San Francisco Ocotlán

On the hills of Ocotlán, on 8 March 1856, a battle was fought that heralded the War of Reform. Conservatives who had risen up in Zacapoaxtla, led by Puebla's Antonio de Haro y Tamariz with commanders such as Miguel Miramón and Luis G. Osollo, had seized Puebla city to the cry of "religion and privileges". President Ignacio Comonfort gathered some 12,000 troops and reached San Martín Texmelucan on 1 March, and to keep him from attacking the city the rebels marched out to meet him at Ocotlán. Fighting began at 8 am; government troops gained the upper hand, and though Haro asked for a parley and then pulled back, the revolt ended with the surrender of 23 March.

Today San Francisco Ocotlán is an auxiliary town of Coronango, about 15 km north-west of central Puebla, in the Puebla–Tlaxcala metropolitan area. It had 15,943 people in 2020 and stands at about 2,200 m; it is said that, along with San Miguel Xoxtla, it once belonged to Tlaltenango.

Coronango is a small, almost flat municipality, about 37 km² between 2,180 and 2,200 m, where built-up land now covers more than half the territory. The Prieto River crosses it, with springs such as Axoyocaxtla and Agua Santa, and irrigation canals such as the Tlapalac feed the Atoyac. People here make baskets of otate root and straw, bricks and roof tiles; they eat pinole, masa and bean tamales, squash sweets and preserves of perón apple, pear, tejocote and chayote, with rice atole.