Santa María Malacatepec

A malacate is the spindle used for spinning, and Malacatepec combines malacatl, tepetl, hill, and the locative co: "on the hill of the spindle". The village belongs to Ocoyucan, on the southwestern edge of the Puebla-Tlaxcala metropolitan area, about 16 km in a straight line from the centre of the capital and 13 km from Cholula. The 2020 census counted 5,098 residents, and its houses stand at 2,077 m above sea level. It takes its name from the Virgin Mary, its patron saint.

Ocoyucan began as a pre-Hispanic Nahua settlement in the shadow of two great lordships, Cholula and Huejotzingo. It formed part of the old district of Cholula, and in 1895, when the state was reorganised into districts and municipalities, it became a free municipality. Today it covers a little over 120 km² and borders San Andrés Cholula, the capital, Teopantlán, Atlixco, Santa Isabel Cholula and San Gregorio Atzompa. Its seat, Santa Clara Ocoyucan, keeps a 16th-century parish church dedicated to Saint Clare.

Farming still leads: maize and beans, and in the orchards cherimoya, peaches and avocado; there are cattle, pigs, mules and donkeys, backyard poultry and a beekeeping trade that does very well. Henequen is turned into scrubbers, ropes and cord, and bricks and roof tiles are made too. More than a third of the municipality is still forest and nearly a fifth grassland; the Atoyac River crosses it, and average temperatures run from 14 to 20 °C with 800 to 1,000 mm of rain. The municipal fair falls on 12 August, and on 1 November the dance of the tonchis is performed in memory of the dead. On the table: mole poblano, pipián and tamales with chocolate, atole, champurrado and cider.