Ayotuxtla

With 2,056 residents in the 2020 census, Ayotuxtla is almost twice the size of Texcatepec, the municipal seat further south in the same range. It is an Otomí village in the mountains between northern Veracruz and Hidalgo, and Otomí is still the mother tongue; the local variety is known to linguists as Texcatepec Otomí.

The name comes from the Nahuatl ayotochtli, armadillo, and roughly means "place where armadillos abound". Armadillos are still part of the local wildlife, along with rabbits, squirrels, opossums and badgers, in a temperate forest of oak, ash, ocote pine, willow and poplar. Most of the rain falls in summer and early autumn, and the streams here drain into the Vinasco River, a tributary of the Tuxpan.

What sets Ayotuxtla apart is the Godeni, a spring festival in which the community celebrates the birth of a new flower. Dances performed across the municipality include the Greeting, called Atzi in Otomí, and the Tzujamadi, the dance "of a thousand thanks", accompanied by wind bands, brass bands and huapango. Blouses, tablecloths and napkins are embroidered, baskets are woven and wood is carved, and fiesta tables carry turkey mole and lamb barbacoa. The fields are planted mainly with maize, beans and coffee.