Zacapala

Zacapala's Nahuatl name pairs zacatl, maize straw, with palani, to rot, giving "rotting straw". The village, home to 1,182 people in 2020, is the seat of a municipality of almost 393 km² and 4,647 residents in south-central Puebla, part of the Mixteca poblana. Mixtec and Popoloca people had settled here by the 9th century.

The oldest surviving building is the church of San Juan Evangelista, completed in 1700; its parish records begin in 1842. A civil registry opened in 1872, the same year Zacapala became a free municipality.

Houses spread at roughly 1,300 m on the Tepexi plains. The Ajamilpa, a stream that only runs when summer rain comes down from the ravines to the east, crosses the village, and further south-west the land drops to the Atoyac river. Most of the hills are covered in low deciduous forest, with patches of oak to the east. Farmers grow maize, squash, tomatoes, onions and beans, plus avocado, custard apple and black sapote.

On 27 December the feast of St John the Evangelist brings Masses, a rodeo, cockfights, fireworks and the dance of the Twelve Peers of France; a similar celebration falls on the fourth Friday of Lent. Locals weave sturdy sacks and sleeping mats from ixtle fibre and palm, and the kitchen leans on mole, pipián and ash tamales, with candied squash and seed jamoncillo for dessert.