Sumidero

Sumidero is one of the larger villages in the municipality of Ixtaczoquitlán, with 4,559 residents in the 2020 census. It sits at about 1,050 metres, 7 km northeast of the municipal seat, in the hilly country between Orizaba and Córdoba, and Nahuatl is still spoken in many homes.

Farming shaped the place. In colonial times the land belonged to the Marquis de la Colina and was divided into 18 ranches, among them Despeñadero, Potrerillo, Mata de Caña and Los Berros, which together grew around a hundred thousand tobacco plants; more than three thousand people already lived here. A 1925 decree briefly made Sumidero the seat of the municipality, but on 30 June 1926 the seat went back to Ixtaczoquitlán for good.

Most people still work the land, in a mild, wet municipality (around 18 °C on average and 1,800 mm of rain a year) known for coffee, sugar cane, chayote and flowers. The festive year is full: Saint Michael on 29 September, Saint Jude Thaddeus on 28 October and the Virgin of Juquila on 8 and 12 December, plus the raising of the Cross in May and the ritual called la viuda ("the widow") that closes the last day of the coffee harvest. Local craftspeople make crowns from paper and corn husk (totomoxtle), do decorative ironwork and paint in oils.