Chapantongo

Chapantongo is the seat of the municipality of the same name, on the western edge of the Mezquital Valley, at 2,120 metres. The name is Nahuatl and has been read as "in the stream of the chia"; it used to be written Chapantonco. Tradition credits Otomi and Toltec groups with the origin of the town, though no founding date survives.

The colonial record is better documented. Franciscans came through to teach but built nothing; it was the Augustinians who raised the church in 1550, as a vicarage, and by 1561 a friar lived here with two others. In that same year of 1550, according to a document in the parish archive, Viceroy Luis de Velasco granted the local people two springs, El Tanque and the Tanquillo, and land from the Tenería hacienda was used to found the town. In 1772 and 1773 two councillors asked for property titles.

Today 2,006 people live here (INEGI 2020), about 15% of the municipal total, and only 12 speak an indigenous language. Commerce and farming carry the economy. The climate is semi-dry and temperate, with an annual mean of 12 to 18 C and rain concentrated between June and September. Santiago Apostol is the town's patron saint.