San Sebastián Puctla

San Sebastián Puctla's fame comes from a bandit: the body of Crispín Sosa, el Güilo Sosa, an outlaw renowned across the Mixteca of Puebla and the Matamoros valley, rests here, and because it was his birthplace the state government once deemed the community dangerous in the 1970s, when a popular couplet about him made the rounds. The village belongs to Izúcar de Matamoros in southwestern Puebla and had 1,065 inhabitants in 2020, at 1,223 metres. Atlixco is 39 km away in a straight line, Cuautla in Morelos 57 and the state capital about 61 km.

The name Puctla is interpreted as "origin of smoke" and is linked to ancient settlements of the Olmec-Xicalanca, among the region's first peoples. The patron is Saint Sebastian, a martyr invoked against plague and one of the saints most often depicted in art, whose feast falls on 20 January, traditionally joined with that of Saint Fabian. In the early 20th century Puctla was among the first places in the area to grow rice; today people live mainly from sugarcane, maize and livestock.

Izúcar de Matamoros is the state's sixth-largest municipality, at about 539 km², and mostly occupies the Matamoros valley, a plain of about 1,300 metres that descends from the foot of the Sierra Nevada and is crossed by the Nexapa river; to the south the land turns mountainous with the spurs of the Sierra Mixteca. The climate is warm and subhumid, averaging 18 to 26 °C with 700 to 900 mm of rain, and more than half the territory keeps its tropical dry forest. Aqueducts and canals water the canefields that hold up the economy. The seat is known for polychrome clay trees of life and for its farmers' brass bands; on the table there is enjocado, chicken with jocoque and guajillo, plus tlaxcales, green pipián, pozole, alegrías and pumpkin-seed jamoncillo.