Santiago de Anaya

Santiago de Anaya's history is told with gaps: the exact founding date is unknown, though it is believed to date from the same period as Actopan, the mid-fifteenth century, and it depended on Actopan until 1917, when it became a municipality. Augustinian friars evangelised it and founded the convent. During the Revolution Villista troops occupied the church, removed the religious images and split the building in two, one half for cavalry and the other for barracks. Before its present name it was called Tlachichilco, 'in red earth'; it was then given the name of its patron, Saint James the Greater, and later the surname of Pedro María Anaya.

The town stands at 1,940 metres above sea level on Mezquital Valley plain, with a semi-dry temperate climate, and its water drains to the Actopan sub-basin. In 2020 it had 2,676 inhabitants (1,258 men and 1,418 women), 14.6% of the municipality, where over 43% speak Valley Otomí. The municipality's mean annual temperature is 16 °C and about 550 mm of rain falls a year.

Architecturally, the standout is the parish of the Señor de Santiago, with two attached chapels: the Señor de la Agonía and Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Feria de Santiago Apóstol is held in late July, with a fireworks-castle contest that began in 1985.

Its fame comes from the table. The Muestra Gastronómica is held the first weekend of April and gathers over 500 regional dishes; the 45th edition, 3 to 5 April 2026, had Tlaxcala as guest state and, per Milenio, more than 38,000 visitors. Local cooking features maguey worms, escamoles, chinicuiles, esquites, piloncillo pepitorias, acitrones and white or flavoured pulque.