Rinconada

Rinconada lives up to its name, which means "corner": it occupies a nook at the far south of Chignahuapan, so close to the state line that the nearest town is not in Puebla but in Tlaxcala, Tlaxco, about 13 km in a straight line. The photo on this page shows the entrance to the village. At 2,647 metres, almost 400 above the municipal average, it is one of the high settlements of the area, and 952 people lived here in 2020.

Chignahuapan is a huge territory of about 759 km², which Wikipedia ranks as the second largest in Puebla. To the south it borders Tlaxco, and to the west and northwest three Hidalgo municipalities: Almoloya, Apan and Cuautepec de Hinojosa; on the other sides lie Zacatlán, Aquixtla and Ixtacamaxtitlán. Its highest point is the Peñón del Rosario, at 3,440 metres. At these heights the climate is temperate and sub-humid across nearly the whole municipality and semi-cold in a small part; average temperatures run only from 10 to 16 degrees, and rain, 600 to 900 mm, comes in summer.

Life here is rural: more than half the municipal land is farmed and a little over a third keeps its forest, with some grassland. Indigenous language has nearly disappeared, since INEGI counted only 343 speakers in the whole municipality. Crafts, on the other hand, endure: gabanes and jorongos are woven on backstrap or treadle looms, rustic furniture and footwear are made, and cooks prepare candied pumpkin and tejocote, fruit jellies and fruit drinks.