Chapulco

Chapulco clings to the slope that closes the Tehuacán valley to the east and has been a municipal seat since the 19th century. The place name is Nahuatl, from chapollin, grasshopper, and co, place; the town takes it from Cerro Chapoltzin, the hill beside it. It had 6,536 people in 2020 and stands at about 1,990 m.

Before the Conquest it was a Popoloca lordship, which came under Spanish rule in 1522. In the 16th century it was granted in encomienda to Esteban de Carbajal and the following year passed to the Crown. In 1837 the Puebla departmental council made it a municipality of the Tehuacán district, and in 1895 the municipality of Nicolás Bravo was carved out of its territory.

The municipality, about 147 km², lies on the western slope of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the range that closes the Tehuacán valley to the east. The land rises from about 2,000 m to 2,500 m toward the north-east, where one of its high points, Cerro Macho, stands. Many streams rise here, belonging to the Papaloapan basin and feeding the Tehuacán canal. It borders Cañada Morelos, Nicolás Bravo, Santiago Miahuatlán, Tepanco de López and, at its north-eastern tip, Acultzingo in Veracruz.