Chilchotla

INEGI lists Chilchotla's municipal seat as Rafael J. García, after the politician who served as interim governor of Puebla in 1867, but locally everyone uses the municipality's name. The town sits at about 2,195 m on the western flank of the Sierra de Quimixtlán, a volcanic spur of the Sierra Madre Oriental, and the municipality borders Veracruz to the north. In 2020 the town had 6,054 residents, and the municipality 21,002 across 31 communities.

The name has two explanations. One traces it to Nahuatl chilchotl, the hot chilli that makes you cry; the other, which the municipal encyclopedia finds more likely since there is no record of chilli farming here, reads it as a corruption of Xilxotla, "where young corn sprouts in abundance". A Nahua settlement conquered by the Spanish in 1522, it was an alcaldía mayor in the 17th century and came under the church jurisdiction of San Juan de los Llanos in 1750. It belonged to the Chalchicomula district until becoming a municipality in 1895.

Water shapes the area. The Huitzilapan, a headwater of the La Antigua river that reaches the Gulf north of the port of Veracruz, runs through the south of the municipality, and many streams drop off the hills. The climate is mild and wet, with heavy summer rain, and pine, oak and fir forest survives on the higher ground. That damp mountain setting explains the two things the town is known for: trout, and guinda, a fruit grown mostly around the seat and turned into a local liquor. People also weave blankets, gabanes and skirts, and festivals are played by brass bands and mariachis; the municipality counts six mariachi groups.