Tenango del Aire 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 ...
located in the southeast portion of the
State of Mexico and is about 42 km southeast of
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
. The municipal seat is the town of Tenango del Aire. The municipality is bordered by
Temamatla,
Tlalmanalco
Tlalmanalco is a municipality located in the far south-eastern part of the State of Mexico. The municipal seat and second largest town in the municipality is the town of Tlalmanalco de Velázquez The name is from the Nahuatl language, meaning “f ...
,
Juchitepec, and
Ayapango
Ayapango is one of 125 municipalities located in the southeast portion of the State of Mexico, southeast of Mexico City. It's municipal seat and largest town is Ayapango de Gabriel Ramos Millán. Despite the fact that this municipality is distinc ...
.
Despite the fact that this municipality is distinctly rural, it falls within the
Mexico City Metropolitan Area
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 ...
.
The name “Tenango del Aire” came about in two parts. Originally and until 1890, the town was known as Tenango de Topopula. “Tenango” means “walled in” or “fenced by stones.” The second part is due to visits by President
Porfirio Diaz Porfirio is a given name in Spanish, derived from the Greek Porphyry (''porphyrios'' "purple-clad").
It can refer to:
* Porfirio Salinas – Mexican-American artist
* Porfirio Armando Betancourt – Honduran football player
* Porfirio Barba-Jac ...
, who commented on the winds that are prevalent here. “del Aire” means “of the air.”
The town
History
In 1162, a subgroup of
Chichimeca
Chichimeca () is the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who were established in present-day Bajio region of Mexico. Chichimeca carried the meaning as the Roman term "barbarian" that d ...
s called the Teotenancas (Old Tenancas), entered the Valley of Chalco, conquering nearby Amecameca 100 years later. The first settlement in this part of the valley was in what is now San Mateo Tepopula, which is near the town. The
Spaniards passed by here on their way to
Tenochtitlan
, ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...
.
![SnJnBAireMX](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/SnJnBAireMX.JPG)
Soon after, in 1521, a number of Tenancas (descendants of the Teotenacas) moved to where the town is now, calling it “Tenanco.” In 1532,
Juan de Zumárraga, the first
Archbishop of Mexico
The Archdiocese of Mexico ( la, Archidioecesis Mexicanensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that is situated in Mexico City, Mexico. It was erected as a diocese on 2 September 1530 and elevated to ...
, ordered the construction of the parish church, called San Juan Bautista (
John the Baptist
John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...
), and called the village here San Juan Tepopula. This term today is used to designate one of the neighborhoods of the town. Eventually, the official name was Tenango de San Juan Bautista Tepopula, then Tenango Tepopula, until the official name changed to what it is now.
Tenango del Aire gained municipality status in 1820, and the current municipal palace was built in 1978.
As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 5,915 people.
Notable sites
The San Juan Bautista Parish and plaza was ordered in 1532 and completed in 1671,
initially run by the
Franciscans
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
.
The
baptistery
In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...
dates to the 18th century and has a
baptismal
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
with reliefs of the
Archangel Michael
Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
and an inscription that dates it to the year 1710.
It contains a sculpture of
Our Lady of the Rosary
Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, is a Marian title.
The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, formerly known as Feast of Our Lady of Victory and Feast of the Holy Rosary is celebrated on 7 October in the General Rom ...
and paintings that depicts souls burning in
Hell, both of which date to the 17th century.
![CasaMaderaAireMX](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/CasaMaderaAireMX.JPG)
The Casa de Madera Museum is a private museum which exhibits the second most important collection of applied arts in Mexico after the
Franz Mayer Museum, according to CONACULTA. The museum's collection is spread out over four buildings with no apparent order and no other infrastructure other than the collection itself. The collection includes thousands of pieces from pre-Hispanic artifacts, religious art from the colonial period, and even modern art by known names, but the majority of the collection is everyday items from the last three centuries.
The Casa de Madera has been likened to visiting a grandparents’ attic. There are portraits from the 1920s, barbers’ implements, kitchens and living rooms packed with old furniture and decorations, old toys, watches, telephones, jars, farming implements, musical instruments and more. There is even a pen capable of shooting a 22 caliber bullet from World War II. The owners, Luis Pastor and Ricardo Flores, have been amassing the collection since the 1970s. The buildings in which the objects are stored are private houses, some areas of which the family still lives. Visitors to the museum are guided by the owners and their family who chat about the pieces as they stroll past. The tour takes about two hours. The museum has received grants from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes and has been open to the public since 1995.
A sports complex was opened here in 2006, with two multipurpose gyms, two
jai alai
Jai alai (: ) is a sport involving bouncing a ball off a walled-in space by accelerating it to high speeds with a hand-held wicker ''cesta''. It is a variation of Basque pelota. The term ''jai alai'', coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also of ...
courts, a soccer field, a playground for children and walking paths.
The municipality
As municipal seat the town of Tenango del Aire is the governing authority for the following communities: San Juan Coxtocan, Santiago Tepopula, Rancho Aculco (El Paraíso), San Luis Aculco, Tecuatitla (Colonia Nueva Tecuatitla), Rancho el Paredón, Cerro de las Campanas, Rutilo Herrera, El Pedregal (Teotoxtipan), Rancho Chavarría (Paraje Puerta), Tecorral, Tlatelpa, Rancho San Isidro Labrador (El Piaje), Rancho Saturnino (Tepalcapa), Tres Platos, La Casa del Puente, Colonia el Mirador and Barrio San Miguel (Las Espinas).
The municipality has a territory of 38.09 km2.
and a total population of 10,578 inhabitants at the 2010 census. It is the second-least populous municipality that borders Mexico City (the Distrito Federal) directly (following
Tlalnepantla Municipality in the State of
Morelos).
Lying in a region of old lakebeds and ash from the nearby volcano of
Popocatepetl, the land here is fertile. The highest elevation is the Tezoyuca Mountain with other notable elevations such as Cuajoma, Zoceyuca and Xaltepec Mountains. These and others cover about 40% of the municipality's territory. There is one river here called the Apotzonalco, but it only flows during the rainy season as do a number of arroyos. However, there are a number of underground water resources, which supply the municipality with potable water.
Most of the residents of the municipality earn a living through farming and/or livestock raising, producing corn, cattle and domestic fowl. Some fruit, principally
capulin
''Prunus serotina'', commonly called black cherry,World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the g ...
s,
tejocotes, and peaches are grown. About two-thirds of this is for local consumption. There is little industry and commerce here. What is here is limited to the needs of the farming community.
About six kilometers north of the municipal seat is the Chucoatl Ceremonial Center, which is located on an ejido. It is an archeological site with
petroglyphs, a stone serpent's head and an etched hydraulic map. The serpent's head is placed such that, at the solstice, the sun rising over the “neck” of the
Iztaccíhuatl
Iztaccíhuatl (alternative spellings include Ixtaccíhuatl, or either variant spelled without the accent) ( or, as spelled with the x, ), is a dormant volcanic mountain in Mexico located on the border between the State of Mexico and Puebla withi ...
volcano (which resembles a sleeping woman) shines its first rays of light on it. It is thought to have significance with the fertility of the land. Another pre-Hispanic complex is located by the Cuajoma Mountain. The sites have several layers. Some date from the fall of Teotihuacan in 1600 AD to the occupation of the area by Chichimeca tribes in the 13th and 14th centuries. Artifacts found at the surface date from 1400 to 1521 AD.
There is a research site dedicated to investigating atmospheric conditions, in particular the effects of air pollution in nearby Mexico City. It is the only center located to collect data from times when the wind blows south away from the city. In particular,
nitric oxide levels are measured here.
Towns and villages
The largest localities (cities, towns, and villages) are:
2010 census tables: INEGI
References
{{Mexico State
Municipalities of the State of Mexico
Populated places in the State of Mexico