Students come from surrounding parts of Morelos to study at the public university, the Instituto Tecnológico de Zacatepc, which is located on a site adjacent to the sugar mill.

According to the tribute registration and to the list of tributary towns to Texcoco, analyzed by Blanca Maldonado, Zacatepec and Tetelpa were characterized by being a cotton-producing town with irrigation infrastructure tribute to the Triple Alliance (Acolhuas, Tepanecas, and Mexicas) dominant in the Valley of Mexico, from its total subordination in the year of 1437 during the Itzcoatl Empire.

In 1619, Pedro Cortés, Marqués del Valle, granted Juan Fernández Moradillo, 200 hectares of land along the Tetelpa river.

The local civil authority at this time was in the town of Tetala, not Zacatepec; there is further evidence of this in an 1804 lawsuit against Domingo Coloma, owner of the hacienda of San Nicolás (today Galeana) and an alleged land grab.

[The peasants] earn more than they need… [they are] busy in various activities such as fishing for catfish, trout, roncal, and corbina… and [working as] muleteers and couriers.

The peasants raised cattle and pigs; they grew corn, sesame, melons, watermelons, bananas, chilies, peanuts, tomatoes, avocados, prickly zapote, lemons, and oranges.

On February 5, 1938, President Lázaro Cárdenas inaugurated, in what was once the hull of the old hacienda, the installations of the sugar mill that he had ordered to build, with social purposes, to improve the conditions of the ejidatarios and workers of the factory.

[6] Zacatepec was one of the hardest-hit communities in Morelos state during the September 9, 2017 earthquake; ten people died,[7] 884 homes were damaged; nearly half of which were totally destroyed.

[15] David Suayfeta, a doctor at the local IMSS hospital, was burned to death when an explosive device was thrown at his car on November 21.

[22] The principal economic activities of the municipal seat of Zacatepec of Hidalgo are farming (sorghum, corn, beans), ranching (cattle, goats, poultry, and pigs).

[27] Its principal economic activities are farming (rice, sorghum, and corn) and ranching (cattle, goats, pigs, and chickens).

[29] The Cerro de La Tortuga (Turtle Hill) is located at 18°40' West and 99°13' North at an altitude 917 meters (3,009 feet)above sea level.

Cerro de la Tortuga is one of the last remnants of low deciduous forest in the center-south of the State of Morelos and is the last ecosystem with wild plants and animals of the Municipality of Zacatepec.

[22] The Apatlaco River crosses a small part of the municipality, passing Zacatepec, Tetelpa, and Galeana.

Wild animals include white-tailed deer, boar of collar, raccoon, badger, skunk, armadillo, hare, common rabbit, coyote, wildcat, weasel, cacomixtle, tlacuache (a member of the raccoon family), and bats, flagged bird, chachalaca, magpie copetona, vulture, aura (buzzard), crow, owl, and songbirds and ornamental birds.

[citation needed] Agustin "Coruco" Diaz stadium is the home venue of Zacatepec, founded in November 1954.

The stadium is euphemistically called "la selva cañera" (the sugarcane jungle), due to Zacatepec's humid weather conditions.