Santiago Coltzingo

The name describes the ground: Coltzingo joins coltic, twisted or bent, the diminutive tzin and the locative co, translating as "in the little bends", fitting for a village set among the folds of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. Its patron is Saint James the Greater. It lies at 2,460 metres, and the 2020 census counted 3,635 inhabitants. It is one of Tlahuapan's eight auxiliary towns, whose auxiliary presidents are chosen by plebiscite on the last Sunday of March, and it sits about 7.8 km southeast of Santa Rita Tlahuapan, the seat, 29 km from Huejotzingo and 52 km from Puebla in a straight line.

Tlahuapan is the corner of Puebla that touches both the State of Mexico and Tlaxcala, and its terrain climbs from 2,300 to 3,500 metres up the volcanic foothills. Four in ten hectares are still covered in forest and just over half are farmed. It is cool most of the year: averages run from 8 to 16 °C, with a temperate or semi-cold climate and 900 to 1,100 mm of summer rain. Flowing west to east through the municipality are Las Rositas, the Río Grande, the Chautonco and the Ayotla, streams that feed the upper Atoyac, a river born near here on the State of Mexico border.

The seat keeps the 16th-century church of Santa Rita, and neighbouring Santa María Texmelucan a church from the late 15th and early 16th centuries; in Guadalupe Zaragoza stand the ruins of the former Guadalupito las Dalias hacienda. Local craftspeople make crackle-glazed earthenware, costume jewellery, toys and Christmas ornaments. The cooking makes the most of the mountain climate: trout prepared several ways, broad-bean soup, bean tamales, tlanipa or hoja santa, chilacayote squash, tamaloyota and mole poblano, plus tejocote preserves, pepitoria, peaches and pears for something sweet. To drink there is pulque, fruit wines and cider. In the past women wore wrapped skirts, embroidered blouses and rebozos, and men white trousers, palm hats and huaraches.