Toluca

This Toluca is not the capital of the State of Mexico but a hamlet of 301 people (2020) in Atzitzintla, Puebla, at the eastern edge of the state. At about 2,500 m it is the municipality's lowest point, on the plateau of the Llanos de San Andrés; the photo shows the village bridge, surrounded by woods. Orizaba, across the line in Veracruz, is about 16 km away.

Atzitzintla, "little water below", from atl, water, and tzintli, small or beneath, covers about 94 km² in the transition from the plains to the slopes of Citlaltépetl, Mexico's highest mountain. To the north the municipality climbs the flanks of Sierra Negra and Pico de Orizaba to 3,160 m at Chichipica. It was founded by Nahua groups, though there are traces of settlement from the Middle Preclassic; it depended on San Andrés Chalchicomula until 1895. To the east it borders the Veracruz municipalities of La Perla, Mariano Escobedo and Maltrata.

The Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano was built in its territory, on the summit of Sierra Negra, and inaugurated on 22 November 2006 by INAOE and the University of Massachusetts. The climate ranges from temperate to cold, averaging 2 to 16 °C, and water flows to the Blanco River and the Papaloapan. Local cooking includes mole poblano, green pipián, rabbit in adobo, pit barbacoa and mixiotes, with pulque.