Cuapiaxtla de Madero

Cuapiaxtla de Madero lives off irrigation. The town sits in the middle of the Tepeaca valley, a plain of limestone soils that also holds marble deposits, and the main Valsequillo canal, one of the key channels of the valley's irrigation system, runs through the municipality. Nearly all the land is farmed. The seat has grown quickly, from 1,072 people in 1900 to 3,300 in 1980 and 8,241 at the 2020 census.

The name comes from Nahuatl and translates as "where there are many tall trees". It was a Nahua town within the domain of Tepeaca; by 1522 it was under Spanish control, and at the end of the colonial period it belonged to the Tepeaca district. It became a separate municipality by decree on 30 September 1935, adding "de Madero" in honour of Francisco I. Madero.

In the centre stands the parish church of Santa Catarina, built in the 16th century. Her feast on 25 November brings Masses, processions, fireworks towers, brass bands and the Tecuanis and Doce Pares de Francia dances. Around the town are old hacienda and ranch buildings with colonial façades: Santa Catarina La Noria, Torija and San Mauricio.

Household crafts include palm and reed weaving, knitting, crochet, tatting (frivolité), beadwork and bread-dough flowers. For food, the municipal profile lists mole de caderas y espinazo, tlaxcales, chileatole and pit-roasted barbacoa, plus peach, tejocote and apple preserves. About 3 km away is Miguel Negrete, an auxiliary town of the same municipality.