Temascal or Nuevo Soyaltepec is the main town and seat of San Miguel Soyaltepec a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the state of Oaxaca

Oaxaca

Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...

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It is part of the Tuxtepec District

Tuxtepec District, Oaxaca

Tuxtepec District is located in the north of the Papaloapan Region of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.-Municipalities:The district includes the following municipalities:*Acatlán de Pérez Figueroa*Ayotzintepec*Cosolapa*Loma Bonita*San Felipe Jalapa de Díaz...

 of the Papaloapan Region

Papaloapan Region, Oaxaca

The Cuenca del Papaloapan Region is in the north of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico where the foothills of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca meet the coastal plain of Veracruz.The principal city is San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec, the second largest in Oaxaca state....

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The name Soyaltepec means “hill of palm trees” in Náhuatl

Nahuatl

Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...

 but the area also carries the Mazatec

Mazatecan languages

The Mazatecan languages are a group of closely related indigenous languages spoken by some 200,000 people in the area known as La Sierra Mazateca, which located in the Northern part of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, as well as in adjacent areas of the states of Puebla and Veracruz...

 name of Naxhingee which means “ragged hill”.

The town

The original town of San Miguel Soyaltepec was founded in 1500. The area saw a battle on the 25th of April 1865 where invading French forces were defeated by Colonel Luis Pérez Figueroa

Luis Pérez Figueroa

Luis Pérez Figueroa was a Mexican general who fought in the war of independence that followed the French intervention in Mexico.-Military career:Luis Pérez Figueroa was born on 22 March 1833 in Salvatierra, Guanajuato....

. For this reason, the name of the town was changed to Patriótica Villa de San Miguel Soyaltepec in 1868.

The Presidente Miguel Alemán dam

Miguel Alemán Dam

The Miguel Alemán Dam is on the Tonto River in the Papaloapan Region of Oaxaca state in southern Mexico, just upstream from the town of Temascal or Nuevo Soyaltepec, forming the Miguel Alemán Lake with an area of 47,800 hectares....

 was completed in 1954, flooding the original town of San Miguel Soyaltepec and forcing the relocation of about 22,000 Mazatecs. This is the reason why the municipal seat is Temascal, and called Nuevo Soyaltepec.

The municipality

The dam controls the lower Río Papaloapan which historically has had devastating floods, and generates 725 million kilowatts of electrical power. The dam’s artificial lake lends itself to various water sports such as fishing (catfish

Catfish

Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...

, mojarra

Mojarra

The mojarras are a family, Gerreidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes. It has seven genera.Mojarras are a common prey and bait fish in many parts of the Caribbean including the South American Coast and Caribbean islands. These species tend to be difficult to identify in the field and often...

 and carp

Carp

Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. The cypriniformes are traditionally grouped with the Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes to create the superorder Ostariophysi, since these groups have certain...

) as well as boat tours to the islands of San Miguel Soyaltepec and Isabel María. The lakesides abound with birds, small mammals and reptiles.

As municipal seat, Temascal has governing jurisdiction over the following communities:

Agua Escondida (Isla Agua Escondida), Arroyo Caracol, Arroyo Chical (Nuevo Arroyo Chicali), Arroyo de Enmedio (La Guadalupe), Arroyo Macín, Arroyo Tigre, Benito Juárez II (San Martín), Cabeza de Tigre, Cerro de Agua Platanar, Cerro Tepexcuintle, Cerro Verde, Colonia Cosoltepec, Colonia Ingeniero Raúl Sandoval Landázuri, Corral de Piedra, Corriente Ancha o Miguel Hidalgo, Cosolapa Caracol, El Capulín (La Nueva Pochota), El Carmen, El Dique, Emiliano Zapata, Isla de Málzaga, Isla del Viejo, Soyaltepec (Isla Soyaltepec), Isla la Patria Vieja, Islas Santa Julia, La Candelaria, La Luz, La Parcela (Armando Vásquez), La Reforma, La Reforma (La Reformita), Las Margaritas, Las Pilas, Loma Bonita, Los Nanches, Nueva Calería, Nueva Patria, Nuevo Buenavista, Nuevo Paso Nazareno (Chichicazapa), Nuevo Pescadito de Abajo, Nuevo Pescadito de Abajo Dos, Nuevo Pescadito de Enmedio, Nuevo Pescadito de Málzaga (La Breña), Pescadito de Arriba, Piedra de Amolar, Playa de Jícama, Playa Lecuona (Miguel Hidalgo), Rancho Norteño, Rancho Nuevo, Rancho Orozco, Rancho Valdez, Regino Malpica Vicente, Rincón Bonito, San Antonio Abad (Cerro Chango), San Antonio Cosolapa, and San Marcos

External links

• Maps of Mexico