La Tinaja

Anyone driving from central Mexico to the southeast almost certainly passes La Tinaja, even if only at speed. This village in the municipality of Cotaxtla, at about 135 metres on the Sotavento plain, exists above all as a junction: here Federal Highway 150, linking Mexico City with the port of Veracruz, meets Federal Highway 145, which begins at this very spot and leads on towards Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo. The two free roads join in the middle of the village, while the toll motorways, 150D and 145D, connect on its outskirts.

The local economy lives off that crossing, made up mostly of services and work tied to road transport. The population has grown slowly, from 1,665 in 2005 to 1,918 in 2020, yet La Tinaja is still bigger than Cotaxtla itself, the municipal seat, which has under 1,400 people.

The municipality's roots run far deeper than the asphalt. Cotaxtla was once Cuetlaxtlan, a Nahuatl-speaking lordship that the Mexica conquered and turned into a tribute province owing cloth, cacao, tropical feathers, amber and gems. It rebelled with encouragement from Tlaxcala, and Axayacatl had to reconquer it, installing a Mexica governor and a garrison. Today the surroundings are warm lowland crossed by the Cotaxtla River, with low deciduous forest, average temperatures of 24 to 26 °C and summer rains.