Tepeojuma

Tepeojuma joins three Nahuatl words: tepetl, hill, xoxouhqui, turquoise or deep green, and maitl, beside: "beside the blue hill". The town, with 5,147 people in 2020, is the seat of a municipality of about 133 km² in the Matamoros valley in the south-west of the state, at about 1,480 m between Atlixco, 21 km away, and Izúcar de Matamoros.

The church of San Cristóbal was built in the 16th century. Every year on the first Friday of Lent the town holds its fair for Nuestro Padre Jesús de las Tres Caídas, and it also venerates Nuestra Madre Santísima del Tránsito, a colonial image. The centre has a half-century-old main square and statues of Irineo Vázquez Castillo and of Emiliano Zapata, the latter at the entrance to the municipality.

The climate is semi-warm, averaging 19 to 23 °C with summer rain. The Nexapa River crosses it, and almost half the land is still dry forest. Craftspeople weave palm and make reed baskets, chiquihuites, mats and fire fans; the kitchen offers mole poblano, stews in clay pots, pit barbacoa and bean tamales, and Zoyatla distils mezcal and aguardiente. A dirt road leads to the Ahuehuetes watering hole in a dry corner of the municipality.