Texistepec

Texistepec is the seat of the municipality of the same name in southern Veracruz, about 40 metres above sea level and some 285 km by road from Xalapa, the state capital. The 2020 census counted 8,969 people in the town and close to 20,000 in the municipality, which covers about 615 km² and has 120 localities. Its neighbours are Soconusco and Oluta to the north, Jáltipan and Hidalgotitlán to the east, Jesús Carranza to the south and Sayula de Alemán to the west. Small streams drain into the Río Chiquito, a tributary of the Coatzacoalcos, and the climate is hot, with rain in summer and autumn.

The name is Nahuatl, read as either "hill of the snail" or "hill of the egg", and the hill is said to give off a foul smell from its sulphur deposits. This was Olmec land: San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, one of the largest Olmec sites, from the Preclassic period, lies within the municipality. In 1580 the town belonged to the province of Coatzacoalcos; by 1831 San Miguel Texistepec was a municipality holding two square leagues of titled land, and on 31 December 1893 Governor Teodoro A. Dehesa made it a free municipality by decree.

Texistepec is home to Texistepec Popoluca, a Zoquean language of the Mixe-Zoque family now kept alive by few speakers, most of them over 70. The patron saint is San Miguel Arcángel, whose church stands in town, and there is a small museum. December brings the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the toreo del pavo, which draws teams from around the region and from Chiapas. Farmers here grow maize, beans, oranges, rice and sorghum.