Santa María Moyotzingo

What looks like a small, overgrown hill in the centre of Moyotzingo is actually the tepematzin, a pyramid base from the Mesoamerican Preclassic. Around it grew one of the most populous towns in the municipality of San Martín Texmelucan: 29,426 people in 2020, at 2,239 m and about 3.8 km south of the city of Texmelucan. On the other side the built-up area of San Jerónimo Tianguismanalco is advancing, and the two are slowly merging. From the México-Puebla highway running beside it you can see Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl, the latter shown in the photo.

The land is a plain sloping gently from northwest to east, part of the Texmelucan valley; the only rises are the hills of San Mateo Ayecac, which mark the eastern boundary and already belong to Tlaxcala. To the north lies San Baltazar Temaxcalac, to the south Santa Ana Xalmimilulco in Huejotzingo, and to the west San Jerónimo Tianguismanalco and San Francisco Tepeyecac. Its fluvisol and gleysol soils suit both rain-fed and irrigated farming and, being firm and well watered, light industry as well.

The municipality, about 71 km², is watered by the Atoyac and its tributaries Ayotla, Cotzalá and Xochiac, which come down from the Sierra Nevada, and holds the largest irrigated area in the Puebla valley; today nearly half its land is farmed and the other half urban. Averages are around 14 to 16 °C with 800 to 1,000 mm of rain, though farmers notice the rains arriving later and later. Texmelucan is known for clay pots and casseroles, and once for carved furniture. Near the seat are the cerritos de Tepatlaxco, a site with nine platform mounds related to Cacaxtla. On the table: mole poblano, barbacoa, muéganos, candied apples, tepache in hot weather and ponche at Christmas.