page_title: Otumba de Gómez Farías
section_title: The municipality
hierarchical_section_title: Otumba de Gómez Farías / The municipality
caption_attribution_description: English: Municipal Palace of Otumba, Mexico State
context_page_description: Otumba or Otumba de Gómez Farías is a town and municipality located in the northeast of the State of Mexico, just northeast of Mexico City. Historically, this area is best known as the site of the Battle of Otumba and as an important crossroads during the colonial period where incoming viceroys ceremoniously were handed power by their predecessors. Today, it is a rural municipality undergoing changes as urbanization arrives here from the Mexico City area. However, one element from the past that is still remembered is that of burros or donkeys. During the colonial period, Otumba was an important market for the animals, and they are still culturally important. Each year, the municipality sponsors a Feria de Burros or Donkey Fair, where the animals star in fashion shows, costume contests, and races. There is also a donkey sanctuary for unwanted animals.
  The name Otumba comes from Nahuatl and means "place of otomis." The appendage "Gómez Farías" was added in honor of Valentín Gómez Farías. The Aztec glyph for the area depicts an Otomi character with the sign meaning place. The municipality is represented by this glyph and by a Spanish coat of arms.
context_section_description: As municipal seat, the town of Otumba is the local governing authority for over eighty other communities, covering a territory of 143.42 km2. The population of the municipality is 29,873 with less than a third living in the town proper. The municipality borders the municipalities of Axapusco, Tepetlaoxtoc, San Martín de las Pirámides and the states of Tlaxcala and Hidalgo to the southeast and east.
  Geographically about fifteen percent of the territory is rugged terrain, forty percent is rolling hills and forty five percent is flat.  Elevation varies between 2300 and 2900 meters above sea level and includes the Las Bateas, San Pedro, La Charra, Pelón and La Cruz mountains. There are no rivers here but intermittent streams which flow during the rainy season such as El Soldado, Las Bateas, Huixcoloco, Mihuaca and San Vicente. The climate is temperate to moderately cold with a dry climate with maguey and nopal cactus growing wild and less than eight percent of the land forested. High temperatures can reach 31C in the summer and -2.3C in the winter. Wild vegetation and wildlife is mostly restricted to the highest elevations and include pines, willows, mimosas, jacarandas, squirrels, armadillos, opossums, coyotes and various reptiles and insects.
  About 59% of the municipality's land is used for agriculture, which depends on both seasonal rains and irrigation. Major crops are cactus fruit and nopal  Livestock raised here includes domestic fowl, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and cattle. Industry consists on only small scale operations that produce locally needed products such as processed foods, textiles, furniture and bricks. Likewise, most commerce is of a local nature. Crafts are practiced on a minor scale working with fine woods, obsidian and onyx.
  The municipality contains a number of tourist attractions but these not fully are not taken advantage of. One of these is the ex monastery of Oxtotipac, which was established by the Franciscans over what was a teocalli, or Aztec sacred precinct. The complex is in Plateresque style and consecrated to San Nicolas de Bari. The facade looks a bit like a reliquary with its two rose windows, with a portería, or main entryway, consists of five arches with finely carved columns. This facade dates from 1675, and breaks with the usual austerity of Franciscan monasteries decorated with vegetable motifs. The interior columns are delicately worked in stone and contain interlinked Renaissance and Romance style ornamentation as well as Otomi elements. The monastery contains two baptismal fonts, one of which is from the 16th century.  It recently underwent a four-year restoration projects costing approximately 700,000 pesos.Work on this monastery was sponsored by a civil association called Adopte una Obra de Arte (Adopt a Work of Art) along with the State of Mexico. One of the major causes of damage to the monastery was the theft of its religious art, so security measures were installed. Indoor and outdoor walls were repaired and three altarpieces were cleaned and restored, along with a number of other sculptures and paintings. The cloister area holds a collection of art works original to the monastery.
  In some of the smaller communities of the municipality, such as Huayapan, San Antonio, San Miguel and Soapayuca, about 80% of the constructions are non-modern, many of which have had their facades renovated. A number of old haciendas in the municipality have been renovated and adapted to new uses. Haciendas in this area turned to pulque production after the cattle had overgrazed the pastures. The San Antonio Xala Haciendas was a pulque hacienda from the 19th century which now is a hotel and restaurant. The elegant rooms and main chapel are open for visits. The San Antonio Xala Hacienda has been reconditioned as a rustic vacation center with cabins, horse facilities, a pool, event hall and a car from one of the first trains to go through the region. It also has a restaurant that specialized in local cuisine including breads and cheeses made on the premises. The Soapayuca Hacienda today houses offices 
caption: Municipal palace
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D60", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2010:03:20 15:29:03", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "28240", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9355", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:03:20 15:29:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:03:20 15:29:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "28102", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}