Santa Bárbara Acuicuizcatepec

Santa Bárbara Acuicuizcatepec lies in the municipality of Xaltocan, about 5 km north of the municipal seat, at 2,575 metres above sea level. The 2020 census counted 846 residents, which puts it among the six most populous localities of a municipality that had 10,605 people in total. The name is Nahuatl and translates as "place of water swallows"; the form Acuicuizcatepec already appears as a pueblo in the jurisdiction of Tlaxcala in a historical record covering 1701 to 1808, within the diocese of Puebla.

The building that organises village life is the church of Santa Bárbara. Its doorway is a round stone arch with plain jambs, set in a wall of evenly cut stone with a wooden door studded with ironwork. In photographs taken in December 2019 the entrance carries a large patron-feast arch made of greenery and coloured flowers, with the words "Bendícenos Santa Bárbara" and an image of the saint at the top; these are the arches Tlaxcala villages put up for their fiestas.

The Xaltocan municipal site lists farming, livestock and forestry as the main activities of the locality, and the landscape is cropland above 2,500 metres. Acuicuizcatepec has no hotel or tourist services of its own: it works as a short stop to see the church and its churchyard, or as part of a loop through the villages of the municipality, such as San Simón Tlatlahuquitepec, the largest community, or La Ascensión Huitzcolotepec. There are no published mass or visiting schedules, so it is best to ask in the village.