San Juan Tepulco

Tetl means stone, pul signals abundance and co marks a place: Tepulco means "place of many stones". The name fits a village in Acajete, a municipality where INEGI reports that metates, molcajetes, temolotes and metlapiles are carved from stone. Its patron is John the Evangelist. In 2020 it had 10,288 residents, making it a sizable town, at 2,576 meters, about 24 km east of Puebla city and 16 km from Ixtenco across the line in Tlaxcala, on the cold plains that stretch between the capital and La Malinche.

Acajete ranges from 2,280 to 3,200 meters. More than half of its land is farmed and nearly a fifth is built up; woodland covers another 19%, with some grassland and scrub. It is chilly for central Mexico: averages run from 6 to 16 °C and 700 to 1,100 mm of rain falls, mostly in summer. Its water flows toward the Atoyac, in the Balsas basin, while a small corner drains to the Totolzingo lagoon. Monuments listed by INEGI include the parish of Santa María de la Asunción in the municipal seat, the church of Santa Isabel Tepetzala, dated 1563, and the Acaxetl cultural center. More than 3,100 people in the municipality speak an Indigenous language, mainly Nahuatl.

The local table is generous: red rice with peas and carrots, mole poblano with turkey leg dusted in sesame, fava bean tamales and "tamales tontos" made with lard and salt, backbone mole, tlaxcales, barbacoa and chileatole, all with handmade tortillas cooked on clay griddles. For festivals people bake "pan de burro", a festival bread scented with orange blossom, walnut and egg. There are also glazed sweets of fig, pear and chilacayote squash, coconut candies, quince jelly, and preserves of tejocote and apricot. Wind bands and orchestras play at the patron saint festivals.