Acatlán de Pérez Figueroa

Acatlán de Pérez Figueroa lies in the far north of Oaxaca, in the Papaloapan region, already on the Gulf coastal plain at about 130 m above sea level. The name comes from Nahuatl and is read as "place of canes" or "among the reeds"; the second part honours General Pérez Figueroa, who fought in the Second French Intervention. According to the municipal history, the first settlers belonged to the Remojadas culture around 2000 BCE, and the free municipality was declared on 24 October 1904. In 1921 a railway with oil-fired locomotives began running here.

The climate is warm, averaging close to 25 °C, and the land lives from it: maize, rice, coffee, fruit trees and above all sugar cane. The Pablo Machado mill, known as La Margarita, is the big local industry; in the 2004-2005 harvest it processed 104,279 tonnes. Its chimney dominates the skyline of a town that had about 6,000 inhabitants at the 2010 census. There is also pig and cattle farming, and cedar and rubber timber.

For a visitor there are few monuments but plenty of water and countryside. In the centre are the Centenario park and a monument to General Pérez Figueroa. About 25 minutes from the centre is Cerro Mojarra (La Capilla), a fishing and leisure area with lodging on the Miguel Alemán (Temazcal) reservoir, and in the rainy season a waterfall forms in the Cañada San Antonio. Near Tetela stand two stone pyramids called El Fortín, abandoned and needing the residents' permission to visit. Trade here points toward Córdoba, Tierra Blanca and Veracruz.