My own engagement with the region began in 2014, while working at the Centro INAH Hidalgo in the area of legal and technical protection of archaeological sites. In the course of that work I made initial visits to Huazalingo and Yahualica, during which local residents guided me to several archaeological sites in a single day. Community members referred to these sites collectively as zacuales — a regional term used to designate prehispanic remains — and their familiarity with the landscape revealed an archaeological presence far greater than the official registry suggested. The questions that community members raised about the nature and significance of these sites became part of the research agenda that motivated the present project, and their knowledge of the terrain proved indispensable for orienting the subsequent systematic investigation.

My research uses household archaeology as a theoretical and analytical framework to investigate regional interaction and long-term sociopolitical change in the northeastern highlands of Hidalgo—a region where little systematic work has been conducted. Through survey, excavation, and laboratory analyses of ceramics, lithics from domestic contexts, I examine how communities organized everyday life, produced locally, and shaped their own histories across the Epiclassic and Postclassic periods. By foregrounding household practices and regional connections, my project brings visibility to communities that have long remained absent from broader Mesoamerican archaeological narratives.