Ixtepec, Oaxaca

The name "Ixtepec" is derived from Nahuatl and roughly translates to either "view of the mountain" or "face of the mountain."Its name was Iztepeque until 1935, when it was officially changed to Ciudad Ixtepec (Ixtepec City). The founding of the city was most likely in the 16th century as a Zapotec settlement shortly before the Spanish Conquest. It remained an indigenous community until the 19th century, with its economy based on subsistence farming. In the early 20th century, the community grew in economic importance as its location made it attractive to foreign investment with the building of the Pan-American Highway, originally as a rail line.[3]

The municipality has an area of 294.1 km² at an average elevation of 40 meters above sea level. The climate is warm, with rainfall of 950 mm annually mostly falling in the summer. Average temperature is 27.4 °C, ranging from 21.5 °C to 30.7 °C.[2]

As of 2005, there were 6,481 households with a population of 24,181, of whom 4,667 spoke an indigenous language. Like Ixtaltepec, Juchitán and Tehuantepec, Ixtepec has a significant native Zapotec population. Many indigenous traditions are still followed.

Ixtepec used to be an important railway center point, but nowadays no passenger train traffic runs through. However, a university has recently been constructed there. Economic activities include very limited agriculture on 972 hectares of irrigated land growing corn, sorghum, sesame and vegetables, 408 small farms raising cattle, pigs or goats, fish hatcheries for crappie, tilapia and red snapper, manufacture of bricks, school uniforms and home furnishings, and mining of black clay for making pots and figurines and adobe bricks.[2]