San Juan Bautista Valle Nacional

Valle Nacional is wedged into the foothills of the Sierra Norte, in the heart of the Chinantla, on the river of the same name, at about 60 or 77 m depending on the source. The Valle Nacional river flows into the Santo Domingo, and their meeting forms the Papaloapan. It is one of the rainiest parts of the country: Wikipedia's climate table gives about 3,335 mm a year. In colonial times it was called Valle Real; after Independence, Valle Nacional. The seat had 5,812 residents in 2020.

Before the conquest this was Chinantlan, a Chinantec city-state that grew maize, squash, beans, chile, achiote and cacao and was conquered by the Aztecs, probably under Moctezuma I, paying tribute in gold and cacao. The present town was founded in 1811 and the municipality dates from 15 March 1825.

The name is tied to the darkest chapter of the Porfiriato. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the valley's tobacco plantations and big haciendas ran on forced labour, and the region also served as a place of confinement for convicts and opponents of Porfirio Díaz. John Kenneth Turner described it in Barbarous Mexico; Enrique Albuerne wrote the novel Valle Nacional, filmed in 1975 as El valle de los miserables, directed by René Cardona Jr. Since 2008 the Fiesta Tabacalera dance has recalled that era, and the Fandango Cuenqueño shows the Veracruz influence that arrived with trade; the first has been performed at the Guelaguetza.

Today visitors come for the river, springs and waterfalls, the murals in town, and the food: mole paste all year and, in San Mateo Yetla, river fish.