Ixcatlán

Ixcatlán sits at 863 metres in the Huasteca of Hidalgo, about 13.6 km southwest of Huejutla de Reyes. Its 1,868 residents (2020) make it the seventh-largest of the municipality's 213 localities. The name is Nahuatl: ichcatl, 'cotton', and tlan, 'place' — the place where cotton is plentiful. Other communities carry its name as a surname around it: Ahuacahíxpa Ixcatlán 400 metres away, Aguacatitla Ixcatlán 900 metres, and Poxtla Ixcatlán with 430 people; Axcaco, with 916, is a kilometre and a half off.

The land is mountain and low hills, and peaks show from the village: Tepexhica (769 m) 1 km to the southeast and Zihuapiltepetl (1,138 m) 1.2 km to the northwest. Pueblos América records an average of 19 °C and about 262 rainy days a year. The municipality, with a warm humid climate, has cedar, sapote, capulín and acacia among its plants and the tigrillo (a small wild cat), deer, armadillo, wild boar, hummingbirds and hawks among its animals; farmers grow maize, beans and 2,440 hectares of coffee.

In Huejutla municipality more than half the people speak an indigenous language, mostly Huasteca Nahuatl, and the cooking shows it: zacahuil, bocoles, enchiladas in dried-chile or sesame sauce, cecina, Huasteca-style chicken and beef barbacoa. In the seat, the 16th-century Augustinian convent of San Agustín stands on the base of an indigenous pyramid, and the clock on Plaza Revolución plays 'El Cantador' every hour. From 30 October to 2 November 2026 it hosts Xantolo, the Day of the Dead festival, with masked dance troupes, offerings and a monumental altar of more than 1,100 square metres.