Asunción Ocotlán is a town and

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

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

in south-western

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Etymology

Its name "Asunción" alludes the

assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Catholic Mariology#Dogmatic teachings, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of w ...

and Ocotlán means between ocotes -Oco ( ocote) and tlan (between) in

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

Geography

The municipality covers an area of 12.76 km². It is part of the

Ocotlán District Ocotlán District is located in the south of the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, Valles Centrales Region of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. Municipalities The district includes the following municipalities: * Asunción Ocotlán * Magdalena Ocotlán * O ...

in the south of the Valles Centrales Region. It borders at north and west with Ocotlán de Morelos, south with San Pedro Apóstol and east with San Pedro Mártir. Almost all the lands are plains and its water sources come from the Mijangos and Atoyac rivers. Its economy is based in agriculture in spite of its semi-desert climate.

Demography

As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 3,257. The largest part of population is

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Culture

Asunción Ocotlán's culture is shaped by celebrations, traditions and art. The main celebration is The Assumption of Virgin Mary. As in many small towns or villages, a wedding party tradition is that the couple and their families dance with the presents they have received. Music and crafts are integral parts of the city. Traditional music, called

Banda music Banda is a subgenre of regional Mexican music and type of ensemble in which Wind instrument, wind (mostly Brass instrument, brass) and Percussion instrument, percussion instruments are performed. The history of banda music in Mexico dates from t ...

, is still the most played genre in the area. People make crafts such as baskets with a reed called

Phragmites ''Phragmites'' () is a genus of four species of large perennial plant, perennial reed (plant), reed Poaceae, grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Taxonomy The World Checklist of Selected Plant Famili ...

. Traditional foods include

Mole (sauce) Mole (; from Nahuatl ''mōlli'', ), meaning 'sauce', is a traditional sauce and marinade originally used in Mexican cuisine. In contemporary Mexico the term is used for a number of sauces, some quite dissimilar, including ''mole amarillo'' or '' ...

over a turkey called the

Ocellated Turkey The ocellated turkey (''Meleagris ocellata'') is a species of turkey residing primarily in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, as well as in parts of Belize and Guatemala. A relative of the North American wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo''), it wa ...

and white rice,

barbacoa Barbacoa or Asado en Barbacoa () in Mexico, refers to the local indigenous variation of the method of cooking in a pit or earth oven. It generally refers to slow-cooking meats or whole sheep, whole cows, whole beef heads, or whole goats in a ...

tlayuda Tlayuda (), sometimes spelled clayuda, is a handmade dish in traditional Oaxacan cuisine, consisting of a large, thin, crunchy, partially fried or toasted tortilla covered with a spread of refried beans, ''asiento'' (unrefined pork lard), le ...

s, memelas, and

empanada An empanada is a type of baked or fried turnover (food), turnover consisting of pastry and stuffing, filling, common in Culture of Spain, Spain, other Southern European countries, North African countries, South Asian countries, Latin American c ...

s. Beverages include hot chocolate,

atole ''Atole'' (, believed to come from Nahuatl ''Aztec cuisine, ātōlli'' or from Mayan), also known as ''atolli'', ''atol'' and ''atol de elote'', is a traditional hot masa-based beverage of Mexicans, Mexican origin. Atole can have different flav ...

with chocolate,

tepache Tepache is a fermented beverage made from the peel and the rind of pineapples, and is sweetened either with '' piloncillo'' or brown sugar. It is sometimes seasoned with chili powder and served cold. Tepache is usually sold as a chilled drink by ...

, and

mezcal Mezcal (, ), sometimes spelled mescal, is a liquor, distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of agave. Agaves or magueys are endemic to the Americas and found globally as ornamental plants. The ''Agave'' genus is a member of the Agavoid ...

Infrastructure

Its government takes care of the hospitals, schools, paved roads and others, though not all of the population take advantage of these amenities. There is one preschool, two elementary schools, one middle school, and one hospital. There are 781 houses, most of them are privately owned. 96 percent of people take advantage of street lighting, 70 percent of the cities water, and 10 percent take advantage of the sewer and garbage pickup service. The paved roads connect the town with San Dionisio Ocotlan and

San Pedro Apóstol San Pedro Apóstol is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. The municipality covers an area of km². It is part of the Ocotlán District Ocotlán District is located in the south of the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, Valles Cent ...

. The media channels are local although people can pay to get SKY (a Mexican cable TV company).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asuncion Ocotlan Municipalities of Oaxaca