La Joya

Part of the municipality of Acajete, La Joya sits on the northeastern slopes of the Cofre de Perote, right on federal Highway 140 between Xalapa and Perote. It lies above 2,000 m, in a cool, damp climate where temperatures range from about 5 to 26 °C, roughly 25 km from the state capital. Home to close to 1,500 people, it is known around the region for two things above all: cheese and bread.

The settlement began in the second half of the 16th century beside the royal road linking the port of Veracruz with Mexico City, under the name Estancia de Aguilar, and in the 19th century it was called La Hoya. It even headed its own municipality until 1893, when that was folded into San Salvador Acajete. Around 1920 the name changed to La Joya, "the jewel", which local lore explains with the story of Empress Carlota losing a jewel as she passed through. Piped water from the Juanes spring arrived in 1917, electricity in 1930, and in 1949 Juan Velasco started the cheese and dairy business that now carries much of the local economy.

The cheese makers turn out botanero, string, fresh, aged and smoked cheeses, and bakeries keep family recipes going. Older traces include a stone bread oven believed to be about 300 years old, a hacienda owners' house of around 250 years, arched buildings more than a century old, and, on a roundabout, cannons said to have been left by French troops in 1862. The church of San José, 200 to 250 years old, crowns a small hill; its feast is on 19 March, with fireworks on a castillo the night before. At one end of the village rises Cerro del Hoyo, a volcanic hill about 200 m high.