San Martín Totoltepec

Just 7.27 km² is enough to make a municipality: San Martín Totoltepec is one of the smallest in Puebla, and this village of 671 people (in 2020) is its seat and one of only two communities in it. The name joins tototl, bird, and tepetl, hill, with the place suffix co: "on the hill of the birds". It became a municipality in 1922. It sits at about 1,335 meters in hot country, 30 km from Atlixco and 46 km from the state capital, bordered by Teopantlán to the north, Epatlán to the west, and Izúcar de Matamoros and Xochiltepec to the south and east.

The setting is the basin of the Nexapa River, a tributary of the Atoyac and the Balsas: a warm sub-humid climate over nine tenths of the land, averages of 20 to 24 °C and 900 to 1,000 mm of rain in summer. Low tropical forest covers almost 65% of the territory; a little under 30% is farmed and the rest is the village itself. With so little land, the population is dense for the region: the 2010 census counted 651 people in the whole municipality, about 90 per square kilometer.

The local landmark is the church of San Martín, built in the 16th century, which INEGI says is open every day of the year. Pottery is the craft that supports many families: clay pitchers and jugs are shaped here. The kitchen offers mole poblano, green pipián, barbacoa de olla and bean tamales, plus conextle, a dish prepared with ash, and for dessert chilacayote squash sweets, jamoncillo and palanqueta. The municipality has its own wind band. About two dozen residents speak Mixtec.