Ixtenco Municipality is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

Mexican state The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipaliti ...

in south-eastern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Ixtenco covers a territory of roughly 43.5 km². Apart from the town of

Ixtenco Ixtenco is located in Ixtenco Municipality in the southeast of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. It is a traditional Otomi people, Otomi community, which has conserved its agricultural economic base and various traditions. However, it is one of the p ...

, which is the seat of the local government, the municipality contains only one other community, called Miguel Muñoz León. The municipality borders the municipalities of Huamantla and Trinidad Sánchez Santos, as well as the

State of Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

. The municipal government consists of a municipal president, one syndic and seven representatives called regidors. The terrain sits on an old lava flow which determines the areas soil composition and underground water flows. From its past, the municipality contains the ruins of two major

hacienda An ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or ''finca''), similar to a Roman ''latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), ...

s from the 18th century. The San Antonio Cuauhtla Hacienda is still largely intact, while the San Cristóbal Haciendia is in ruins.

Geography and environment

The municipality is on the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt ( es, Eje Volcánico Transversal), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks h ...

, almost entirely on the lower slopes of volcano

La Malinche Marina or Malintzin ( 1500 – 1529), more popularly known as La Malinche , a Nahua peoples , Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, became known for contributing to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521), by acting as an in ...

with an average altitude of 2500 m

AMSL Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. It is on an old solidified lava flow, which accounts for the area's volcanic soil. About thirty percent of the territory is rugged, mostly in the west and center. The rest of the territory is semi-flat, especially in the northwest and southeast. One notable geographic landmark is Xalapasco hill (2750 m AMSL), a small extinct volcano which contain nine

maar A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow ...

-like craters. Cerro Xalapasco cima

Most of the municipality has a temperate climate with a rainy season in the summer. Average annual temperatures vary between 8-16 °C. The average annual rainfall varies between 600–1100 mm. There is no surface water except for streams that run during the rainy season and a freshwater spring on the side of La Malinche Volcano. Potable water for the municipality comes from this spring and wells. Only vestiges of the area's original

Madrean pine-oak woodlands The Madrean Region (named after the Sierra Madre Occidental) is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom in North America, as delineated by Armen Takhtajan and Robert F. Thorne. It occupies arid or semiarid areas in the southwestern United S ...

and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

survive, mostly on Xalapasco hill and in the extreme west of the municipality. Most of the area is inhabited or otherwise modified by human activity. Little wildlife remains as well but includes

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

rabbits Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit specie ...

, squirrels,

opossum Opossums () are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia () endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 93 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North ...

s, skunks, as well as multiple

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s. Urbanization of the area has led to problems with garbage and water pollution, but the most serious issue is soil erosion due to

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

and

overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature res ...

. There have been reforestation efforts, mostly

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

species, but these have not been sufficient to stop further environmental damage from unchecked running water and wind coming down from La Malinche.

References

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