Ixtenco is a

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' ...

in the

Mexican state A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala, is one of the 32 federal entities that comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Tlaxcala, 60 municipalities and t ...

. Ixtenco covers a territory of roughly 43.5 km². Apart from the town of

Ixtenco Ixtenco is located in Ixtenco Municipality in the southeast of the List of states of Mexico, Mexican state of Tlaxcala. It is a traditional Otomi people, Otomi community, which has conserved its agricultural economic base and various traditions. H ...

, which is the seat of the local government, the municipality contains only one other community, called Miguel Muñoz León. The municipality borders the municipalities of Huamantla and Trinidad Sánchez Santos, as well as the

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-centra ...

. The municipal government consists of a municipal president, one syndic and seven representatives called regidors. The terrain sits on an old lava flow which determines the areas soil composition and underground water flows. From its past, the municipality contains the ruins of two major

hacienda A ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or '' finca''), similar to a Roman '' latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards ...

s from the 18th century. The San Antonio Cuauhtla Hacienda is still largely intact, while the San Cristóbal Haciendia is in ruins.

Geography and environment

The municipality is on the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks have snow all year long, and dur ...

, almost entirely on the lower slopes of volcano

La Malinche Marina () or Malintzin (; 1500 – 1529), more popularly known as La Malinche (), was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who became known for contributing to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521), by acting as an int ...

with an average altitude of 2500 m

AMSL Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

. It is on an old solidified lava flow, which accounts for the area's volcanic soil. About thirty percent of the territory is rugged, mostly in the west and center. The rest of the territory is semi-flat, especially in the northwest and southeast. One notable geographic landmark is Xalapasco hill (2750 m AMSL), a small extinct volcano which contain nine

maar A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow ...

-like craters. Cerro Xalapasco cima

Most of the municipality has a temperate climate with a rainy season in the summer. Average annual temperatures vary between 8-16 °C. The average annual rainfall varies between 600–1100 mm. There is no surface water except for streams that run during the rainy season and a freshwater spring on the side of La Malinche Volcano. Potable water for the municipality comes from this spring and wells. Only vestiges of the area's original

Madrean pine-oak woodlands The Madrean region (named after the Sierra Madre Occidental) is a floristic region within the Holarctic kingdom in North America, as delineated by Armen Takhtajan and Robert F. Thorne. It occupies arid or semiarid areas in the southwestern U ...

and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

survive, mostly on Xalapasco hill and in the extreme west of the municipality. Most of the area is inhabited or otherwise modified by human activity. Little wildlife remains as well but includes

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

rabbits Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated form ...

, squirrels,

opossum Opossums () are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia () endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 126 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North A ...

s, skunks, as well as multiple

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s. Urbanization of the area has led to problems with garbage and water pollution, but the most serious issue is soil erosion due to

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

and

overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature ...

. There have been reforestation efforts, mostly

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

species, but these have not been sufficient to stop further environmental damage from unchecked running water and wind coming down from La Malinche.

References

{{Tlaxcala Municipalities of Tlaxcala