Chachahuantla

Chachahuantla is a community in the municipality of Naupan, in Puebla's Sierra Norte, a very mountainous area along the Hidalgo line. Its people speak Nahuatl and Spanish. It had 820 inhabitants in 2020 and stands at about 1,750 m.

The village has changed names several times. Before the Conquest it was called Iztaccoatepec, "hill of the white serpent", linked to the area's old religion, since the white serpent was another name for Centéotl, the maize deity. The friars renamed it San Bartolo Iztaccoatepec; under colonial rule the Nahuatl name disappeared and it became simply the town of San Bartolomé, and in the mid-18th century a Nahuatl name returned as San Bartolo Chachahuantla. Chachahuantla means "place where quartz crystals abound", because such crystals were dug from one of its hills. A local legend tells of a big stone that rings like a bell when struck, lost among the stones of some field wall. Saint Bartholomew is still the patron.

The municipality of Naupan, whose name means "over four rivers", covers about 61 km² of rugged land dropping from 2,200 to 600 m, and borders Pahuatlán, Tlacuilotepec, Huauchinango and, on the Hidalgo side, Acaxochitlán.