Honey

Few towns in Puebla have an English name. Honey owes its name to Richard Honey (c. 1829-1913), a Cornish immigrant who invested in mining, metallurgy and railways in the area and set up a factory here making paints from local coloured earths and resins; Spanish Wikipedia adds that he built the local railway station. When the territory split from the old Huauchinango district in April 1919, the new municipality was called Chila Honey; in 1993 it became plain Honey.

The seat, with 1,122 people in 2020, stands on a small ridge in the northeast of the municipality, in the Sierra Norte right against the Hidalgo border. The land is rugged, between 1,300 and 2,300 m, with a temperate, rainy climate, and rivers such as the Honey and Los María rise in these hills before draining to the Tuxpan basin. Totonac and Otomí people settled the area before the Triple Alliance conquered it, and after the Spanish Conquest it was given out in encomienda.

The parish church, dedicated to the Holy Cross under the protection of San José, dates from the 16th century, and there is a municipal cultural centre. Fiestas fall on 19 March (San José), 3 to 5 May (Santa Cruz) and 10 September (San Nicolás Tolentino), with Quetzalines, Voladores, Tejedores and Huehues dances. Local cooking includes broad-bean soup and tamales, smoked chicken and pressed chicharrón, with mountain coffee and pear, peach or capulín preserves.

For a walk, the municipal profile points to the Salto de la Cumbre waterfall at La Cumbre del Manzano, about 500 m from the seat, and a wood at La Trinidad, 1 km away, used for picnics and camping.