Milpa Alta is a borough (demarcación territorial) in Mexico City. It lies in the southeast corner of the nation's capital, bordering the State of Mexico and Morelos. It is the least populated, second largest and most rural of all the boroughs. It is also one of the most traditional areas of the city, with over 700 religious and secular festivals during the year and an economy based on agriculture and food processing, especially the production of nopal cactus, barbacoa and mole sauce.
Geography
thumb|left|250px|Overlooking San Pedro Atocpan
thumb|left|250px|View of the Teuhtli volcano
The borough of Milpa Alta is located in the southeast of Mexico City bordering the boroughs of Xochimilco, Tláhuac and Tlalpan, with the state of Morelos to the south and the State of Mexico to the west. It has the second largest territorial extension after Tlalpan, occupying 268.6km2.
The terrain is rugged mostly consisting of volcanic peak along with some small flat areas mostly formed in the Cenozoic Era.
It has an average altitude of 2,420 meters above sea level with altitudes varying between 2,300 and 3,600. The main elevations are volcanic and include Cuautzin (3,510), Tulmiac, Ocusacayo (3,220), La Comalera (3,230), San Bartolo (3,200), Tláloc (3,510), Chichinautzin (3,470), Yecahuazac, Quimixtepec, El Oclayuca (3,140), El Pajonal (3,100), El Ocotécatl (3,480), Acopiaxco (3,320), Tetzacoatl (3,310), Tehutli (2,800) Cilcuayo (3,580), Nepanapa (3,460), Texalo (3,560), Oclayuca (3,390), San Miguel (2,988) .
The area has a number of species found nowhere else. The natural vegetation is mostly forest with a mix of pine, oyamel fir and holm oak, with some concentrations of Abies religiosa. The most intact forest is found in the small canyons of the Nepanapa volcano and the west side of the Tláloc volcano. Other vegetation include fruit trees such as tejocote (Crataegus pubescens), capulin (Prunus serotona ssp capulli) blackberry (Rubus adenotrichus) and well as various scrubs, grass and flowers. The rugged terrain presents a number of micro climates which favor certain species. Depending on conditions oak, cedar, strawberry trees (Arbutus), pirul (Schinus molle), tepozan (Buddleja cordata), nopal cactus and maguey can be found. Main communities in the borough include San Pedro Atocpan, Villa Milpa Alta (formerly called Malacachtepec), San Bartolome Xicomulco, San Francisco Tecoxpa, Santa Ana Tlacotenco, San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan, San Juan Tepanahuac, San Agustin Ohtenco, San Antonio Tecómitl, San Pablo Oztotepec and San Jerónimo Miacantla.
Demographics and culture
thumb|Mole stand at the Feria de Mole in San Pedro Atocpan
thumb|Day of the Dead at the Tecomitl cemetery
thumb|Sky lantern and hot air balloons at the Feria de Cantolla
With a population of 152,685 , About half of the borough’s residents live in or near Villa Milpa Alta and about eighty percent are under forty.
The borough contains a number of towns and localities. Those considered by the government to be urban (with 2010 population figures in parentheses) are: San Antonio Tecómitl (24,397), Villa Milpa Alta (18,274), San Pablo Oztotepec (15,507), San Salvador Cuauhtenco (13,856), San Francisco Tecoxpa (11,456), Santa Ana Tlacotenco (10,593), San Pedro Atocpan (8,283), San Bartolomé Xicomulco (4,340), San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan (3,676), and San Nicolás Tetelco (3,490). In addition, there are approximately 250 rural settlements with populations each of less than 1,000. Its one of the few places left in the city with Nahuatl speaking communities, with 4,007 people speaking an indigenous language . with the most concentrated in the towns of Santa Ana Tlacotenco, San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan and San Pablo Oztotepec. Ethnic Nahuas are found in all of the borough’s main towns. Each community in the borough, including the twelve main towns and each of these towns’ neighborhoods has a patron saint celebrated once a year. Holy Week is very important in the borough, especially the Passion Play held each year to reenact the passion and death of Jesus. The event involves over sixty actors, all residents of the borough chosen yearly. The current tradition was started in 1905, although it was suspended during the Mexican Revolution. The scenes of the play are enacted in several locations. Palm Sunday in San Agustin el Alto, the Asunción parish to the main church in Villa Milpa Alta for Good Friday .
Secular events include the Festival of Corn and Pulque in San Antonio Tecomitl in September, Feria de la Nieve (Ice Cream Fair) in San Antonio Tecomitl in March, Feria Ganadera, Gastronómica y Artesanal (Livestock, Gastronomy and Handcraft Fair) in San Pablo Ozotepec in April, the Festival de Juegos Autóctonos celebrating native toys in San Juan Tapanáhuac, and the entire borough celebrates the founding of Villa Milpa Alta on 22 August with a Regional fair and lighting of a New Fire in the crater of the Teutli volcano. In 2012, this event celebrated the town’s 480th anniversary.
History
The name Milpa Alta means “high cornfield.” “Alta” means high in Spanish and “milpa” is a Mexican Spanish word from Nahuatl referring to cornfields interspersed with other crops such as squash and maguey. In 1903, the Federal District of Mexico City was expanded to include the rest of Milpa Alta.
Reorganization of the Federal District of Mexico City created the modern borough, with the government in Villa Milpa Alta in 1929.
Socioeconomics
Milpa Alta is officially classed as one of the poorest in the Federal District by income, with 48.6% considered to be below the poverty line. However it is also considered to have a low level of socioeconomic marginalization. The most important barbacoa producing area is Barrio San Mateo in Villa Milpa Alta.
Even more important is the creation of pastes and powders to make mole sauce. These are created from the grinding and blending of twenty or more ingredients, which always include a variety of chili peppers. The mole sauces made are of various types such as rojo, verde, almendrado and about twenty others with trademarks. The Feria Nacional del Mole occurs each year in San Pedro Atocpan in October and receives thousands of visitors to the festival site as well as the forty restaurants in the town that serve meats in mole sauce. It also hosts an annual Pantomime, Clown and Circus Festival sponsored by the city’s secretary of culture. The purpose of the event is to promote the circus arts.
Public high schools of the Instituto de Educación Media Superior del Distrito Federal (IEMS) include:
- Escuela Preparatoria Milpa Alta "Emiliano Zapata"
The Otilio Montaño Library is in Tlacoyucan.
Transportation
Public transportation includes thirteen major bus route connecting the borough to Metro Tasqueña, Metro Tlahuac, the Central de Abastos, La Merced Market, Xochimilco and Santa Martha Acatitla, along with 23 smaller routes which are operated by private contractors. It takes about two hours by public transportation to travel from the center of Mexico City to Villa Milpa Alta. It can take up to three if traffic is bad, but lately, the subway made close Milpa Alta to the rest of the city via Tecomitl. to early 1991.
Most of the borough is accessible by road. This has facilitated problems such as illegal logging and irregular homesteading. The main access roads to the borough are the federal highway connecting the south of the city with Oaxtepec in Morelos, the highway connecting San Pablo-Xochimilco and the Tulyehualco-Milpa Alta road.
La Casona is one of the most important civil buildings in Milpa Alta both because of its construction and because of its history. It was constructed at the end of the 19th century and was the home of Rafael Coronel. Another important structure is the former headquarters of the Liberation Army of the South, now a museum.