Naranjos

Naranjos is the seat of the municipality of Naranjos Amatlán and the market town of the Sierra de Otontepec in northern Veracruz, close to the Tamiahua lagoon. It sits on the Tancochín River, northwest of the sierra, 55 m above sea level, and had 19,272 residents in 2020. The climate is hot and humid, averaging about 23.5 °C, with May and June often close to 40 °C.

In the early 1900s the spot was known as La Providencia and was settled by the owners of plots handed out in the land division of around 1895; Juan Cruz, Pilar Jiménez, Filiberto Herbert and the Casados family are remembered as the first residents. Oil survey crews gave it its present name: the only ford across the river was marked by wild orange trees, a variety called cucho whose fruit fed the local parrots, so it became El Paso de los Naranjos. In 1909 the El Águila company began a rail spur from Cuesillos to the crossing and on to the Chinampa 1 field, and workers arrived from all over Mexico. The Naranjos No. 1 well produced up to 50,000 barrels a day, and from 1916 to 1922 money flowed freely. The town outlived the boom: it became a congregación in 1925, municipal seat in the 1940s, a villa in 1960 and a city in 1974, and in 1996 the municipality was renamed from Amatlán Tuxpan to Naranjos Amatlán. Pemex still runs workshops here.

The centre has Parque Constitución, the parish church of San José de la Montaña, the market, Parque La Arboleda and a suspension bridge over the Tancochín; the Museo de la Huasteca displays archaeological pieces from the region, and a giant statue on a roundabout shows a picker tipping out a basket of oranges. Carnival is the town's pride, billed locally as the second in Veracruz: troupes, floats and costumes cover some 2.5 km of downtown streets in front of tens of thousands of people and end at a stage facing Parque Constitución with concerts. Holy Week brings a living Way of the Cross recognised by the state tourism office. Local crafts include flowers made from corn husks, vine baskets and hats, and the food to try is zacahuil, adobo and bocoles.