Tzompantepec

San Salvador Tzompantepec is the seat of the municipality of Tzompantepec in eastern Tlaxcala, about 2,460 metres up on the northern slopes of La Malinche and 9 km southeast of Apizaco. It is a small place: 2,102 people lived here at the 2020 census, while the whole municipality has more than 18,000. The name comes from tzompantli, the rack where the skulls of sacrificed people were displayed, plus the place ending tepec, and is translated as "place where skulls are kept".

The area holds some of the oldest traces of settlement in Tlaxcala, and archaeologists use the name Tzompantepec phase for the period, around 1700-1200 BC, when the first permanent villages appeared here, with communal kilns for firing pottery and cooking maguey leaves. Centuries later it was one of the lordships of pre-Hispanic Tlaxcala. In early September 1519 the country around it saw the battles between the Tlaxcalans under Xicohténcatl Axayacatzin and Hernán Cortés's Spaniards; local tradition holds that on Tzompantzingo hill the Spaniards lost their banner. After those fights the Tlaxcalans became Cortés's allies. The Franciscans built a visiting chapel that answered to Huamantla, and in colonial times Tzompantepec ruled over what are now Cuaxomulco, Tetlanohcan and Teacalco. The municipality was created in 1822. On 1 January 1873 the presidential train of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, opening the Mexican Railway between Mexico City and Veracruz, passed the village station to cheering crowds.

The Divino Salvador parish church stands out from afar for its painted stucco façade with estípite pilasters: at the top Christ appears in glory with Peter, James and John and with Moses and Elijah, the Transfiguration, flanked by Saint Anne and Saint Joachim. The interior was redecorated in the early 20th century but keeps a painting of the souls in purgatory by Antonio Caro, dated 1681. The atrium is still used as a cemetery and is enclosed by a wall of inverted arches. The Divino Salvador feast falls on 6 August, with mañanitas and mariachi at 5 am and a committee that goes out to meet the image at the edge of town; at carnival, camadas of huehues dance in velvet costumes and carved wooden masks. Clay is the local trade: Tzompantepec has workshops making comales, large incised pots and burnished pottery.