page_title: Tenancingo, State of Mexico
section_title: Socioeconomics
hierarchical_section_title: Tenancingo, State of Mexico / Socioeconomics
caption_attribution_description: English: Working at a loom at the Inocencio Balboa workshop in Tenancingo, Mexico State, Mexico
context_page_description: Tenancingo de Degollado is a large municipality, and also the name of a town and the municipal seat of the municipality, in the State of Mexico, Mexico. Both are commonly known as Tenancingo. The municipality is located in the south of the state, in the Tenancingo Valley, just outside the Toluca Valley. Tenancingo de Degollado is often confused with Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, which is a town in a different state.
  It is a commercial area known for its industrious people who produce beautiful rebozos which have been woven here since the colonial period on both backstrap and pedal looms. Several artisans also produce baskets and fine fruit liquors. Tenancingo is the home to more than 200 carpentry workshops that fashion furniture. There are many green houses in the region that produce cut flowers. In fact the flower industry is Tenancingo's largest source of income. It is the home of the Santo Desierto del Carmen, the name of both a monastery and a national park.
context_section_description: Most of the population of the municipality lives in the valley floor, in or near the municipal seat. However, small communities can be found at very high elevations such as San José Chalmita and San Antonio Agua Bendita. The municipality is poor with 60.2% of the population suffering from either moderate (43.1%) or extreme (17.1%) poverty. 15.3 percent live in substandard housing and thirty percent live without one or more services such as running water and electricity. 42.1% percent are considered to have substandard access to nutrition.
  Average years of schooling for residents is 8.1 years, below the state average of 9.1. The municipality has 179 educational centers including 69 preschools, 63 primary schools, 33 middle schools, 14 high schools and four vocational schools. There are several campuses with higher studies such as the Escuela Central Agrícola de Tenería (est. 1927), the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México - Centro Universitario UAEM Tenancingo and the Centro Universitario Iberoamericano de Tenancingo. There are no educational facilities specifically targeting an indigenous population.
  Major local celebrations include Lunes de Carnaval (when residents elect an "Ugly King") and a procession of silence and passion play during Holy Week. The Carnival of Tenancingo was established in 1982. Other important dates include Epiphany, the Feria de Jarro on Ash Wednesday and the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 16). These are popular dates for weddings and confirmation and feature native folk dance, religious services, fireworks, traveling amusement rides as well as local food specialties. There are two main ingredients in local cuisine: chayotes, once the main agricultural crop and so important that residents call themselves “chayotes”, and obispo, a kind of sausage or cold cut. Common dishes include chayotes con pipian, tinga (chicken or pork), carnero en salsa and chilacayotes con venas de chile.
  The main economic activities of the municipality are agriculture, commerce and handcrafts. Although a recent phenomenon, its main agricultural crop is cut flowers, grown in greenhouses with many exported. Cultivated species include gladiolas and roses. Other crops include avocados and peaches and there is some honey and other bee products now produced as a consequence of the flower trade. Santa Ana Ixtlahuatzingo is particularly noted for the growing of flowers, as is the community of San Miguel Tecomatlán.
  The main handcrafts produced by the municipality are rustic furniture, fruit liquors, sweaters, baskets and, by far the best known, rebozos. Furniture making is mostly concentrated in the La Campana neighborhood of the seat. The classic style of the area is lacquered in white or pastel colors, decorated with flowers painted by hand. Much of the fruit liquor production is exported. Most of the basket production is concentrated in the town of Chalchihuapan.
  Rebozos have been made in the municipal area since the colonial period using both indigenous backstrap looms and Spanish pedal looms. This continues to this day with most production today concentrated in the town of Tenancingo and nearby Acatzingo. The municipality has about thirty weavers and over 180 “empuntadoras”, those who finger-weave the fringes. Making a rebozo require fifteen steps, from the ikat dying method to the weaving and the creation of the fringes. There are fringe weaves that take up to four months to do. Prices for rebozos generally run between 400 and 4,000 pesos each, depending on the quality of the thread, the tightness and complexity of the weave and the intricateness of the woven fringes.
  There are several notable rebozo weavers in Tenancingo. One of these is Evaristo Borboa, who received a National Galardon from the federal government for his work in 2014. His work has been exhibited in Mexico and abroad, in such countries as Japan and Germany. He has worked as a weaver all his life, starting when he was eight years old and is only one of two in Tenancingo who weaves with a backstrap loom (along with Salomon Gonzalez Pedraza) . He 
caption: Work in progress at the Inocencio Borboa workshop in Tenancingo
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