Tepoztlán

People have lived in the Tepoztlán valley for a long time: the oldest pottery found here dates to about 1500 BC. In the Postclassic period a small pyramid was built on a peak above the town to Tepoztēcatl, god of pulque, the fermented drink of the maguey; it carries inscriptions dated 1452 and 1502, and one legend says its idol drew pilgrims from Chiapas and Guatemala. The town's name comes from Nahuatl and is usually translated as "place of abundant copper" or "place of the broken rocks". Local legend makes the nearby village of Amatlán the birthplace of Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl.

Tepoztlán was absorbed into the Aztec Empire under Moctezuma I and fought wars against Cuauhnahuac and Yecapixtla. During the Spanish conquest Hernán Cortés is said to have ordered the town burned when its leaders refused to meet him, as Bernal Díaz del Castillo recorded. Between 1555 and 1580 the Dominicans had the townspeople build a great monastery dedicated to the Virgin of the Nativity, now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the 20th century the town became famous beyond Mexico: the anthropologists Robert and Margaret Redfield lived here in 1926–27 and published a classic study of village life, and the surrealist painter Wolfgang Paalen worked here in the 1950s. Tepoztlán was made a Pueblo Mágico in 2002, lost the title in 2009 and regained it in 2010. The 2017 earthquake destroyed 203 homes in the municipality, and in 2020 a forest fire burned 60 hectares of the hills.

Tepoztlán holds on to its old legends and traditions. Its legends centre on the Tepozteco, a hero said in one version to have been baptised in 1532 and to have defeated the lords of neighbouring towns in debate; the town honours him and its patroness, the Virgin of the Nativity, with a fiesta on 8 September. Each village in the municipality keeps its own feast days, such as St John's day on 24 June in San Juan Tlacotenco and St Catherine's on 24 November in Santa Catalina.

Carnival is the biggest event of the year — the largest in Morelos — running for three days before Ash Wednesday, when chinelos dancers in masks and plumed hats leap through the streets. Crafts and pottery fill the weekend market, and the town has long attracted artists and people seeking alternative ways of life, drawn by the mountains and the valley.

Land here is held communally and cannot simply be bought. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the community blocked the entrances to the town.

The town itself had about 14,000 people at the 2010 census, and the whole municipality about 55,000 in 2020, according to INEGI figures. The municipality borders Mexico City's Milpa Alta borough, one of 17 municipalities that touch the capital. Its villages, among them Amatlán, Santa Catalina and San Juan Tlacotenco, keep their own churches and feast days.

Tourism is now the main source of income, built on the pyramid, the market, the town's traditional atmosphere and its ecological and alternative communities. Farming continues around it — maize, chillies and tomatoes, and livestock — and traditional pottery and handicrafts are made for the weekend market. The national Scout camp school at Meztitla, near the mountain, brings Scouts from around the world.

The rhythm of the week is set by visitors. On weekdays the town is quiet and local; on Saturdays and Sundays day-trippers from Mexico City and Cuernavaca fill the market, the cafés and the trail to the Tepozteco.

Tepoztlán is best known for its ice cream. The town's nieverías, ice-cream makers, offer long lists of exotic flavours, and the local chain Tepoznieves, with several shops around town, lists up to 200, from chocolate to rose petal, fig with mezcal, or carrot with chilli.

The other local signature is mole verde, a green mole based on ground pumpkin seeds, served at fondas and market stalls; mole rojo de guajolote, turkey in red mole made with ancho and guajillo chillies, is another local dish. In the market, cooks turn out tacos, gorditas, thick corn cakes stuffed with fillings, and quesadillas, and tlacoyos and tacos acorazados, a dish from Morelos, are also part of the local kitchen.

The anthropologists who studied the town in the 1920s also published notes on its cooking, an early record of the town's kitchen. Itacates, corn cakes filled with a choice of stews such as chicken tinga, beef or squash blossom, are another local snack.