San Juan Amecac

Amecac is built from three Nahuatl words: atl, water; mecatl, rope or thread; and the place suffix co. Together they mean "on the thread of water", a curious name for a village in Atzitzihuacán, whose own name translates as "place of little water". Its patron saint is John the Baptist. With 4,557 residents counted in 2020, Amecac is one of the larger communities in the municipality, sitting at 2,072 meters on the southern skirts of Popocatépetl, about 26 km from Atlixco, 30 km from Cuautla across the line in Morelos, and roughly 53 km from the city of Puebla.

Atzitzihuacán forms the northern edge of the Mixteca Poblana and borders Morelos (Tetela del Volcán) to the west, Tochimilco to the north, Huaquechula and Atlixco to the east, and Acteopan and Tepemaxalco to the south, covering about 127.6 km². Before the Conquest it was home to Nahua groups who paid tribute to the Mexica. In colonial times Dominican friars raised the 16th-century church of Santiago Apóstol in the municipal seat, which still keeps its original layout, and in 1589 the residents petitioned for water to be brought along the Atzintla stream. The area belonged to the old Atlixco district until it became a free municipality in 1895.

The landscape spans two climates: temperate and humid on the higher ground, semi-warm toward the south, with temperatures of 14 to 22 °C and 900 to 1,300 mm of rain a year. Nearly 70% of the municipal land is farmed; the rest is low tropical forest, woodland and grassland. Runoff drains to the Nexapa River, part of the Balsas basin, through year-round streams such as the Atila, Axuxuca, Huexoyo and Ayocuac. INEGI lists pottery and rustic furniture as local trades, and in the kitchen mixiotes, mole poblano, pipián, bean tamales, squash candy, pulque and tejocote brandy; wind bands play at the festivals.