Cacaloxúchitl

Its name joins two Nahuatl words, cacahuatl, peanut, and xochitl, flower: "peanut flower". With 3,617 residents in 2020, Cacaloxúchitl is a good-sized village in the municipality of Huaquechula; it lies at 1,627 m, 15 km in a straight line from Atlixco and 41 km from Puebla city, in the part of the Atlixco valley that slopes gently south from the flanks of the Sierra Nevada.

Huaquechula covers about 232 km² and ranges from 1,200 to 2,100 m in altitude. Several rivers that never run dry cross it from north to south, the Grande, Ahuehuello, Nexapa, Atila and Matadero, along with a network of canals in the north-east; to the east rises a hilly zone including Cerro el Metate. Two-thirds of the land is farmed. The climate is mostly semi-warm and sub-humid, with summer rains broken by a midsummer dry spell and the odd winter frost; where there are no fields, low forest that drops its leaves in the dry season takes over, with palm groves to the north-west, and rabbits, squirrels, skunks and deer live in the hills.

The municipality's crafts are among the most varied in the region: candle-making, tinwork, pressed-glass vases and jugs, comales, plaster figurines, black-glazed candlesticks and incense burners, and polychrome clay with angels, virgins and flowers in relief. The table keeps pace: green pipián with zompantle flowers, black adobo, ash tamales with ayocote beans, and breads such as rosquetes, marquesotes, hojaldras and polvorones, with water- or milk-based chocolate; for sweets, pancololote, palanqueta, alegría and jamoncillo. From 28 October to 2 November the municipal seat builds its famous monumental Day of the Dead altars.