Aguilera

After the town of Sayula de Alemán itself, Aguilera is the most populous place in the municipality: the 2020 census recorded 3,164 residents. It stretches along Federal Highway 185, the Transístmica road linking Coatzacoalcos with Salina Cruz, about 11 km south of the municipal seat and some 120 metres above sea level.

The surroundings are the broad lowlands of southeastern Veracruz: almost flat, gently rolling land where grassland covers nine-tenths of the municipality and patches of forest keep mahogany, amate, jiniquil and palo de agua trees. It is hot all year, averaging 24 to 26 °C, with 1,500 to 2,000 mm of rain, mostly in summer. Sayula is a crossroads: Highways 145 and 185 meet here, and the trans-isthmus railway and the Córdoba-Medias Aguas line join within the municipality.

Festive life centres on Sayula, where on 15 May Saint Isidore the Farmer is paraded on an ox cart decked with tissue paper, escorted by riders and followed by a fandango of jarana players outside the town hall, and on 15 August the Virgin of the Assumption is celebrated. Local crafts include brooms, palm fans and clay griddles and pots, and the food runs to tamal de tigre (masa with chipo beans), red mole, chipil mole and popo.