La Magdalena Soltepec

La Magdalena Soltepec lies in the western part of Tlaxco municipality, at 2,519 metres above sea level and about 21 km in a straight line from the town of Tlaxco. The 2020 census counted 640 people in 150 homes, up from 584 in 2010, and nearly every home has electricity and piped water. The climate is highland: a mean of 13.5 °C, winter frosts (the lowest reading since 1970 was -4.5 °C in February 1976) and about 666 mm of rain a year, with June the wettest month.

The church is what stands out. A front-on photo on Wikimedia Commons shows a five-tier tower that narrows toward the top, walls of irregular flagstone combined with reddish brick, a balcony at every level and small tile images, among them a female figure above the main door, set in a churchyard with a white railing and a street paved in hexagonal cobbles. Its look is very different from the colonial churches of Tlaxco town.

The village sits in the Soltepec area, a name shared by neighbouring settlements: San Lorenzo Soltepec is about 2.8 km west and Cerro Soltepec, 2,874 metres high, rises 5.7 km to the north. Larger neighbouring communities include José María Morelos Buenavista, 4.4 km south, San José Tepeyahualco, 5.1 km southwest, and Ignacio Zaragoza, 7 km north. There are no hotels or tourist services in the village; visitors tend to pass through between these communities or come to see the church.