Tepeyahualco de Cuauhtémoc

The name is explained by the landscape in the photo: tepetl, hill, yahualtic, round thing or ring, and co, in; that is, "in the round of the hills". Tepeyahualco de Cuauhtémoc sits in a gently sloping valley ringed by tuff hills, at 1,936 metres, and had 2,966 residents in 2020. It is the seat of a tiny municipality of just 15 km², tucked between Tochtepec and Huitziltepec, which wrap around it on every side; it lies in the centre of the state, some 42 km in a straight line from the capital.

It was founded by Nahua groups in pre-Hispanic times. In the 19th century it belonged to the old district of Tecali, and in 1930 it broke away to become a free municipality. Its oldest building is the parish church dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, built in the 16th century. At festivals, the same source says, women dress as china poblana and men as charros.

This is farming country: seven in ten hectares are planted and the rest is scrub, grassland and houses. The soils are mostly phaeozem, dark and fertile, and water runs in a seasonal stream, the Tlanunatl, part of the Atoyac basin. The climate is mild and fairly dry, averaging 16 to 18 °C with only 600 to 700 mm of rain a year. Some people carve wood for building. In the kitchen there is mole poblano, pipián and tamales of plain masa, beans or sweet filling, preserves of tejocote, apple and peach, and to drink pulque, chocolate and atole.