Cruz Verde

At 1,940 metres, Cruz Verde is one of the largest communities in Calcahualco, the Veracruz municipality that climbs the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental between Pico de Orizaba and the Cofre de Perote. Municipal land runs from about 1,400 m up to 5,500 m, and Cruz Verde sits in the lived-in, farmed belt just above the municipal seat, on the same road that comes up from Coscomatepec.

It had 1,151 residents in 2020. A century earlier, in 1921, there were 336, and by 2000 the count had passed 840. In 2020 over two thirds of homes had a mobile phone and about a quarter had internet.

Calcahualco's climate is temperate and humid, with an annual mean of about 13 °C and heavy rain in summer and early autumn. With that average, pack a warm layer. Almost the whole municipality drains into the Jamapa River basin, fed here by year-round streams such as the Cuapa, the Tizaqui and the Tliapa.

The municipality's name is usually translated from Nahuatl as "in the abandoned houses". The main feast is that of San Salvador, Calcahualco's patron, from 5 to 7 August in the municipal seat, a few minutes from Cruz Verde.