Huejutla de Reyes

The name comes from Nahuatl wexotl, willow, and -tlah, a place of plenty: Huejutla is the place of willows. Founded by Huastecs, it was tied to the Metztitlán lordship before 1407 and fell to the Aztec ruler Ahuízotl in 1486. In 1544 Juan Eustaquio oversaw work on the friary that is now the Cathedral of Cristo Rey, seat of a diocese created in 1922. On 21 May 1866 the republican Antonio Reyes, "El Tordo", took the town back from the imperial forces with just forty men. Huejutla became a city in 1923, the same year electricity arrived.

With 44,311 residents in 2020 it is the largest town in northern Hidalgo. It sits only 137 metres above sea level beside the Tahuizán River, in a warm, humid climate; in April 2017 the thermometer hit 50 °C. Almost one in five people speak Huasteca Nahuatl, and much of the region's trade runs through here: on Sundays the street market fills the centre with hundreds of vendors, and the bus station links the town with Pachuca, Mexico City, Tampico, Monterrey and Guadalajara.

The calendar is the reason to come. On Shrove Tuesday the mecos parade, dancers smeared with tepetate clay. On 21 May the Fiesta del Tordo brings a torch relay and a parade. From 30 October to 2 November Xantolo, the Huasteca's Day of the Dead, sets up a monumental altar downtown with cuanegros, coles and tecomates dances, and in late December the two-week Feria de la Nochebuena carries on a fair first granted by the State of Mexico in 1829. On the table: zacahuil, a giant tamal wrapped in banana leaves, bocoles stuffed with beans or pork crackling, and sweets of piloncillo, coconut and charamusca.