San José Chiapa

San José Chiapa is the seat of the municipality of the same name in eastern Puebla, on the Llanos de San Juan between La Malinche to the west and Pico de Orizaba to the east. It stands at about 2,365 m and had 6,271 people in 2020. Chiapa comes from the Nahuatl for "in the marsh": no river crosses it, but in the rainy season the plain forms puddles and mud flats in its hollows, like those that make up Lake Totolcingo to the north-east.

The town began as a Nahua settlement ruled from Tepeaca, then an Aztec garrison. After the Conquest it was placed under the patronage of Saint Joseph and became a stop on the road from Puebla to Veracruz. In 1647 Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza hid here after receiving death threats during his bitter dispute with the Jesuits. On 7 October 1812, at the nearby hacienda of Ozumba, Morelos's troops clashed with royalist forces and the insurgent colonel Mario Tapia was killed. It became a municipality in 1895, was abolished in 1921 and restored in 1923.

On 4 May 2013 the foundation stone of Audi's car plant was laid in San José Chiapa; it opened on 30 September 2016. To the north the municipality borders Tlaxcala: Huamantla, Cuapiaxtla and El Carmen Tequexquitla.