Atltzayanca

Atltzayanca, also spelled Altzayanca or Atlzayanca, is the seat of the municipality of the same name in eastern Tlaxcala, at about 2,600 metres on the slopes of the Sierra de La Caldera. The Nahuatl name is read as "place where the waters break". The 2020 census counted 4,387 people. Its colonial origin is a pulque hacienda: Spanish estates based in Puebla pushed into the Huamantla plains up to the sierra, and the Altzayanca hacienda gathered the few inhabitants from which the town later grew. In 1915 there was fighting here between Carrancistas and Zapatistas.

The parish of Santiago Apóstol, on Avenida Juárez, was built in the 18th century on a Latin-cross plan and redecorated in the 19th in neoclassical style. The Guadalupe chapel stands in the main park. Around town are 19th-century haciendas: San Antonio Zoapila, with a chapel of San Antonio de Padua; Vista Hermosa, 1 km east by dirt track, with the San Miguel chapel; and San José Xalasco.

The fiesta of Santiago Apóstol begins on 16 July, nine days before the 25th, with processions from nearby ranches arriving at the church with banners, the crowning of the fair and pulque queens, a cockfighting tournament and a running of bulls through the streets called the "altzayancada". The moors-and-Christians dance, with a wind band, is an essential part of the festivities. Locals do wood carving and make tinacas for pulque, and the food includes white pinole, mole prieto, chilacayote, mixiote lamb barbacoa and maguey worms.