Atlixco
City Hall
Seal
Location in Mexico
Coordinates: 18°54′N 98°27′W / 18.9°N 98.45°W / 18.9; -98.45Coordinates: 18°54′N 98°27′W / 18.9°N 98.45°W / 18.9; -98.45
Country	Mexico
State	Puebla
Founded	1579
Municipal Status	1706
Government
• Municipal President	AngelAntonio Vazquez
Area
• Municipality	893.15 km2 (344.85 sq mi)
Elevationof seat	1,035 m (3,396 ft)
Population (2008)Municipality
• Municipality	125,000
• Seat Density	1,035/km2 (2,680/sq mi)
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
Postal code (of seat)	21019
Area code(s)	33
Demonym	Atlixquense
Website	(Spanish) Municipal Official Site

Atlixco (originally called Atrisco) is a city and a municipality in the Mexican state of Puebla. It is located only 24 km south of the city of Puebla, yet it is 300 meters lower in altitude, at 1840 m. This drop in altitude causes a noticeable change in the weather of the city compared to the surrounding regions of the "Sierra Nevada" (literally "Snowy Mountains"). This makes Atlixco renowned for its benign climate, which varies by only a few degrees Celsius year round.

Atlixco, which reported a population of 86,173 in the 2005 census, is located on the foothills of the Popocatépetl volcano. The city is the third-largest community in the state, after Puebla and Tehuacán. The municipality of Atlixco, which has an area of 229.22 km² (88.5 sq mi), reported a population of 122,149.

The city is an agricultural, commercial and industrial centre. Alfalfa, flowers, corn, wheat,and fruits are the main crops grown in the area. Textile factories, grain mills, and soft-drink plants are also located in the city, as well as several car dealerships.

In the past few decades, Atlixco has increasingly become a preferred area for country houses of residents of the city of Puebla, beginning in the 1970s with the development of the residential complex La Moraleda, and later El Cristo Golf Club.

Important highways link Atlixco with the cities of Puebla and Cuautla. The city also has an airport for private planes.

Atlixco is also the filming location for the telenovela Zacatillo, un lugar en tu corazón.

As a tourism spot for pueblans, Atlixco also offers entertainment infrastructure such as sport facilities i.e. soccer fields, tennis courts, cross country and hiking paths, and swimming pools. One of the memorable teams is the Atlixquenses Futbol Club located in La Concha soccer field, champions of Puebla Liberty Cup season 2001-02 when the midfielder Ricardo Marin scored the last goal who gives them the championship. He later moved to Los Angeles, California.

The University of Puebla (BUAP) has a Regional Section there.

History of Atlixco[link]

Early History[link]

The first settlers arrived in the 11th century and founded a settlement at the site of today's neighbourhood "Los Solares Grandes" in the San Miguel quarter of Atlixco. It was called "Quauhquechollan" or "Quauhquechula" meaning "fleeing eagle". Later, in Colonial times, it was called "Acapetlahuacan" ("place of división of the dominions"). The modern name "Atlixco" can be analyzed into atl 'water' + ixtli, 'face, surface' + -co 'in'.

By the 15th century it had grown into a big town.

After several wars with neighboring populations the town was resettled later on. It was then called "Huehuequauhquechollan", the old Quauhquechula. It was at that time when the pyramids and the ceremonial centre were built in what is today San Miguel.

The caciques of Atlixco were able to keep relatively independent from the dominant people of Huejotzingo.

As the valley of Atlixco forms a natural road to the centre of Mexico, Atlixco was of major importance for the colonial period.

During the era of New Spain it was the capital of the province of Atrisco, which was also the same of this place at that time.^[1]

References[link]

• Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005 INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
• Puebla Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México

1. ^ Peter Gerhard, Guide to the Historical Geography of New Spain (Cambridge: University Press, 1972) p. 57

See also[link]

Mexico portal

• Municipalities of Puebla

External links[link]

• Atlixco municipality Official website
• Atlixco
• Atixquense Grupos

v t e Heroic Cities of Mexico Alvarado (Veracruz) · Atlixco (Puebla) · Caborca (Sonora) · Cananea (Sonora) · Cárdenas (Tabasco) · Chiapa de Corzo (Chiapas) · Córdoba (Veracruz) · Cosoleacaque (Veracruz) · Cuautla (Morelos) · Ejutla de Crespo (Oaxaca) · Guaymas (Sonora) · Huajuapan de León (Oaxaca) · Huamantla (Tlaxcala) · Juchitán de Zaragoza (Oaxaca) · Matamoros (Tamaulipas) · Nogales (Sonora) · Puebla (Puebla) · Tenango del Valle (México) · Tlapacoyan (Veracruz) · Tlaxiaco (Oaxaca) · Valladolid (Yucatán) · Veracruz (Veracruz) · Ures (Sonora) · Zitácuaro (Michoacán)

Josefina Vázquez Mota
President of the Political Coordination Board of the Chamber of Deputies
In office September 5, 2010 – August 31, 2011
Preceded by	Francisco Rojas Gutiérrez
Succeeded by	Armando Ríos Piter
Coordinator of the Parliamentary Group of the National Action Party
In office September 1, 2009 – September 6, 2011
Preceded by	Héctor Larios Córdova
Succeeded by	Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña
Secretary of Public Education
In office December 1, 2006 – April 4, 2009
President	Felipe Calderón
Preceded by	Reyes Tamez Guerra
Succeeded by	Alonso Lujambio
Secretary of Social Development
In office December 1, 2000 – January 6, 2006
President	Vicente Fox
Preceded by	Carlos Jarque
Succeeded by	Ana Teresa Aranda
Personal details
Born	(1961-01-20) January 20, 1961 (age 51) Mexico City, Mexico
Political party	National Action Party
Spouse(s)	Sergio Ocampo Muñoz
Children	3
Alma mater	Iberoamerican University Panamerican University Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology
Website	Official website

Josefina Eugenia Vázquez Mota ( pronunciation (help·info) [xo̞.se̞'fi.na'βas.ke̞s'mo̞.ta]) (born January 20, 1961, in Mexico City) is a Mexican businesswoman and politician who is currently the presidential candidate of the National Action Party (PAN)for the 2012 elections. Vázquez Mota was trained as an economist and began her working career in family businesses and with various business organizations and conferences, also working as a journalist and writing books. She began her political career with the PAN organization, becoming involved in Mexico’s federal Chamber of Deputies of Mexico and then in the administrations of Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón. She is PAN’s first female candidate for president and the first female candidate from a major political party in Mexico.

Background[link]

Vázquez Mota was born in Mexico City on January 20, 1961. Her parents, Arnulfo Vázquez and Josefina Mota are from the Sierra Norte de Puebla region of Mexico, and she has seven brothers and sisters.^[1][2] She say she is closest to her sister Lupita. When they were children they use to sell chocolate shakes on the street with a blender Josefina received for Three Kings’ Day.^[3]

She spent the first five years of her childhood in a working class neighborhood called Colonia 20 de Noviembre in Mexico City and began her education in public school, starting at “La Patria es Primero” school in the Azcapotzalco borough.^[1] Her father originally wanted her to attend an all-girls high school, even paying a full year’s tuition in advance. While she did begin high school there, Josefina convinced her parents to let her take the entrance exam and enter CECyT 9 vocational school, affiliated with the Instituto Politécnico Nacional .^[3][4] Josefina was studious in school with a affinity for mathematics.^[3] She studied at the private Universidad Iberoamericana, graduating with a degree in economics.^[2][5] Other university studies include courses in management at the Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empresas as well as a program called Ideas e Instituciones at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México .^[5]

She met her husband, Sergio Ocampo Muñoz, a computer specialist, while in high school and married in 1984 after seven years of courtship.^[3][5] The couple has three children, María José, Celia María and Montserrat.^[6]

She maintains a very strict diet and exercise regimen, which has led to speculation that she may be bulimic or anorexic, which she denies.^[3]

Non political career[link]

Josefina Vázquez Mota talking to the media.

She began to get involved in economic conferences due to a friend of her father’s with the Cámara de Comercio de la Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico City Chamber of Commerce) and has since been involved with various organizations and conferences in various parts of the world, especially Latin America.^[3] She worked for business organizations such as the Confederación de Cámaras Nacionales de Comercio, Servicios y Turismo (Concanaco) and the Confederación Patronal de la República Méxicana (Coparmex) .^[5]

For a time in her career, she worked as a journalist on economic topics for Novedades de México, El Financiero and El Economista .^[2][5]

In the 1980s, Josefina and her family moved to Chihuahua to attend some of the family businesses including a clothing store for children.^[3]

She has published two books. The first was “¡Dios Mío! Házme viuda por favor” (My God! Make me a widow!) It is a self help book that she wrote while in Chihuahua and while traveling to various conferences. It was first published in Colombia then in Mexico, as there was some hesitation over the title. Despite editors’ desire to change the title to something less controversial, Josefina insisted on keeping it. The book has sold over 400,000 copies.^[3][6] Her second book is called "Nuestra oportunidad. Un México para todos" (Our opportunity. A México for everyone), which is a dialogue with twenty two international leaders.^[5]

She did a business show for TV Azteca .^[3]

Political career[link]

Leaders and members of the National Action Party supporting the nomination of Josefina for president.

She began her political career with PAN with the Asociación Coordinadora Ciudadana and a member of the Secretaría de la Mujer.^[2] In 1996, she was asked to return to Mexico City to become a representative in Mexico’s federal legislature (Cámara de Diputados), because of her economics expertise. At this time, she met the then president of PAN, Felipe Calderón .^[3] She was elected to the 2000-2003 federal legislature (Cámara de Diputados), leading the sub-coordination of Economic Policy.^[2][5]

She was then appointed as the first female secretary of Desarrollo Social (Social Development) known by its Spanish acronym of SEDESOL.^[2][5] While discrete, it was known that she did not get along with then First Lady Martha Sahagún .^[3] She remained in that position until 2006, when she resigned to work for the Calderón campaign.^[2][5]

In 2006, she was named campaign coordinator for Felipe Calderón. She was not part of Calderón’s inner circle which caused some disputes during the campaign.^[3] When Calderón won, she was part of the transition team as the Coordinator of Political ties (Enlace Político) .^[2] After the election, she was named Secretary of Public Education, the first woman in the job.^[2][5] Josefina had vied for the Secretaría de Gobernación position but she was offered to return to SEDESOL or to head the Secretariat of Public Education. She chose the latter as a new challenge. Her time there was marked by confrontations with the powerful head of the national teachers’ union, Elba Esther Gordillo. Some reports state that these confrontations caused problems with Calderon’s advisors with Calderon ready to remove her from the position, but this has not been confirmed.^[3]

She won election to the Cámara de Diputados once again, this time becoming the Coordinator of the PAN Parliamentary Group.^[2][5] This gave her position to run for her party’s nomination for the 2012 presidential elections.^[3] She was in charge of PAN’s parliamentary group from 2009 to 2011.^[5]

In 2011, she left the legislature to when she won her party’s nomination as candidate for president.^[2][5] She won the nomination over Calderón’s choice of Ernesto J. Cordero, with 55% of the vote in the primary.^[7] She is the first female candidate for president of PAN,^[6] and is the first female candidate for president from a major political party in Mexico’s history.^[7] She is running not only as “different” from the other contenders but also different from her party, which has been in power for the past twelve years. She is the least-known of the candidates from Mexico’s three main parties (PAN, PRI and PRD) .^[7]

One of her campaign pledges is life sentences for politicians found guilty of corruption related to organized crime, more scholarships for students and labor law reform which she states will incorporate 400,000 people each year into the formal economy. She has also promised to fight discrimination against women.^[5] She has not come out against the policies of her predecessors, Calderón and Fox.^[1] and states that military personnel should be withdrawn only when the area has a “trustworthy” police force.^[5]

She is also the National Political Advisor (Consejera Política Nacional) of PAN.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Josefina Vázquez Mota

• Official Website Josefina Vázquez Mota
• Official Site Federal Deputies PAN of the LXI Legislature
• Josefina Vazquez Mota Twitter