Tlaola

Few municipal seats in Puebla are so small next to their own villages: in 2020 Tlaola had 1,561 residents, fewer than Xaltepuxtla, Chicahuaxtla, Xochinanacatlán or Tlaltepango in the same municipality. It sits at 1,172 m in the Sierra Norte, about 14 km from Huauchinango and some 46 km from Tulancingo, Hidalgo. The name comes from the Nahuatl Tlaolatl; the usual explanation links it to tlaolli, shelled maize, and atl, water, giving "maize that sprouts from the water" or "among the dry shelled maize".

In the Postclassic, Totonac and Otomí groups settled this area, and they ended up paying tribute to Texcoco once the Triple Alliance controlled the sierra. After the Conquest the land was granted as an encomienda; from 1750 it answered to Zacatlán in church matters, and in the 19th century it belonged to the district of Huauchinango, until the free municipality was created in 1895 with this village as its seat. Its historic monument is a parish church built in the 16th century. More than ten thousand people in the municipality speak an Indigenous language, mainly Nahuatl and Totonac.

Water shapes the landscape. The climate is humid and semi-warm with rain all year, average temperatures of 16 to 20 °C and 2,400 to 2,600 mm of precipitation. The municipality lies in the Tecolutla basin and is crossed by the Necaxa and Laxaxalpan rivers; just over half the land is farmed and a third is still forest. The big festival runs from 13 to 15 August for the Virgin of the Assumption, with masses, processions and the dances of the quetzalines, voladores, weavers, charros and huehues; for the Day of the Dead families build altars with flower arrangements. On the table: mole poblano, bean tamales and chileatole, with coffee and water-based chocolate.