality's official data. The fair runs from 8 to 26 January with night processions of big candles decorated with wax flowers, led by tecuán dance troupes, dancers who play a jaguar, along with aztecas, vaqueritos and chinelos; the 24th and 25th are the biggest days. Villages around town make strap-leather huaraches, feathered dance costumes and, in Telixtac, clay pots, jars and comals. The local table offers xocomoles with fish, green pipián with ash tamales, huaxmole with pork and pit goat barbecue with tepache.