Historically, this area is best known as the site of the Battle of Otumba and as an important crossroads during the colonial period where incoming viceroys ceremoniously were handed power by their predecessors.

Each year, the municipality sponsors a Feria de Burros or Donkey Fair, where the animals star in fashion shows, costume contests, and races.

Aztec rule was established here by Nezahualcoyotl from Texcoco, who made Otumba a regional capital, serving as a point of collection for tribute.

After being beleaguered on the causeway leading out of the city, Hernán Cortés fled towards Tlaxcala, and was intercepted by a group of warriors of the Tenocha, Tepanec, Xochimilco, and other peoples.

[1] For the rest of the colonial period, Otumba was an important stopping point on the royal roads that connected Mexico City with Puebla, Hidalgo and especially the port of Veracruz.

[1] Ángel María Garibay K., who was a noted linguist, humanist and canon law expert, was the parish priest of Otumba from 1932 to 1941.

[13] In 2006, police intervened to prevent the public lynching of a 15-year-old who was caught trying to steal a computer and chair from a distance education center in the community of San Marcos Ahuatepec.

[14] In 2008, Sergio Cid Arandas was kidnapped from his home in Ecatepec and found dead on the highway between Otumba and Ciudad Sahagún.

[18][19][20] For several years, the government has worked on restoration and beautification projects with the aim of being included as one of the Pueblos con Encanto del Bicentenario (Bicentennial Towns with Charm).

The main plaza is decorated with leafy trees and a kiosk, which has a small café inside,[10] surrounded by the Parish of the Purisima Concepción with its cloister from the 16th century, the municipal palace and the Gonzalo Carrasco Museum.

[22] On its saints day, the town of Otumba lays out a carpet of flower petals on the atrium of the church along with decorative floral portals, dances, barbacoa and mole.

He studied at the Academy of San Carlos and with José María Velasco and his work adorns a number of buildings in Mexico and other countries.

The lower floor was dedicated to businesses such as a general store, hairdressers and wine shop, with the family's residence upstairs.

[10] Local residents initiated the restoration of the building in the latter 20th century, which was opened in 1981 as the Casa de Cultura y Museo Gonzalo Carrasco.

Its establishment made Otumba a key communication interchange as well as important point of transfer for the shipment of pulque to Mexico City.

In small sections a rail line was built through here and put into service in 1873, transporting passengers and cargo to and from Mexico City to points east and south.

[24] It contains exhibits such as a copy of the first train ticket issued in Mexico along with the reconditioned telegraph office and an archive of photographs from the late 19th and early 20th century.

[12][25] In the municipal market one can find tlacoyos, quesadillas made with squash flowers, mushrooms, barbacoa, mixiote, mole and pulque.

Donkeys were used well into the 20th century due to the poor conditions of many roads in Mexico and the inability of trucks to enter farms and haciendas producing pulque, milk and cactus fruit.

Even though the municipality is transitioning to a suburb of Mexico City, the donkey is still considered a valuable part of the culture and in some places is still used for work.

There are no rivers here but intermittent streams which flow during the rainy season such as El Soldado, Las Bateas, Huixcoloco, Mihuaca and San Vicente.

Wild vegetation and wildlife is mostly restricted to the highest elevations and include pines, willows, mimosas, jacarandas, squirrels, armadillos, opossums, coyotes, and various reptiles and insects.

[1] Major crops are cactus fruit and nopal[2] Livestock raised here includes domestic fowl, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and cattle.

Industry consists on only small scale operations that produce locally needed products such as processed foods, textiles, furniture and bricks.

The facade looks a bit like a reliquary with its two rose windows, with a portería, or main entryway, consists of five arches with finely carved columns.

The interior columns are delicately worked in stone and contain interlinked Renaissance and Romance style ornamentation as well as Otomi elements.

[9] The San Antonio Xala Hacienda has been reconditioned as a rustic vacation center with cabins, horse facilities, a pool, event hall and a car from one of the first trains to go through the region.

[11] The former Santa María de Guadalupe Tepa Hacienda has a ceremonial mound with 40 meters in diameter and other constructions that date from the Teotihuacan period.

[11] The small community of Apaxco claims to have one of the most beautiful churches of the region named the Temple of San Esteban Axapusco.

The main altarpieces traces the genealogy of Jesus and the walls contain murals about the Twelve Apostles which date from the 17th century.