San Antonio Cacalotepec

Every 13 June, people in San Antonio Cacalotepec carry chiquihuites and chiquipeztles, big woven palm baskets brimming with fruit, bread and the odd bottle of liquor, to the homes where mole has been cooked for the feast of Saint Anthony of Padua: it is their way of saying thank you. That day the village goes to Mass with flowers and candles, and a fair goes up beside the church where people spend the afternoon over Puebla street snacks, rides and friends. The village belongs to San Andrés Cholula, sits at about 2,100 metres and lies roughly 5 km from the municipal seat; Wikipedia puts its population at around 7,000.

The church of Saint Anthony was built in the 18th century and has been altered several times since. You enter through an atrium gate with a round arch, topped by a niche and three pine-cone finials; the atrium has gardens and room for music and religious events. The church has a single two-stage tower, with the belfry above and a small dome with a lantern. The facade, in two stages and a crown, has a triangular choir window, two urns and a niche with three tiny chalice-shaped finials. Inside, simple, almost naive mouldings and scrolls frame altars from different periods and a main altarpiece with neoclassical ambitions that holds the patron saint.

Besides the main feast, some neighbourhoods hold their own: San Diego on 13 November and Santa María on 15 August, with a fair that starts days earlier. The economy is still farming, with maize, beans and fodder crops plus pigs and poultry, although the municipality has changed a great deal with the growth of the Angelópolis district: 62% of its land is now urban. For visitors there is an unusual draw for such a small place: a charrería school, and some ranches nearby put on bullfights and teach horse riding. At the table, mole poblano rules, with beans, tamales and tortillas alongside.