San Pedro de los Metates

San Pedro de los Metates lies in the northwest of the State of Mexico, in the municipality of Acambay, and Spanish Wikipedia gives it 2,048 inhabitants. The name points to the trade it is known for: people here still carve metates, molcajetes, salsa bowls and other pieces out of volcanic basalt, the grinding stones that regional kitchens depend on. Some residents still speak Otomi, though most use Spanish.

Daily life mixes farming with wood-fired cooking. Maize planting has fallen off sharply, but greenhouses have brought in tomatoes, and families also grow beans, nopal cactus, strawberries and oyster mushrooms. They keep turkeys, hens, sheep, cattle and rabbits, and there are pear, plum and lime trees, prickly-pear stands and maguey for pulque. The same source says the village has no machine tortilla shops: tortillas are still patted out by hand and cooked on a comal.

The main feast is 29 June, San Pedro's day, when communities from Acambay, Atlacomulco and farther afield arrive, each with its own saint. After Mass, mayordomos chosen by the village feed participants and visitors, and the day ends with fireworks. The village also sits on the Ruta de Hidalgo: one of the eagle-head stelae placed along the route in 1960 had lain broken on the ground for years until it was raised on a new base in 2013, though pointing south rather than north, the direction Hidalgo took before his defeat at Aculco. There are no tourist services to speak of: you come to see the craft and spend time with the community.