Las Minas

Between 2005 and 2020 Las Minas grew sevenfold, from 293 residents to 837 in 2010 and 2,211 in the latest census, with 614 occupied homes. It is now one of the larger localities in Atlatlahucan municipality, though it sits on the margins of the seat: about 6 km southwest of Atlatlahucan, at roughly 1,449 metres. In 2020 about 94% of homes had electricity but only a little over a third had piped water, a sign that services are catching up with the houses; the state water commission has connected the village through the Terrazas well.

Other settlements crowd around it, most of them recent: La Mojonera under 1 km south, Adolfo López Mateos a little over 1 km away, Pazulco, Yecapixteca, Colonia San Francisco and Colonia 12 de Diciembre, all within about 1 to 2.5 km. Together they form a band of villages across the south of the municipality toward Cuautla. We found no documented origin of the name; the municipal locality list simply shows it as Las Minas.

The tourist anchor of the area is the municipal seat, Atlatlahucan, where the Convent of San Mateo Apóstol, a 16th-century Augustinian work on the Ruta de los Conventos, draws visitors touring the villages of the Popocatépetl region. Tlayacapan, a Pueblo Mágico, is about 18 km away, roughly 15 minutes by car. Las Minas itself has no lodging or sights of its own.