Oteapan

Oteapan is the seat of the municipality of the same name, on the Sotavento plain of southern Veracruz, roughly 50 to 60 metres above sea level. It was a very old Popoluca town and in the 16th century belonged to the province of Coatzacoalcos. Its name, from Nahuatl, means "road to the well". The town had 10,343 residents in 2020. A stream that feeds the Chacalapa River, a tributary of the Coatzacoalcos, runs through it; the climate is hot, averaging 25-26 degrees, with about 2,600 mm of rain a year, heavy in summer and early autumn.

For a visitor the fiesta calendar is the most visible thing: 1-5 May, the Señor de la Salud; 16 July, the Virgen del Carmen; 21-22 November, Santa Cecilia; 11-12 December, the Virgen de Guadalupe; and on 28 December the traditional "Pobre Viejo" contest, where people compete with verses on the year's events. Wind-band music is typical, and local bands play outside the state and abroad.

Crafts are clay pots, hand-woven skirts (refajos) and baskets. On the table you find iguana in mole, tamales of cooked masa, chipilín, fresh corn and chanchamitos, picadillo, mole de acuyo, mondongo and beef broth. The local economy is corn, rice and dual-purpose cattle, with shops selling groceries, shoes, hardware and building materials.