Xilitla is a municipality () and town in the state of San Luis Potosí in the Huasteca region of Mexico. The town is located at The municipality has an area of and had a population of 51,498 in 2010 of whom 6,576 lived in town of Xilitla. Xilitla is known for its fertile mountains and springs which create panoramic landscapes throughout the municipality. Las Pozas gardens are a major tourist attraction. History and Economy The rugged landscape has partly shielded Xilitla from industrialization, helping preserve its indigenous Huastec and Nahuatl cultures and traditional agrarian lifestyles. Most of Xilitla's residents live in over 100 rural villages of several dozen up to several hundred people. About 30,000 people in Xilitla live in indigenous households and about 20,000 of them speak an indigenous language, principally Huastec. Most of the speakers of an indigenous language also speak Spanish. Augustine missionary activity in the Xilitla area began in 1537 and in 1553 construction began on the St. Augustine Convent. It was built to serve both a religious building and a fortress as the Chichimeca war was in progress and one of the hostile Chichimeca tribes, the Pame, lived to the northwest. The convent was attacked and burned by the Indians in 1569 and 1587 and largely abandoned by the Augustines. In the 17th century, the Dominicans made another attempt to evangelize but were unable to overcome the hostility of the Indians. Finally, in the mid-18th century, Fray Junípero Serra and the Franciscans succeeded in establishing a permanent missionary presence in the region. The economy is primarily agricultural with the main crops being coffee and citrus. A coffee fair is held in August. A local food specialty is the zacahuil, a giant tamale (3 to 4 feet long) wrapped in banana leaves and filled with pork on one side and chicken on the other. Geography The town of Xilitla has an elevation of and is located in the eastern slopes of the Sierra Gorda mountain range, part of the Sierra Madre Oriental. Narrow valleys in the municipality dip to . La Silleta, a prominent thumb-shaped mountain, scalable only with mountain climbing gear, rises to six miles west of the city. The land area in the municipality is largely steep but habitable slopes. To the south and west, Xilitla borders the mountains of Querétaro and Hidalgo states. To the northeast, Xilitla borders flat terrain along the Tancuilin