González Ortega

Until around 1940 this village in eastern Puebla was called Cuecuello, a Nahuatl word for a pleated or flounced skirt. The image comes from the hill rising north-west of the village, whose folded slopes suggest a gathered skirt, and the hill still carries the old name. The present name honours Jesús González Ortega, the liberal general who held the city of Puebla against the French army from March to May 1863.

González Ortega shares with Cuauhtémoc and Tlanalapan the status of junta auxiliar, a local district with its own elected board, within Lafragua, about 15 km from the municipal seat, Saltillo. It sits at around 2,880 metres, in the belt where the mountains on the Veracruz border drop toward the dry Llanos de San Juan; Perote is a little over half an hour away. The 2020 census counted 1,879 people, most of them farmers.

Water reaches the village from mountain springs through aqueducts that also serve Tlanalapan and Saltillo, and the district has a small area of managed woodland. This is a working village with no tourist services; it suits travellers on the back roads between Perote and Lafragua's high villages who want to see daily life at nearly 3,000 metres. Typical food in the municipality includes barbacoa, mixiote cooked in maguey leaf and tamales wrapped in corn leaves, with pulque to drink.