San Buenaventura Nealtican

Some 2,100 years ago an eruption of Popocatépetl left a sheet of volcanic rock at this town's doorstep: the Nealtican malpaís, which runs along the whole southern edge of the municipality even though most of it now lies in Tianguismanalco. That stone shaped local life early on. From the 5th century there was an Olmeca-Xicalanca presence here, and the Nealtican, San Nicolás de los Ranchos and Xalitzintla area traded rock from the lava field to make tools such as molcajetes. Stone is still quarried along the edges of the flow today. San Buenaventura Nealtican, the municipal seat, had 13,243 inhabitants in 2020 and sits at 2,231 metres on the western side of the Puebla-Tlaxcala valley.

The name comes from Nahuatl and translates as "place where I bathe", from neh (I), altia (to bathe) and -can (place). Repeated eruptions pushed the first settlers toward safer ground such as Cholula; later Nahua groups resettled the area and the town ended up paying tribute to Mexico-Tenochtitlan. After the Conquest the Franciscan Bonaventure (Buenaventura de Fidanza) was named its patron, and his parish church was completed in 1739. After Independence it belonged to the district of Atlixco; it became a municipality on 8 April 1920 and a free municipality in 1930. The territory covers 62.5 km² and borders Calpan, San Jerónimo Tecuanipan, Tianguismanalco and San Nicolás de los Ranchos.

The land slopes gently down to the east, toward Cholula and Puebla, and climbs to the west, toward the Paso de Cortés and the two volcanoes. Its only notable hills are Xaltepec (2,320 m) and Teotón (2,590 m), and together with the edges of the lava field along the Xalapexco river they hold the only woodland. Two year-round rivers, the Atlanepantla and the Ajalanti, flow through it as part of the Atoyac basin. Two thirds of the land is farmed, mostly in small rain-fed plots; irrigated fields grow flowers and vegetables. Besides quarrying, people make concrete blocks and ceiling blocks, and in recent decades many music groups have sprung up here, mariachi bands above all.