Xoxocotla

Xoxocotla is the seat of the municipality of the same name, high in the Sierra de Zongolica south of Orizaba, right on the border with Puebla. The village sits at about 2,100 metres in a valley ringed by forested hills, and had 2,790 residents in 2020. The Nahuatl name translates as "place where green ocote pines abound", and pine wood is still one of the municipality's main sources of income. Across the municipality nearly everyone identifies as Indigenous, and close to a quarter of residents speak Nahuatl.

Local records trace the village to a chapel for San Isidro Labrador built in 1841 beside the San Simón River; later the settlement moved to the middle of the valley. In 1846 the pueblo of San Salvador Xoxocotla secured its own land. Work on a courthouse began in 1873, the building became a school in 1878, and the town hall went up that same year. The Xoxocotla ejido received final title to its land in 1944.

The climate is temperate with sharp swings, averaging around 12 °C, with heavy summer rain and drizzle in winter. Pine, oak and sacred fir cover the hills. Farmers grow broad beans, barley, maize and beans and raise pigs and sheep, and the wool is woven at home into blankets and mangas, the poncho-like wrap worn against the mountain cold. Mole and lamb barbacoa are the local dishes.

Most of the festive calendar falls in May: the Virgin of Juquila on the 2nd and 3rd, then the patron saint, San Isidro Labrador, from the 14th to the 16th. The Virgin of Guadalupe follows on 11 and 12 December.