Tehuacán () is the second largest city in the
Mexican state of
Puebla
Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...
, nestled in the southeast of the
valley of Tehuacán, bordering the states of
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 ...
and
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...
. The 2010 census reported a population of 248,716 in the city and 274,906 in the surrounding
Tehuacán municipality, of which it serves as municipal seat. The municipality has an area of .
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. In fact,
Peñafiel (now owned by
Keurig Dr Pepper), a well-known
soft drinks manufacturer, extracts water from these wells for use in their products. Tehuacán also has an important cluster of
poultry 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,
Guess
Guessing is the act of drawing a swift conclusion, called a guess, from data directly at hand, which is then held as probable or tentative, while the person making the guess (the guesser) admittedly lacks material for a greater degree of certaint ...
,
Old Navy, 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 and
Córdoba in the neighboring state of
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...
, 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
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 ...
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,
Jalisco
Jalisco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in western Mexico and is bordered by s ...
,
Colima,
Michoacán
Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...
,
Guanajuato
Guanajuato, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato, is one of the 32 states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guanajuato, 46 municipalities and its cap ...
,
Querétaro
Querétaro, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Querétaro, 18 municipalities. Its capital city is Querétaro Cit ...
,
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 ...
,
Hidalgo,
Morelos,
Tlaxcala,
Puebla
Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...
and
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...
. 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 located 30 minutes southwest from Tehuacán, that belongs to the city and protects 200
cactus 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 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. is ...
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 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 ...
is the most predominant
religion
Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...
in Tehuacán. On September 1, 1962, The Diocese of Tehuacán was created, whose headquarters is the
Cathedral
A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
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 km
2 with a population of 1 008 621 inhabitants, of which 928 317 inhabitants, are
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 ...
.
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, although to a lesser degree there are groups that declare themselves not practicing any
religion
Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...
.
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 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 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''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...
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
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...
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 valley, which continues downstream into the state of
Guerrero
Guerrero, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guerrero, is one of the 32 states that compose the administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guerrero, 85 municipalities. The stat ...
. 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 studies.
The recent debate among scientists was where exactly in the Balsas River valley this type of teosinte (''Zea mays ssp. parviglumis'') grew.
Notable people
*
Juan Rafael Méndez, professional footballer
*
Agnés Torres Hernández, psychologist, researcher, and transgender activist, born in Tehuacán
See also
*
El Riego phase
*
Abejas Phase
*
Tehuacán Valley matorral — ''
Deserts and xeric shrublands
Deserts and xeric shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Deserts and xeric (Ancient Greek 'dry') shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. Ecoregions in this habitat ...
ecoregion in the Valley.''
References
External links
Diving DestinyCircle of Blue tells the story of one Tehuacán Valley community's response to Mexico's worst water crisis in decades.
Tehuacán municipal governmentOfficial website (Spanish)
Tehuacán, Puebla InformationTehuacán, Puebla Information (Spanish)
tehuacan.com.mx, El Portal de la Ciudadtehuacan.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