Tlacotepec

The name says nearly everything: tlaco, half; tepetl, hill; plus the locative co. In Nahuatl Tlacotepec means "halfway up the hill", and that is how the village sits, hung on a mid-slope of the Sierra Norte at about 1,339 metres. It belongs to Ahuacatlán, and the 2020 census counted 2,695 residents, which places it among the larger settlements of that mountain municipality. INEGI's catalogue lists it as Tlacotepec (San Mateo).

Ahuacatlán is a land of steady rain. INEGI's municipal compendium records 1,400 to 2,100 millimetres a year and a warm, humid climate with rain in every season across three quarters of the territory; the rest is temperate and humid. Average temperatures run from 14 to 22 degrees. The entire municipality drains toward the Tecolutla River, in the Tuxpan-Nautla region, by way of the Laxaxalpan, and the Ajalpan is among its year-round streams. Two thirds of the land is farmed and one third is still under forest, so wooded patches survive between the plots.

More than eleven thousand people in the municipality speak an Indigenous language, mainly Totonac and Nahuatl, and that blend shows in the speech of the area. Recorded local crafts are pottery, woodcarving and wool weaving. The kitchen offers mole poblano, "puñete" tamales wrapped in papatla leaf, smoked and pressed chicken and chicharrón; people drink coffee and fruit wines and put up fruit preserves. Festival music is played on guitar and violin.