Zacatepec de Hidalgo

Zacatepec is a sugar town in the hot south of Morelos, and almost everything in it traces back to cane. The area has grown cane since 1690, and on 5 February 1938 President Lázaro Cárdenas opened the Emiliano Zapata sugar mill on the grounds of the old hacienda. The municipality was decreed that December. The town's population went from 1,917 in 1940 to nearly 7,000 in 1950 and over 21,000 by 1990; the 2020 census counted about 21,400 at roughly 917 m above sea level. The Nahuatl name is usually read as "on the grass hill", and Hidalgo honours the priest of the 1810 uprising.

The mill still anchors local life, with ups and downs: it went bankrupt in 1991, shed about 70 % of its workforce, and is now run by Grupo Beta San Miguel with around 800 employees. The harvest, or zafra, lasts about seven months from November to May or June and draws field workers from Guerrero, Puebla and Oaxaca. The mill's chimney, seen down a street lined with royal palms, is the town's signature view.

The sugar boom also left a stadium and a football club. The Estadio Agustín "Coruco" Díaz, beside Parque Miguel Hidalgo, holds about 24,400 after its renovation. It is home to the Cañeros de Zacatepec, top-flight champions in 1954-55 and 1957-58, who last played in the first division in May 1985. The Instituto Tecnológico de Zacatepec and the IMSS regional hospital date from the same period.

The patron saint's day is 25 July (Santiago Apóstol), with a fair and fireworks, and the whole town celebrates the Virgin of Guadalupe on 12 December. The climate is hot: about 24 °C on average over the year, with April and May reaching up to 40 °C.