Acatlán de Osorio

Acatlán de Osorio goes by the nickname Pearl of the Mixteca. One of the largest towns in Puebla's Mixteca region, it is the seat of Acatlán municipality, close to the Oaxaca line at about 1,200 m, and had 19,341 people in 2020. The Nahuatl name means "among the reeds", from ácatl, reed, though the Mixtec founders called it Yucuyuxi or Tizaa. Osorio honours a republican colonel killed fighting the conservatives at Loma del Comal on 22 May 1861.

In the Classic period it was a centre of the Ñuiñe culture, makers of the ceramic "little colossal heads". Moctezuma I conquered it in 1445 and made it the head of a strategic Aztec province that sent cloth and rabbit skins to Tenochtitlan; salt and cochineal were its local products. Dominican friars arrived in the mid-16th century. An earthquake levelled the old town in August 1711, the present town was founded on 6 January 1712, and it became a city on 3 April 1883. Morelos, Matamoros and Guerrero passed through in December 1813, and in 1816 Guerrero fought royalist troops in the Cañada de los Naranjos.

Clay is what Acatlán is known for. Potters long made unglazed toys, and in the 20th century Herón Martínez Mendoza (1918-1990) pushed the craft toward large sculpted pieces. Workshops now turn out trees of life whose branches spring from a bird's back, iguana- or crab-shaped candle holders, and burnished ware in red and black.

Neighbourhood fiestas are danced with tecuanis: Saint John the Baptist, the parish patron, on 24 June; the Virgen de las Nieves on 5 August; San Miguel on 29 September; and San Rafael on 24 October, when tecuan troupes come from Mexico City and the State of Mexico. The big fair is at Holy Week, with horse races, cockfights and a staging of the crucifixion. Local dishes include mole, tamales, chilates with tempezquixtles, peanut brittle and jamoncillo.