La Trinitaria

La Trinitaria is a town of 11,055 people (2020 census) at roughly 1,553 metres, on Federal Highway 190. It used to be called Zapaluta, a name glossed as path of the dwarfs. The parish of the Holy Trinity of Zapaluta was founded between 1596 and 1615 and run from Comitán; in 1821 Zapaluta and Comitán proclaimed the independence of Chiapas. Governor Flavio Guillén gave the municipality its present name in 1911, after the annual fair of its patron, and it has been a permanent municipality since 1915.

The Holy Trinity fair lasts ten days and opens forty days after Holy Week; the 2025 edition ran from 6 to 16 June, with a Sunday parade of floats and the entrance of candles and flowers. There is also an autumn fair around All Saints, from October into the first days of November, and neighbourhood fiestas: San José on 19 and 20 March in colonia Álvaro Obregón and Santa Rita from 21 to 23 May.

Mostly, La Trinitaria is the jumping-off point for the south and east of the municipality. The road to the Lagunas de Montebello, the most travelled, runs through here and connects with Chinkultic (about 32 km from town), the national park and the Parador Santa María (22 km), which has a museum and a hotel. The municipality also has the El Lagartero archaeological site, the San Francisco caves, the El Sabinal park, the ruins of Tepancoapa (30 km) and the church and convent of San José Coneta (36 km). The municipality has a cold zone, home to Chinkultic, and a warm one, home to El Lagartero; about 850 mm of rain falls a year, mostly from May to October.