Atlapexco

Atlapexco, 'raft on water' in Nahuatl, is the seat of a municipality in Hidalgo's Huasteca, rugged sierra with medium rainforest and a warm, humid climate (22 °C average and about 1,800 mm of rain a year). In 2020 the town had 2,960 residents and some 700 people spoke an Indigenous language. It has been a municipality since an 1870 decree, and INAFED notes that in 1936 it was consolidated as the area's distribution centre.

The building most often mentioned is the colonial-era town hall, with carved windows, masonry, a bas-relief, carved white-stone columns and a hand-carved wooden door. In the communities you see Nahua dress: cloth shirt, hat, huaraches and shoulder bag for men, and beaded quesquémitl capes for women. The workshops turn out guapango guitars, jaranas, violins, roof tile and comales, along with embroidery.

There are two dates to come for. The fair of San José, the municipality's patron, runs from 14 to 18 March, with a popular dance, fireworks, a cockfight tournament and regional goods for sale. And Xantolo, from 30 October to 2 November, when troupes dressed as devils and farmers dance with stamping steps to Huasteca sones; in the community of Huitzotlaco families save all year, about 4,000 pesos each in 2019, to welcome their dead. In the kitchen, zacahuil, cecina with enchiladas and xohol, a piloncillo-sweetened dough wrapped in banana leaf, lead the way.