"By faith and hope" , , image_map = , mapsize = 300 px , map_caption = Location of Tehuacán within the state of Puebla. , image_map1 = Puebla en México.svg , mapsize1 = 300 px , map_caption1 = State of Puebla within Mexico , coordinates = , image_dot_map = , dot_mapsize = , dot_map_caption = , dot_x = , dot_y = , pushpin_map = Mexico , pushpin_label_position = above , pushpin_mapsize = 300 px , pushpin_map_caption = , pushpin_label = Tehuacán , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 =

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

, subdivision_name1 = Puebla , subdivision_type2 = , subdivision_name2 = , government_footnotes = , government_type = , leader_title =

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

, leader_name = Andrés Artemio Caballero López , leader_title1 = , leader_name1 = , leader_title2 = , leader_name2 = , established_title = Founded , established_date = 15th century , established_title2 = Erected , established_date2 = March 16, 1660 , area_magnitude = , unit_pref = , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = 553.57 , area_land_km2 = , area_water_km2 = , area_total_sq_mi = , area_land_sq_mi = , area_water_sq_mi = , area_water_percent = , area_urban_km2 = 27.83 , area_urban_sq_mi = , area_metro_km2 = , area_metro_sq_mi = , area_blank1_title = , area_blank1_km2 = , area_blank1_sq_mi = , population_as_of = 2010 , population_footnotes = , population_note = , population_total = 274906 , population_density_km2 = , population_density_sq_mi = , population_blank1_title = Seat , population_blank1 = , population_blank2_title = , population_blank2 = , population_density_blank1_km2 = 668 , population_density_blank1_sq_mi = , timezone = Central (US Central) , utc_offset = -6 , timezone_DST = Central , utc_offset_DST = -5 , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 1600 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = Postal code (of seat) , postal_code = 75710 , area_code = 238 , blank_name = , blank_info = , blank1_name = Demonym , blank1_info = Tehuacanero , website = , footnotes = Tehuacán () is the second largest city in the Mexican state of Puebla, nestled in the southeast of the valley of Tehuacán, bordering the states of

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

and

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

. The 2010 census reported a population of 248,716 in the city and 274,906 in the surrounding

Tehuacán municipality "By faith and hope" , , image_map = , mapsize = 300 px , map_caption = Location of Tehuacán within the state of Puebla. , image_map1 = Puebla en México.svg , mapsize1 = 300 px , ma ...

, of which it serves as municipal seat. The municipality has an area of 390.36 km² (150.72 sq mi).

Culture

Originally a Native American settlement, it became officially a city in the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1660. Tehuacan is known for hosting many diverse festivals that celebrate traditions and costumes earned through the years from the ancient natives. One of the most recognized festival in the last 15 years is the Festival Internacional de Tehuacán 1660 which celebrates the artistic and cultural backgrounds of the city. In the late nineteenth century, the city was well known for its

mineral springs Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produces hard water, water that contains dissolved minerals. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage under ...

. In fact, Peñafiel (now owned by

Cadbury Schweppes Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mars ...

), a well-known soft drinks manufacturer, extracts water from these wells for use in their products. Tehuacán also has an important cluster of

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, ...

producers, making the city and its surroundings one of the most important egg-producing regions in Mexico.

Economy

The main economic activity in the Tehuacán valley is poultry production. The municipality is the second largest producer of table eggs in the country with over 25 million layers housed plus a significant production of broilers for chicken meat. Companies that dominate the industry include El Calvario, Mr. Egg, Huevo Tehuacán, PATSA and IMSA. After the NAFTA agreement had been signed, Tehuacán saw a flood of textile maquiladoras established in the city and surrounding areas. These textile factories principally put together blue jeans for export to companies such as

The Gap The Gap may refer to: Places Australia * The Gap, New South Wales, a locality near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales * The Gap, Northern Territory, a suburb of Alice Springs, Northern Territory * The Gap, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland ...

, Guess,

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

, and JC Penney. At the height of the maquila (short for maquiladora) boom, there were an estimated number of more than 700 maquilas in town, including those that were operating from homes, often in secret. While this situation created a negative unemployment (zero unemployment) and the maquilas sought workers as far away as

Orizaba Orizaba () is a city and municipality in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is located 20 km west of its sister city Córdoba, and is adjacent to Río Blanco and Ixtaczoquitlán, on Federal Highways 180 and 190. The city had a 2005 census ...

and Córdoba in the neighboring state of

, it also created an urban and environmental nightmare. In one decade, Tehuacán went from being a town of 150,000 inhabitants to a city of 360,000. Although many maquilas have closed today, in 2007 there were still over 700 of them found in Tehuacán.

Geography

Tehuacán is located in the southeastern part of Mexico. Northern bordering cities are Tepanco de López, Santiago Miahuatlán, Vicente Guerrero y Nicolás Bravo; Eastern Vicente Guerrero, San Antonio Cañada y Ajalpan; Southern San Gabriel Chilac, Zapotitlán, San Antonio Texcala y Altepexi; and Western Zapotitlán, San Martín Atexcal, Juan N. Méndez y Tepanco de López. The city of Tehuacán has a population of 248,716 with a geographical weather of 19 degrees Celsius most of the year. Tehuacan is an important territory known as the Tehuacán Valley with a diverse ecosystem. Another important geographical factor to consider about the region of

and Tehuacán valley is the telluric area where the city is located. Tehuacán is surrounded by the Neovolcanic Axis that covers the states of

Nayarit Nayarit (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit), is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its ...

, Jalisco,

Colima Colima (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Colima ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Colima), is one of the 31 states that make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima. Colima i ...

, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Querétaro,

México 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 Guatem ...

Hidalgo Hidalgo may refer to: People * Hidalgo (nobility), members of the Spanish nobility * Hidalgo (surname) Places Mexico * Hidalgo (state), in central Mexico * Hidalgo, Coahuila, a town in the north Mexican state of Coahuila * Hidalgo, Nuevo Le� ...

, Morelos,

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 ...

, Puebla and

. This Axis connects the main active volcanoes of the region and because of this volcanic activity the city presents continuous movements of Earth, specially during summer and spring seasons. Tehuacan Valley presents a high diversity of plant and animal species, especially the

Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán biosphere reserve is a protected natural area located in southeastern Mexico. Its name derives from its two main locations: Cuicatlán and Tehuacán, in the latter are their administrative offices, covers 490,186 hectares d ...

located 30 minutes southwest from Tehuacán, that belongs to the city and protects 200

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

species, most of them endangered types.

Tourism

Tehuacan offers a diversity of attractions, from outside activities to historical places and museums that keep years of history not just from the region but from ancient times and establishment of the Mexican Republic. The most popular places to visit are: Peñafiel and Garci Crespo Natural Springs Underground galleries that are the production facilities for the famous mineral water known as “Agua Tehuacan”. This is part of a natural process as a result of snow melting from the volcanoes which contain a high level of minerals, making it bubbly. The Ex-Convent of San Francisco is a 16th-century monastic complex that was used as the house of one of the most renowned schools of Latin in the New Spain. The architecture and history printed on its walls painting shows the transition from one period of history to another. The Museum of Mineralogy is a museum that has a private collection from Don Miguel Romero, one of the most recognized figures from Tehuacan city that donated important art and scientific pieces such as moonstones, fossil minerals and meteorites given as presents and others found in the Tehuacan Valley region during diverse explorations through the times. The

Cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

Botanical Garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

is located 30 minutes away from the city at the south area of the Tehuacan Valley and it preserves more than 200 cactus species in all the area, making it the biggest diversity ecosystem around the world.

Religion

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

is the most predominant

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

in Tehuacán. On

September September is the ninth month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the third of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the fourth of five months to have a length of fewer than 31 days. September in the Northern H ...

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

, The Diocese of Tehuacán was created, whose headquarters is the

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

of Tehuacán, which is dedicated to "The Lady of the Immaculate Conception and Cave.". The Diocese of Tehuacán is located in the southeast of the State of Puebla, an area of 6294 km² with a population of 1 008 621 inhabitants, of which 928 317 inhabitants. they are

catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. In Tehuacán there are also important Christian groups of evangelicals and Jehovah's Witnesses, in addition to other Protestant sects. There is also a minority of

Messianic Jews Messianic Judaism ( he, or , ) is a modernist and syncretic movement of Protestant Christianity that incorporates some elements of Judaism and other Jewish traditions into evangelicalism. It emerged in the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier ...

, although to a lesser degree there are groups that declare themselves not practicing any

Archaeology

The transition from nomadic hunting and gathering to a settled, agricultural way of life in Tehuacan valley has been the subject of extensive study. The valley was home to the Tehuacán culture (5000 BCE–2300 BCE). Archaeologist

Richard MacNeish Richard Stockton MacNeish (April 29, 1918 – January 16, 2001), known to many as "Scotty", was an American archaeologist. His fieldwork revolutionized the understanding of the development of agriculture in the New World and the prehistory of se ...

with his collaborators conducted a large-scale reconnaissance and excavation project in Tehuacán that was carried out between 1960 and 1965. MacNeish and his team tested 15 caves, then concentrated on 6 named El Riego, Tecorral, San Marcos, Purrón, Abejas, and Coxcatlán.KENT V. FLANNERY AND JOYCE MARCUS
RICHARD STOCKTON MACNEISH 1918-2001 -- A Biographical Memoir (PDF)
The National Academy of Sciences, 2001 The results were published in a five volume edited series, and attracted much attention. "MacNeish found that a Late Archaic complex of stone bowls was followed by Mexico’s first pottery. Named for Purrón Cave, where they first appeared, these monochrome

Mexican ceramics Ceramics in Mexico date back thousands of years before the Pre-Columbian period, when ceramic arts and pottery crafts developed with the first advanced civilizations and cultures of Mesoamerica. With one exception, pre-Hispanic wares were not gl ...

resembled (and briefly coexisted with) the stone bowls."

Maize domestication

Historically, the Valley of Tehuacán is important to the whole of Mexico, as the most ancient forms of cultivated

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

known were found here by archeologists. According to the MacNeish (MacNeish, 1981, 1985), the Valley of Tehuacán was the first place maize was ever cultivated by humankind. He arrived at this conclusion when he found over 10,000 teosinte cobs in what is now known as the Coxcatlan Cave. What he found were actually halfway between maize and teosinte—corncobs the size of a cigarette filter. Later, in 1989, his work was re-evaluated and confirmed. Zea mays samples from Cueva San Marcos and from Cueva Coxcatlan in Tehuacan neighborhood had been tested. The oldest dates were 4700 BP (uncalibrated) or 3600 BC (calibrated). These sites are located in the

Balsas River The Balsas River (Spanish Río Balsas, also locally known as the Mezcala River, or Atoyac River) is a major river of south-central Mexico. The basin flows through the states of Guerrero, México, Morelos, and Puebla. Downstream of Ciudad Alta ...

valley, which continues downstream into the

Guerrero Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...

state. There are also very early maize sites there, which more recently attracted attention. More recent evidence supports Balsas River valley as the first place in the world where maize was first domesticated about 9000 years ago. The so-called "Balsas teosinte", now considered to be the direct predecessor of maize, grows mostly in the middle part of the Balsas valley at this time. In the past, it may have grown in other parts of this valley, depending on

palaeoclimatology Paleoclimatology (British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the study of climates for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to ...

studies. The recent debate among scientists was where exactly in the Balsas River valley this type of teosinte (''Zea mays ssp. parviglumis'') grew.

Notable residents

* Agnés Torres Hernández, psychologist, researcher, and transgender activist, born in Tehuacán

References

External links

Diving Destiny
Circle of Blue tells the story of one Tehuacán Valley community's response to Mexico's worst water crisis in decades.
Tehuacán municipal government
Official website (Spanish)
Tehuacán, Puebla Information
Tehuacán, Puebla Information (Spanish)
tehuacan.com.mx, El Portal de la Ciudad
tehuacan.com.mx, El Portal de la Ciudad. Directorio Empresarial en Línea

Noticias al dia de Tehuacán {{DEFAULTSORT:Tehuacan Lost ancient cities and towns Populated places in Puebla Archaeological sites in Puebla Early agriculture in Mesoamerica