Pueblo chico, infierno grande (English: Small town, big hell) is a Mexican historical telenovela set in the Pre-Mexican Revolution period, produced by José Alberto Castro for Televisa in 1997.

[2] It is also the title of a 1926 Chilean movie directed by Nicanor de la Sotta, starring Ernestina Estay, Evaristo Lillo and Plácido Martín [3] It is also a 1941 Argentinian movie by Orestes Caviglia, written by Henri Martinent and Eduardo Pappo, shot in Argentina with cinematography by Roque Funes, starring Arturo Bamio, Lucía Barause and Nélida Bilbao with music by Alejandro Gutiérrez del Barrio.

[4] Pueblo chico, infierno grande takes place in Nahuatzen, a small town in the Sierra Purépecha in Michoacán, Mexico, in early 1900.

The young girl Leonarda Ruán (Aracely Arámbula), is the youngest daughter of the venerable Don Prisciliano Ruan (Enrique Rocha).

That same afternoon, a girl named Magdalena Beltran (Evangelina Sosa), falls for a young man nicknamed "El Batan" (Jose Maria Yazpik).

The Puritan Leonarda's sisters, Cleotilde (Anna Silvetti), Eloísa (Olivia Bucio) and Jovita (Silvia Manríquez), are the main judges.

Characters like the Father Arceo (Luis Gimeno), the healer Martina "La Perra" (Patricia Reyes Spíndola) the Nanny Maclovia (Angelina Peláez), Don Arcadio (José Carlos Ruiz) and Miss Gildarda (Beatriz Cecilia) are allies.

Aside from the main story, there are stories of other villagers like the sisters Porfiria and Rutila Cumbios (Rosa Maria Bianchi and Ana Bertha Espín), Miss Gildard Zavala and her mother Mrs. Hipolita (Alicia Montoya), Leonarda's sisters, and Leonarda's nephews, Priscilla (Ana de la Reguera) and Baldo (Germán Gutiérrez), who are in love despite being first cousins, so a Little town, becomes a Big hell...