In the upper elevations there are still conifers and oaks, but over-forestry and long years of wood gathering for cooking have seriously depleted the natural cover.

Among the most important crops were: rice, corn, avocados, lemons, oranges, bananas, coffee, cherries, and sugarcane.

The most important festival is that of Asunción de la Virgen María, celebrated on 15 August, at the beginning of the corn harvest.

The area produces opium poppies which are tapped for gum which is processed into black tar heroin and smuggled into the United States.

Several hundred immigrants from Xalisco, part of a larger number still involved in retail heroin distribution, are incarcerated in the United States.