Río Chiquito

Río Chiquito is the biggest locality in the municipality of Santiago Jocotepec, in the Choapam district of the Papaloapan region. The 2020 census counted 2,145 people, up from 1,940 in 2010 and 1,825 in 2005, so a large share of a 732 km² municipality (created on 15 March 1825) lives here. It sits only 43 m above sea level on low, hot and very wet ground. INEGI figures collected by Pueblos de América give an average temperature of 24.8 °C and about 2,334 mm of rain a year, falling on roughly 279 days.

The population is almost entirely indigenous: about 99% of residents identify as such and around 81% speak an indigenous language. A Wikimedia Commons photograph taken from a lookout in the Chinantec sierra shows, in the distance, the Cordón 20 Cerros and the western side of the Río Chiquito ejido: green forested hills and farm plots in the valley. That is what you notice on arrival, with the mountains rising right behind the houses.

The nearest neighbours are small: Cerro Caliente 1.4 km to the southeast, Luis Echeverría about 2.6 km to the southwest, and El Porvenir, a hamlet of a little over a hundred people, about 5 km to the east. Monte Negro, the other large locality in the municipality, has around 2,000 residents. Río Chiquito has no registered lodging; the nearest is 30 to 40 km away, so treat it as a day stop from Tuxtepec rather than a place to sleep. It suits anyone curious about the Chinantec communities of the region; there is no formal list of tourist sights.