Milpa Alta - Demographics and Culture

Demographics and Culture

With a population of 130,592 as of 2010, Milpa Alta has the lowest population of Mexico City’s sixteen boroughs. About half of the borough’s residents live in or near Villa Milpa Alta and about eighty percent are under forty. It is also one of the Federal District’s most rural and traditional areas. There is a dual system of government, administrative and agricultural, with the latter mostly tasked with the administration of common lands. The social organization of the area is traditional, based on families headed by a male, nuclear in the towns and extended in the more rural areas. Men still hold most of the paying jobs, with most women classed as homemakers, although many of these work in family business, generally for no salary. While it has the lowest crime rates overall, it does have problems with alcoholism in men leading to domestic violence. The borough is gaining population from migration from places like the State of Mexico, Puebla and Oaxaca. and few people migrate out.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area was dominated by the Nahuas . Its one of the few places left in the Federal District with Nahuatl speaking communities, with 4,007 people speaking an indigenous language as of 2010. The use of Nahuatl is widespread in the borough, with the most concentrated in the towns of Santa Ana Tlacotenco, San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan and San Pablo Oztotepec. Ethnic Nahuas are found in all of the borough’s main towns. There are also efforts to preserve and promote the use of the language in the borough.

The Nahuas are primarily Catholic with a number of indigenous beliefs still remaining and blended in. Most of these have to do with the agricultural cycle, often represented by veneration to the saints. Traditional medicine is still practiced by a number of Nahuas in combination with modern medicine. Starting in the 1950s, evangelical movements such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses have made inroads into the area. Traditional housing among the Nahuas is of adobe, but these are being replaced by cement and cinderblock constructions. Traditional handcrafts include embroidered clothing and articles made from maguey fiber (ixtle). The current community struggles to maintain its identity and culture and to prevent being absorbed into the urban sprawl of Mexico City. One way of doing this is through ecotourism on tribal land including guided hikes, zip lines, temazcals and camping. The community also sponsors reforestation events.

The borough lacks theaters, shopping centers, supermarkets and hotels. However, It is one of the boroughs in the city that conserves many of its traditional religious festivals, with about 700 per year, about two per day somewhere in the borough. these fairs and festivals bring 1,200,000 visitors each year to the borough. Each community in the borough, including the twelve main towns and each of these towns’ neighborhoods has a patron saint celebrated once a year. The areas with the most festivals and other events are San Francisco Tecoxpa, San Pedro Atocpan, San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan, San Salvador Cuauhtenco, Santa Ana Tlacotenco, San Pablo Ozotepec, San Agustín Ohtenco, Villa Milpa Alta, San Jerónimo Miacatlán and San Juan Tepanahuac. The most important saint day in the entire borough is that of Our Lady of the Assumption in August. Other important religious events include the passion play, held jointly by the towns of San Francisco Tecoxpa, San Pedro Atocpan, San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan and San Antonio Tecómitl and requires six months of preparations. Carnival is celebrated in San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan, San Antonio Tecómitl, San Pablo Oztotepec and Villa Milpa Alta. Day of the Dead is celebrated in the borough with altars, the cleaning and decorating of gravesites, masses and vigils like many other places in Mexico but it is also celebrated with the release of sky lanterns in communities such as San Agustin Ohtenco, as well as publicly held events such as concerts, the creation of monumental paper mache skulls and even Mesoamerican ball games. Holy Week is very important in the borough, especially the Passion Play held each year to reenact the passion and death of Jesus. The event involves over sixty actors, all residents of the borough chosen yearly. The current tradition was started in 1905, although it was suspended during the Mexican Revolution. The scenes of the play are enacted in several locations. Palm Sunday in San Agustin el Alto, the Asunción parish to the main church in Villa Milpa Alta for Good Friday .

Secular events include the Festival of Corn and Pulque in San Antonio Tecomitl in September, Feria de la Nieve (Ice Cream Fair) in San Antonio Tecomitl in March, Feria Ganadera, Gastronómica y Artesanal (Livestock, Gastronomy and Handcraft Fair) in San Pablo Ozotepec in April, the Festival de Juegos Autóctonos celebrating native toys in San Juan Tapanáhuac, the annual fair of San Lorenzo Tlacoyucan in August, and the entire borough celebrates the founding of Villa Milpa Alta on 22 August with a Regional fair and lighting of a New Fire in the crater of the Teutli volcano. In 2012, this event celebrated the town’s 480th anniversary.

The borough is home to four significant balloon events, which together are called the Magic Route of Light. It begins with the Festival Multicultural de Globos de Cantolla (Multicultural Festival of Sky Lanterns) in September in Santa Ana Tlacotenco, with the main event of 3000 lanterns launched at once. It is followed by the Concurso Nacional de Globos y Faroles de Papel de China and the Encuentro Internacional de Constructores de Globos de Papel in San Agustin Ohtenco and San Antonio Tecomitl in November. The last is the Noche de Luces (Night of Lights) in San Francisco Tecoxpa in late November.