San Marcos Tlacoyalco

With 10,509 residents in 2020, San Marcos Tlacoyalco outnumbers the municipal seat itself and is the largest community in Tlacotepec de Benito Juárez. Its name has two possible Nahuatl readings: "in the water of the foxes", if it comes from tlalcoyotl and atl, or "in the ring of rods", if it is built from tlacotl and yahualli; the question remains open. The patron is Mark the Evangelist. The town sits at 1,948 meters, 33 km from Tehuacán, 56 km from Orizaba and about 76 km from the city of Puebla, in the southeast of the state, in the area known as the Tehuacán and Sierra Negra region.

Tlacotepec is a large municipality of about 400 km², ranging from 1,880 to 2,900 meters. It borders Yehualtepec, Palmar de Bravo, Cañada Morelos, Tepanco de López, Juan N. Méndez and Xochitlán Todos Santos, and had 49 communities in 2020. This is where the dry landscape of the Tehuacán valley begins: nearly two thirds of the land has a temperate semi-arid climate, averages run between 12 and 18 °C, and only 400 to 800 mm of rain falls each year. Streams are seasonal, and most of the runoff heads to the Salado River in the Papaloapan basin, the rest to the Atoyac. About half of the land is farmed and nearly 39% is scrub.

The municipality's most striking feature is its Indigenous weight: INEGI counts more than 10,800 speakers of native languages, among them Popoloca, Nahuatl, Mazatec and Mixtec. The municipal seat keeps the 16th-century church of Santa Cruz and a house on Avenida Juárez that served as Benito Juárez's office for three days, which explains the municipality's surname. Santa María la Alta, also in the municipality, weaves hats and other goods from palm. On the table you will find mole poblano, barbacoa and tlacoyos, pitaya and xoconostle sweets, and the ever-present pulque.