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 and Veracruz. 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 .

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, 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, 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.

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 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.

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." 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 valley, which continues downstream into the state of Guerrero. 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 ecoregion in the Valley.

References

  • 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
  • Tehuacan News Noticias al dia de Tehuacán