Trapiche del Rosario

Trapiche del Rosario, a congregación in the municipality of Actopan, counts more than three hundred years of history. Its name gives the story away: this is where trapiches stood, the mills that crushed sugar cane to make piloncillo, panela and syrups. Cane haciendas spread along the Actopan river valley in colonial times, and in the 18th and 19th centuries the village worked as a small milling centre supplying its neighbours.

It sits at 479 metres in a warm valley, fairly humid, with heavy summer rain and an average of around 24 °C. Low tropical forest, cane fields and citrus orchards surround it; La Tinaja lies about 3 km to the northeast and Coyolillo about 3 km to the south. The 2020 census counted 1,363 residents, who still grow cane and maize and keep cattle and poultry.

The village is best known for jamoncillo, a fudge of milk and sugar that families shape into little animals and people; the figures are a fixture on Day of the Dead altars. The patron is the Virgin of the Rosary, honoured with Mass, dances and regional music.

In 2018 the Veracruz state press published Trapiche del Rosario. Trescientos años de historia, the first book about the community, coordinated by historian Héctor González Aguilar, who was born here, and built from documents, photographs and older residents' memories. About 5 km to the east, the Actopan river bursts out of the rock at El Descabezadero, a spring-fed spot used for swimming and rafting.