Santiago Tuxtla is a small city and municipality in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The area was originally part of lands granted to Hernán Cortés by the Spanish Crown in 1531. The city was founded in 1525, but it did not gain municipal status until 1932. Today, the municipality is poor and agricultural, but is home to several unique traditions such as the Santiago Tuxtla Fair and the Acarreo de Niño Dios, when images of the Child Jesus are carried in procession several times during the Christmas season. It is also home to the Museo Regional Tuxteco (Tuxtla Regional Museum) which houses much of the area's Olmec artifacts, including a number of colossal heads and other monumental stone works. The city's main plaza hosts the largest Olmec colossal head in Mexico, thus making it famous.
The city
The city of Santiago Tuxtla is centered on a large square called Parque Juarez, which contains the largest of the Olmec colossal heads in Mexico, La Corbata.
The other main focus of the city center is the Museo Regional Tuxteco (Tuxtla Regional Museum). This museum was founded in 1961 to display and preserve the area's pre Hispanic and colonial heritage, coming under the management of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in 1975. The museum building was renovated in the 2010s. The museum building is the former “municipal palace” (city hall) which was constructed in 1880 with an arched portico. Inside there are three main halls. Two of these are dedicated mostly to Olmec pieces, including colossal stone sculptures as well as some Totonac pieces, all from Veracruz. One of the most important pieces is the Hueyapan Head, a 20-ton colossal head in volcanic stone. The third hall is dedicated to pieces related to the area's colonial history.
The municipality
The city of Santiago Tuxtla, with a population of 15,733, is the local government for 242 communities, which combined have a territory of 619.4km2 and a population of 57,085 inhabitants as 2020. It is mostly rural, with only three communities considered to be urban and a population density of 92.16 people per km2. 348 people are classed as living in “indigenous homes” with only 147 speaking an indigenous language.
Outside the seat, other important communities include Tres Zapotes (pop. 3,670), Tlapacoyan (2,834), Tapalapan (2,521) and Francisco I. Madero (1,820). The municipality borders the municipalities of San Andrés Tuxtla, Isla, Tlacotalpan, Saltabarranca and Ángel R. Cabada as well as the Gulf of Mexico. The government consists of a president, a syndic and five representatives for the communities of the municipality.
The municipality has 218 schools, mostly preschools and primary schools, with 35 middle schools and 15 high schools. The level of illiteracy is 18.2%.
The municipality is home to three colossal Olmec head and the Tres Zapotes Museum/Archeological Site . This site was occupied from about 900 BCE to somewhere between 400 and 300 BCE, contemporary with La Venta in Tabasco. It is centered on a hill used to astronomical observations and mathematical calculations related to the Olmec calendar system . The site is named after the community of Tres Zapotes, 21 km from the city of Santiago Tuxtla. Originally the land was part of the Hueyapan de Mimendi Hacienda, dedicated to the growing of zapote fruit. The site was opened to the public in 1974, focusing on the site museum which contains a number of important artifacts.
The most notable areas on the municipality's coast, which is part of the Costa de Oro, is Punta Roca Partida (Parted Rock Point) and Terrón Island. Punta Roca Partida is noted for its rock formations. One of the most popular for visitors is the Lorencillo Cave, which is the size of a house and named after a Dutch pirate who used it as a hideout. Terrón Island is uninhabited but it used to house prisoners. There are also beaches such as Salinas and Toro Prieto.
The municipality has 98.2 km of major paved roads, most of which are maintained by the state.
Geography
The municipality is located in the south of Veracruz, about 260 km from the state capital of Xalapa. It is part of the Sierra de los Tuxtlas Region, a somewhat mountainous area created by volcanic activity. Most of the territory lives on an extinct volcano named El Vigía along with the plains of the San Juan River, with an average altitude of 200 meters above sea level.
Hydrography
It is part of the Papaloapan River Basin, with the main river being the Pixixiapan or Tuxtla River.
