Pahuatlán sits in the mountains of northern Puebla, where Otomí, Nahua and mestizo communities live side by side. It is known for amate, a bark paper still made by hand with a pre-Hispanic technique, especially in the Otomí village of San Pablito. Visitors come for the mountain scenery, the simple church of Santiago Apóstol, locally grown coffee, and a kitchen full of peanuts, wild greens and edible flowers.
History
Long before the town existed, these mountains were part of Totonacapan, the Totonac realm. When the Totonacs began to withdraw from the sierra, Nahua and Otomí groups (who call themselves ñähñu) moved in and fought over the territory for years.
Augustinian friars founded the town of Pahuatlán in 1532. Oral tradition says they forced fifty young Nahua men to marry Otomí girls and fifty Otomí men to marry Nahua girls. Legend or not, the friars' arrival ended the fighting, and Totonac, Nahua and Otomí customs began to blend. The groups never fully merged, though. The Otomí enclave of San Pablito survives today in the middle of a Nahua area that includes Xolotla, with mestizo Pahuatlán de Valle at its center. The church of Santiago Apóstol dates from 1652.
The name comes from Nahuatl and means place of fruits; pahuas are the large avocados grown here. On March 23, 2012, Pahuatlán was named a Pueblo Mágico.
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Places to stay in Pahuatlán
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Photos
Where it is
Pahuatlán within Mexico
The town up close · Open in Google Maps
Getting there
- Fly into PAZ: El Tajín National Airport, about 80 km away in a straight line
Drive times are estimates from OpenStreetMap routing, without traffic.
Nearby Pueblos Mágicos
15 km away
16 km away
19 km away
44 km away
Sources: population from Wikidata (may count the whole municipality) · elevation and climate from Open-Meteo · airports from OurAirports (straight-line distance).