Tecamalucan

Tecamalucan sits at the eastern foot of the Cumbres de Acultzingo, the most rugged stretch of the old road between Mexico City and the port of Veracruz. It lies at 1,380 metres beside the Río Blanco, on Federal Highway 150 between Orizaba and Tehuacán, and had 2,173 residents in 2020. Its Nahuatl name combines stone, house and captivity and is read as "prison".

History has passed right by its door. On 18 May 1862, two weeks after the French defeat at Puebla, a Republican brigade under General Santiago Tapia clashed with Leonardo Márquez's conservative forces near Barranca Seca and the Tecamalucan hacienda, trying to stop them joining the French army as it fell back towards Orizaba. The hacienda is listed among the municipality's historic monuments.

The 20th century gave the village two moments in the spotlight. In 1923, under Governor Adalberto Tejeda, a regional teacher-training school for rural teachers opened here, later closed like the rest of those schools. And from October 1924 to December 1926 Tecamalucan was the municipal seat, until another decree moved it back to Acultzingo.

Today the village has an alameda, schools up to upper secondary, a Banco del Bienestar branch and a petrol station on the highway. Up in the Cumbres there are pine, oak and fir forests, fog for much of the year and frosts from late November to January. On the third Sunday of October the village holds its Día del Excursionista, a day for hikers.