San Sebastián Zinacatepec

Tzinácatl, bat, and tépetl, hill: Zinacatepec means hill of the bats. San Sebastián Zinacatepec, the main town and seat of the municipal council, had 17,918 residents in 2020 and sits at just 1,128 metres, at the far southeastern end of the Tehuacán Valley, right where the first slopes of the Sierra Negra rise. The city of Tehuacán is about 21 km away in a straight line and the state capital 128 km; to the southeast, across the line in Oaxaca, Huautla de Jiménez is some 47 km off. Its big celebration is for Saint Sebastian the martyr on 20 January, with regional sweets, dances and fairground rides.

The municipality covers almost 87 km² and borders Ajalpan, Coxcatlán, San José Miahuatlán and Altepexi. The land rises to the east toward Cerro Colorado and belongs to the Papaloapan basin: the Tehuacán River runs along the west and the Comulco flows all year. Nearly the whole territory is dry and very hot, with averages of 20 to 24 °C and only 300 to 500 mm of rain. More than half is farmed, mainly corn, tomatoes, squash, onions, zapote and some sugarcane; the rest is scrub, low tropical forest and grassland, and the southeastern part lies inside the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve. Besides fields and raising pigs, cattle and poultry, the town has a textile industry.

The main church has a Latin-cross plan, a ribbed dome and pendentives painted with the four evangelists, plus a neoclassical altarpiece with Ionic columns whose central tabernacle holds the patron's image. In front, the Parque de la Revolución offers shade under jacarandas. The Iglesia del Cerrito, on a low hill, honours the Señor de las Agonías on the fourth Friday of Lent, and the Zentlapatl neighbourhood celebrates the Sacred Heart in June. Outside the centre is La Ciénaga, semi-thermal springs with a marshy look where mojarra, carp and a catfish locals call xiobilli breed, along with turtles and iguanas; and El Coyotzin, a cave from which an irrigation channel emerges, good for camping. The kitchen is known for coletho, a goat stew with cabbage, chickpeas, saffron, backbone and dried meat, as well as turkey mole, fresh-corn tlaxcales and clay-oven bread; palm and reed are woven by hand.