The district of Naupan is now being opened up , with the construction of various paved roads after years of neglect. The Nahua of this district are in various stages of cultural assimilation. The proximity to Huauchinango creates both economic opportunities but also the injection of mestizo culture. In all these towns there are still many women using traditional "uniform" ( their word) and the Nahua language is more common than Spanish, although most generation speak Spanish.

Textiles are a way of life here, in the three larger towns of Chachahuantla, Naupan and Tlaxpanaloya I found textile collectives working at popularizing their embroidery. In Naupan there seemed to be a lot of cross pollination of styles used on the blouses that were worn there. In most cases, each town has some particular characteristic of the costume. In Tlaxpanaloya when I showed a picture of various embroidery patterns from all over Mexico, the lady was positive that the example from Naupan was her work. It all looks very similar and around 12 towns to some degree wear a very similar costume (uniform). You can also see this style costume also worn in some towns of Acaxochitlan, Hidalgo, which neighbors Chachahuantla.

The town of Huilacapixtla has a different style and after a day or so I could tell those women from the other towns. Ok, they look a lot alike check out the details in these galleries.

The Nahua are the largest Indian group in Mexico, 25% of all native language speakers are Nahua. The wide dispersion of the Nahua speakers is the result of the expansion of the Aztec empire and the colonization of the conquered areas. I believe that it is impossible to get an accurate count of the Nahua due to the varied areas they now live in. However, I would estimate considering that actual census figures and the under count that there are 2.5 million Nahua in Mexico. They live in the States of Mexico, Puebla, San Luis Potosi, Vera Cruz, Hidalgo, Morelos and Guerrero and in the Mexico's Federal district (Mexico City), there is also a presence in the state of Jalisco and Tlaxcala.