Santa María Zacatepec

Santa María Zacatepec is a town in the municipality of Juan C. Bonilla, in the Puebla-Tlaxcala metropolitan area north-west of the capital. It stands at about 2,220 m on the broad Puebla-Tlaxcala valley floor, in the Atoyac River basin, and had 14,823 people in 2020. Puebla International Airport lies right to the north; Cuanalá, the municipal seat, is to the south-west and Huejotzingo to the north-west.

It belonged to San Pedro Cholula until 1907, when it moved to the newly created municipality of Juan C. Bonilla; in 1921 it went back to Cholula, and around 1930 it rejoined Juan C. Bonilla, where it remains. Its main road is federal highway 190, the toll-free Mexico City–Puebla road, which runs through the middle of town and links it with Huejotzingo and San Martín Texmelucan to the north-west and Cholula and Puebla to the south-east.

Zacatepec made national news in 2021. On 30 May a sinkhole about 60 m across suddenly opened in a field next to the town and filled with water. It kept growing for days: on 4 June the nearest house began to collapse and cracks appeared in other buildings, and on 12 June the hole reached about 130 m across and the house, belonging to the Sánchez Xalamihua family, finally fell in.