Chinameca

Chinameca is the seat of the municipality of the same name, on the southern Veracruz plain at the foot of the Los Tuxtlas range, about 40 metres above sea level. In 2020 it had 13,974 residents, nearly double the 7,547 of 2010, and the municipality counts 98 localities. The name is Nahuatl and is usually glossed as "in the ropes of chinamil". In the 16th century the town belonged to the province of Coatzacoalcos; San Juan Chinameca became a municipality in 1831, and early in the 20th century a liberal club named for Vicente Guerrero met here among sympathisers of the Revolution, remembered today by a monument.

What sets the town apart is its food. Carne de chinameca, red or orange depending on the spices in the marinade, is sold in markets across the region and eaten with memelas; locals say Hernán Cortés tasted it, though nothing documents that. Other local dishes are pellizcadas, tamales of minced meat or fresh corn, frijoles charros with plantain and cream, and pork pozole. Crafts that survive are palm fans and brooms of grass straw.

The economy is farming and cattle: grains, citrus and African oil palm, plus poultry and animal-feed and palm-oil plants in the municipality. The big fiesta honours the Purísima Concepción, patron of the town, from 28 November to 8 December, followed on 9-12 December by the Virgen de Guadalupe. This is a place to pass through and eat, not a monument town; the parish church of San Juan Bautista, dated to 1600 by local tradition and remodelled in 1959-1962, is the one old building standing.