Chiconcuac

Chiconcuac means 'place of the seven snakes' in Nahuatl, from chicome (seven) and coatl (snake), according to Spanish Wikipedia. The village, in the municipality of Xochitepec at about 1,160 m, grew up around a sugar hacienda. A historical record cites a trapiche called Santa Catarina Chiconcuac as early as 1731, and the municipality says the estate made sugar, alcohol and piloncillo and, after the Revolution, worked as a rice-hulling plant. In 1848 a land dispute pitted people of Xochitepec against the hacienda, and in 1856 Álvarez's soldiers attacked it.

The heart of the village is the parish of San Antonio de Padua, once the hacienda's own church, with its churchyard and a stone cross. It was damaged in the 2017 earthquake and parish listings say a rebuild is planned. Beside it stands the municipal ayudantía on a cobbled square, and a few steps away are the stone arches of an old aqueduct, where fairground rides and stalls are set up in Holy Week. The fiesta of San Antonio is on 13 June. The hacienda's main house, with stone doorways and gardens, is now used mostly for events and weddings.

Xochitepec's tourism page describes the surroundings as green, with apantles (irrigation channels) and a mild climate. Population figures vary: PueblosAmérica gives between 6,500 and 7,600 people, so this is a large village rather than a hamlet. If you come to see something, go to the ayudantía square and the church, then wander the hacienda quarter.