Tlacotepec de Porfirio Díaz

Of all Puebla's municipal seats, this is the one farthest from the capital, mostly because of how hard it is to reach: only rural roads winding through the mountains get here. Tlacotepec de Porfirio Díaz is the seat of the municipality of San Sebastián Tlacotepec, at the far southeastern tip of the state where Puebla meets Veracruz and Oaxaca. It lies at only about 300 m above sea level, far below most of the state, and had 1,783 residents in 2020. Huautla de Jiménez in Oaxaca is about 31 km away in a straight line and Córdoba in Veracruz about 55 km.

The name, from the Nahuatl tlahco, half, and tepetl, hill, with the ending co, means "halfway up the hill"; the surname recalls Porfirio Díaz. Its origins are tied to Nahua and Mazatec settlements, and in the early 16th century the town was set up as an encomienda; in 1900 it became the municipal seat. Both languages are still alive: in 2010 almost 95% of the municipality's residents over five spoke an Indigenous language, mainly Nahuatl and, after it, Mazatec. The parish church, dedicated to Saint Sebastian the Martyr, dates from the 16th century.

The municipality, about 241 km², is one of Puebla's most isolated. Here the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental drop toward the Gulf plain: in the southwest rise the Sierra del Axusco, part of the Sierra de Zongolica, and Cerro Cebaltepec, while the centre and east are nearly flat. The Tonto River, regarded as the main source of the Papaloapan, marks the border with Veracruz; the Coyolapa separates it from Zoquitlán and Eloxochitlán, and the Petlapa from Oaxaca. It rains as in few places in the country: over 4,000 mm a year in a southeastern strip. Tall evergreen rainforest grows in the north and temperate forest on the southern heights. People weave palm and cane, and cook hip or backbone mole, totopos, tlaxcales and chileatole, with peach, tejocote and apple preserves, chocolate, aguardiente and mezcal.