San Juan Pilcaya

On September 19, 2017 the ground shook almost directly beneath San Juan Pilcaya. The village was among the communities closest to the epicenter of that earthquake and one of the hardest hit: about 85% of its buildings were destroyed or damaged, though no one died. Pilcaya belongs to the municipality of Chiautla, in Puebla's Mixteca region, and had 1,129 residents in 2020. It lies in the southwest of the municipality at roughly 1,170 meters, linked by a paved road of about 20 km to the municipal seat, Chiautla de Tapia.

This is low, hot country, very different from the high valleys of central Puebla. INEGI describes the municipal climate as warm and sub-humid over nearly two thirds of the land, with very hot semi-arid patches, average temperatures of 18 to 26 °C and 700 to 900 mm of summer rain. Low tropical forest covers more than 60% of the territory, woodland another 12%, and only a quarter is farmed. Water drains to the Atoyac and Nexapa rivers of the Balsas basin, and the Nexapa flows year-round. From here Cuautla and Tlaltizapán, in Morelos, are closer (about 70 km) than the city of Puebla, 104 km away.

Chiautla has Augustinian roots: according to INEGI, the church of Tlanichiautla, home to an image of the Virgin of the Assumption, was the first in the municipality, built when the friars arrived; they later raised the convent that is now the center of Catholic life in the municipal seat. Traditional trades here are leather tanning, baqueta and suede work, and wicker. In the kitchen there is pipián with bean tamales, ash tamales with mole poblano, cuatomate salsa, cuahuayote mole and guaje huaxmole, and to drink, mezcal, nanche liqueur and cane spirit fermented with cuatecomate.