Zimatlán de Álvarez

Zimatlán de Álvarez is the seat of the municipality of Zimatlán, not of Ciénega de Zimatlán, which is a separate neighbouring municipality. It lies in the Central Valleys at about 1,496 m and had 14,226 residents in 2020. The name comes from Nahuatl and means "place of roots"; Álvarez honours the independence figure Juan N. Álvarez. In Zapotec it was called Guihuio and earlier Tepetcimatlan.

Tradition says the town was founded in 1558 on the initiative of Bishop Fray Bernardo de Alburquerque. In 1868 a decree renamed it Villa Álvarez and granted an annual five-day fair, 18 to 23 January. The central plaza has a kiosk, a monument to Porfirio Díaz from 1910, fountains and the stepped churchyard; the iron market was imported from England in 1910. The earthquakes of 1931 and 1999 damaged the cemetery chapel, the market and the municipal palace.

Trade was strong until trucks arrived in 1925; today the economy mixes farming, commerce and services, and remittances count for a great deal. Local food includes barbacoa de borrego, cooked underground, and handmade tortillas. The area once had a branch of the Teruel railway, and the road was later built along that route to join the Ocotlán highway. The climate is much like Oaxaca city's.