San Carlos

Its name comes from Charles Borromeo, the saint the village keeps as its patron. San Carlos belongs to Libres, in north-central Puebla, and sits at 2,411 metres; the 2020 census counted 2,199 residents. As the crow flies it is about 69 km from the city of Puebla and 28 km from Huamantla, across the line in Tlaxcala. The photo shows the church of San Juan Bautista in the nearby town of Libres, the municipal seat, a few kilometres away.

The territory of Libres, almost 275 km², has two very different faces. To the east lies a plain on an old lake bed, part of the Llanos de San Juan, at around 2,360 m; to the west the ground breaks into mountains that already belong to the Sierra Norte, and along the border with Tlaxcala runs another range that reaches 3,200 m in places. There are no permanent rivers: the streams rise in the hills, flow only in season, and many end up in a ravine that crosses the municipality from west to east, known as La Cañada. Other seasonal channels are the Cacaloco, Caja de Agua, La Zacapipila and Tulimán. In the west there are springs whose water is piped to supply the towns.

This is cold and rather dry country: average temperatures run from 10 to 16 °C, with 400 to 900 mm of rain a year. Nearly two thirds of the municipal land is farmed and about a quarter is still forest. On the plain the big fields grow barley, maize, potatoes, tomatoes and alfalfa; in the hills people work small plots, watered from the little streams even in winter, with broad beans, squash, oats and beans. That larder shows on the local table, with lamb barbacoa, broad-bean stews, tamales, chileatole and mole poblano, apple and tejocote preserves or candied squash for dessert, and pulque to drink.