San José La Máquina is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Suchitepéquez, located approximately 26 kilometres (16 mi) south of the departmental capital of Mazatenango.

[1] The terrain of San José La Máquina is flat, with an elevation ranging from 51 to 95 metres (167 to 312 ft) above sea level, and has been almost completely deforested for use as agricultural land.

[4] San José La Máquina stands on land that was previously part of a guayacán-producing hacienda called "Trapiche Grande" which was owned by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.

The subdivision located in Suchitepéquez was given the name La Máquina ("the machine"), after a belt conveyor was found abandoned there on the road between Cuyotenango and Tulate.

[1] From 1980 onwards, the local inhabitants made repeated efforts to elevate San José La Máquina to the level of a municipality.

[1] In the 2018 Guatemalan Census, which had an estimated underenumeration rate of 9.0%,[6] San José La Máquina recorded a total population of 23,062 inhabitants.