Today, Landa de Matamoros remains rural and impoverished with a high rate of emigration out of the area, especially to the United States.

Landa de Matamoros sits at the foot of a chain of small mountains with crags at an altitude of 1,040m [1][2] just off Highway 120 about 210 km from the capital of Querértaro.

It is also head of a district called Centro Estratégico Comunitario Micrregión 01, which oversees economic activities of thirteen communities with just under 2,000 people.

Landa and other municipalities hold a yearly event at Christmastime in Jalpan de Serra to honor those migrants from the U.S. who are visiting families.

[7] At the beginning of December, many of these migrants come back for the feast of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, often driving down in pickup trucks and wearing cowboy clothing.

Another traditional festival celebrated throughout the municipality is Day of the Dead, which is commemorated from 31 October to 2 November, with Huapango music, fireworks and other activities.

[3] The Feast Day of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Landa is 25 September, celebrated with masses, processions, offerings, dance, music and fireworks.

From 1991 to 1997, restoration of the towns around the missions, including work on monuments, plazas, fountains, building facades, paving streets with stone and more were undertaken.

[4][11] The main portal includes a very large number of Baroque style ornaments, with vegetative elements and angels with support curtains.

There is an image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, along with a number of saints including James of the Marches, Bernardino of Siena, John of Capistrano and Francis of Assisi.

On the sides of the choir window, there are two important Franciscans, Duns Scotus and María de Ágreda, along with the coat of arms of the order.

[4][14] This land was sea bed 100 million years ago, which formed ancient sedimentary rock, mostly limestone, which easily erodes.

The limestone and other sedimentary rock erode fairly easily, which has led to the formation of caverns and pit caves (locally called "sótanos") dispersed throughout the municipality.

[3] Most of the municipality is covered in various types of mostly deciduous forest, with leaves fully or partially fall during the dry season and the very cold weeks in December and January.

A study of flora in the municipality counted 774 species of vascular plants, with the most diversity found in old growth areas where the thick tree canopy traps moisture.

[14] Despite being in the biosphere reserve, destruction of the environment still proceeds, even in areas considered to be nuclei such as La Joya del Hielo and Llano Chiquito.

[14] Landa de Matamoros, along with Arroyo Seco, have begun controlled pasturing using electric fences, which also allows forage plants to recover.

[18][19] Freezing temperatures have caused emergency conditions requiring interventions by civil authorities and have also led to loss of pasture for cattle.

[4] While most of the pre-Hispanic history of the area is dominated by peoples culturally related to the Huastecas, the site of the town of Landa de Matamoros is thought to have been first occupied by a group of Purépecha who migrated north from what is now Michoacán.

[3] The Spanish made incursions into the area early in the colonial period, but the Chichimeca, especially the Jonaz, put up fierce resistance to their intrusions.

The Pames were considered less resistant and as early as the 16th century, Augustinians from Xilitla and Franciscans from Michoacán founded missions in the Landa area.

[3][4] The Spanish would break Chichimeca resistance in the Sierra Gorda in the 1740s, with the expeditions of José de Escandón, culminating in the Battle of Media Luna.

After the missions were handed over to regular clergy in 1771, the indigenous population of five communities abandoned their homes for the mountains because of abuses and inability to understand the new priests.

[3] During the Mexican War of Independence, various insurgents such as Ignacio and Rafael López Rayón, José María Liceaga, Julián and Francisco Villagrán and Luis Herrera found refuge here.

Fruit trees include orange, peach, papaya, lime, avocado, grapefruit, lemon, sapote, plum, apple and mango.

This quantity is more than the entire municipal budge of Landa and accounts for most of the money residents live on, dwarfing the amount made through the local economy of farming and forestry.

There are small indigenous temples in Potero del Llano, Agua Zarca, El Sabinito and La Campana, which contain stone and clay idols linked to the Pame, Huasteco and Jonaz cultures.

The crime was reported by archeologists María Teresa Muñoz Espinoza and José Carlos Castañeda Reyes, who state that this is the most important site of the area.

[32] Fossils found in the area include those of marine life in the community of El Madroño and Pleistocene animals in the municipal seat, principally that of mastodons.

The El Madroño fossil deposit is one of the most important of its kind in Mexico as it is the only one with such a wide diversity of species in excellent state of conservation.