LARGELY OVERLOOKED by both foreign and domestic visitors, Tlaxcala offers insights into Mexico’s complex history that you won’t find anywhere else. Located in the country’s central plateau, or Altiplano, it’s still mostly associated with one turbulent chapter: about 500 years ago, it was a highly organised city-state that allied with the Spanish in their attack on Tenochtitlán, centre of the Aztec empire and the site of modern-day Mexico City.
Today, Tlaxcala’s fertile valleys are studded with pre-Hispanic ruins, Baroque churches, rural communities that continue to use ancient agricultural techniques, and haciendas once dedicated to the production of pulque, the fermented agave drink.
In September 2021, I spent four days driving
