page_title: San Miguel Zinacantepec
section_title: Municipality
hierarchical_section_title: San Miguel Zinacantepec / Municipality
caption_attribution_description: English: Nevado de Toluca and farmlands, Mexico
context_page_description: Zinacantepec is a town and municipality located just west of the city of Toluca in Mexico State, Mexico. The community is named after a small mountain which contained two caves which used to be filled with thousands of bats. Zinacantepec is Nahuatl for Bat Mountain. Its Aztec glyph is a bat on a mountain. In the 18th century, the population of this mountain moved to settle alongside the Franciscan monastery established here in the 16th century. This monastery is the best preserved of a network of missionaries established in the Toluca Valley in the mid 16th century. Today, the complex functions as the parish church, with the cloister dedicated as the colonial era museum of the state of Mexico.
context_section_description: As municipal seat, the town of Zinacantepec is the local governing authority for more than 130 other named communities, which together form a territory of 308.68km2. About one third of the municipality’s population  lives in the town proper. Despite its rural and traditional nature, very few speakers of indigenous languages are left. The municipality is bordered by the municipalities of Almoloya de Juárez, Texcaltitlán, Toluca, Calimaya, Temascaltepec, Amanalco, Villa Guerrero and Coatepec Harinas.
  The dominating geographical feature here is the Nevado de Toluca volcano, with a significant part of the National Park being located in the municipality. Elevation here varies between 3,200 and 2750 meters above sea level and the soil is made of composites from past lava flows and ash deposits from the nearby volcano, which is now dormant. Some other smaller volcanoes exist here, such as the Molcajete, which were formed by the Nevado’s third stage of eruptions. Surface water is mostly in the form of the Tejalpa River, some small streams and some fresh water springs, all of which are fed by the runoff from the Nevado de Toluca. The area has a temperate, mildly wet climate with freezes common in the foothills of the volcano. Highs in the summer are around 28C with lows in the winter can get to −5C. Most rains falls between the months of June to October. Much of the wild vegetation is forest with pines, cedars and fir trees, which mostly exist in the national park, along with most of the wildlife, which includes squirrels, opossums, coyotes, eagles, crows and some snakes and other reptiles.
  Agriculture is still the main economic staple of the municipality, employing the vast majority of residents. Crops grown here include corn, potatoes, fava beans, carrots, spinach, onions, radishes and other vegetables, mostly grown on family farms. The raising of livestock is important here with cattle, pigs and sheep being the principle animals. A few haciendas still exist including the San Juan de la Huertas and the San Pedro Tajalpa, where Porfirio Díaz and his wife spent time in its large mansion, which still exists. There is one small industrial zone which contains  a number of industries with the largest being BIMBO, Coca-Cola and Gas CIMSA. Commerce is mostly limited to basic needs. There are sand and gravel mines such as San Juan de las Huertas and Loma Alta in the community of San Cristobañ Tecolit.
caption: Nevado de Toluca and farmlands
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