Xicotepec

Xicotepec lies in the Sierra Norte of Puebla, between the San Marcos and Necaxa river basins. Its Indigenous past is recorded in the sixteenth-century Codex of Xicotepec, a pictorial history of Xicotepec and neighbouring Huauchinango that recounts origins and events before and after Spanish conquest.

Colonial accounts place the foundation of San José de Xicotepec around 1570, although the exact date is uncertain. Augustinian friars from Huauchinango established a convent there between 1571 and 1574. The codex and the later religious institutions offer distinct evidence of the changing life of this mountain settlement.