Petlalcingo

Petlalcingo, seat of its own municipality, sits at the far southern tip of Puebla, right on the Oaxaca line, in the area known as the Lower Mixteca. The name is Nahuatl and roughly means place of little petates, or fine mats, an image carried by the municipal coat of arms. The 2010 census gave the town 2,621 residents, at about 1,360 metres above sea level.

According to the history compiled by Mexico's municipal-development institute, INAFED, the town was founded by Mixtec groups on the slopes of Cerro Petlalcingo, where an extensive lagoon lay. The first settlers channelled the water away until the ground was firm enough for houses, on the spot where the town stands today. It became a free municipality in 1895.

The Sierra Mixteca frames the landscape. To the northeast the hills Calahuate, Xicúi and Santa Rosa mark the boundary with San Jerónimo Xayacatlán and Totoltepec, and to the north opens the small alluvial Acatlán valley. The Petlalcingo river runs through the municipality, a tributary of the Acatlán and part of the Atoyac-Balsas basin. The municipality covers about 234 km² and rises from 1,200 to 2,000 metres; it borders Huajuapan de León and other Oaxacan municipalities. As across much of the Mixteca, many people have emigrated, mostly to the United States, and that shapes everyday life. Among the municipality's other communities are San Pedro Yeloixtlahuaca and El Rosario Micaltepec.