Ignacio Zaragoza

Ignacio Zaragoza is a rural locality in the municipality of Hueyotlipan, in western Tlaxcala, at about 2,520 metres above sea level. The 2020 census counted 1,769 people, up from 1,512 in 2010 and 1,382 in 2005, and its population has risen from a low of 141 recorded in 1921. The name honours General Ignacio Zaragoza, a republican officer of the French intervention. It lies about 11 km in a straight line north of Hueyotlipan, the municipal seat, and about 5 km south of Benito Juárez, which is a different municipality.

The landscape is open plateau: low hills such as La Purísima (2,527 m) and Loma Mazatepec to the east, and to the southwest Cerro San Nicolás, almost 3,000 metres high. The climate is cool and fairly dry, with an average annual temperature of 13.6 °C and about 688 mm of rain a year. Around it are tiny ranches and neighbouring settlements such as San Antonio Techalote and La Cruz Techalote, which share with Zaragoza the road linking it to Benito Juárez and San Diego Recoba.

The community church, with two towers, one carrying a clock, and a white façade trimmed in chocolate brown, is its main building. For the municipality, the Enciclopedia de los Municipios records burnished-clay pottery as the craft, with pots, small jugs and incised, painted mole bowls, and San Ildefonso, patron of the seat, as the main feast, starting on 22 January and celebrated on the 23rd. Hueyotlipan also has a history of pulque and haciendas, and the old Mexico–Tlaxcala–Veracruz road ran through its territory.