Mexico, Tenancingo Degollado, : Tlacotalpan

We left Popocatepetl and Atlixco heading for the coast of Vera Cruz. The State of Vera Cruz is long and narrow stradling the Sierra Madre Oriente from whose loft there is a long steep descent to the sea. It is a state on two levels,, like a giant stairway with only two steps. The climate changes from temperate and or semi arid to tropical as one passes the hump and hurtles down. It's as if someone snapped a "climatic" chalk line and when you pierce the veil you find yourself in another land where moisture is in the air and the heat keeps ramping upwards.

One of the impressive sights I remember was the line of wind generators poised on the "cumbres" (summits). They appeared in the distance seemingly out of place on the traditional mexican landscape. Their enormous propellers, or helices in spanish, were turning in slow motion. As we neared them and their true size was revealed one could sense their potency. It was a beautiful sight these towers powered by the magic in Aeolus's purse.
Our destination would be Tlacotalpan, another magic pueblo. I knew nothing of this place beforehand but it turned out to be one of the great surprises. Tlacotalpan is set along the Rio Papaloapan. The river's name sounds african doesn't it but the word comes from Nahuatl, the Aztec language, and means river of butterflies. The name of the city of Tlacotalpan means "broken ground". A much earlier spelling of the name, Tlaxcoltaliapan, translates to "Terrain Between Water". That makes more sense to me. It is typical to encounter variations of spellings and translations of town names when traveling from Nahuatl to Spanish or English. There is even controversy as to what Tenancingo means. So much was lost to hubris.

Tlacotalpan nestled in its watery bed, terrain between water.

    Located slightly inland from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, it is accessed by a flat road just slightly higher than the river Papaloapan on one side and moist fangoso jungle and seasonal pasture on the other. The road is like a ribbon of refuge. After 10 kilometers on the ribbon one arrives in the city. The first impression is the striking tranquility. There just weren't that many people. Colorful low ranch houses with pillars outnumbered people 50 to one. The architecture is a mixture of spanish and carribean. It is as if one left the coast, entered a primeval tangle, emerged from that humid jungle and suddenly found themselves in Barbados.
     The State of Veracruz was the first portal to the interior of this Mexico, then called Nueva Espana. Hernando Cortez entered like a plague near the city of Vera Cruz. South of the city is Tlacotalpan in an area surrounded by a vast jungley space where the sea meets innumerable ponds, crags, small shallow lagoons , and marshes, streams, all which have accepted, like an all patient universal mother, the flow of the Sierra Madre cascading down the giant steps from the heights of Oaxaca and Puebla. All this water gathers in a thousand different shapes and forms then finally merges into the sea. The settlement of Tlacotalpan, reminds one of the leyend of the mythical Aztec city Aztlan, only on a more modest scale. The Aztecs were said to have originated there, a place somewhere to the north, which also might have been surrounded by water. When they were ordered to leave Aztlan by their gods they wandered, their watery past tatooed on their collective culture, until they found something similar to their mythical home, El Valle de Mexico. They got right to work and built Tenochitlan,, which is now Mexico City.
When one walks down the wide streets of Tlacotalpan, a moist breeze meets you cutting the heat.The colorful dwellings are like ushers for whom time is meaningless. The wide green colored river lumbers past almost in silence yet it is a brooding constant presence. The town seems quiet and deserted at 2 in the afternoon but no, the aromas of caldos de mariscos and salsas de chiles exoticas reach out to you and you immediately sense an invisible human touch. You are caressed by the perfumes and colors of those that moved here centuries ago and who dance in their own bubble and at their own cadence.
   As I sit at a table in back of the hotel just watch the river pass I look across at the vast tropical plain on the other side. Why did people first come here? Potential,, just as the Lake Texcoco represented means to the wandering Aztecs. The inexhaustible fertility of the soil fed by humus carried by the rivers in particular El Rio Papaloapan. They were drawn by the abundance of precious woods, the precious wealth of hunting, fishing and generous opportunity for gathering. It made sense for indigenous people to enter here and thrive from its rich earth. People were drawn to its confluence of waters and the magic they offered. But there has been a price.
     Tlacotalpan has withstood floods from El Rio Papaloapan many times. The town is just a couple of meters above the river. In fact the river has risen those two meters and then another deuce on top of that in the very center of town. It has become a common seasonal occurence. People have become inured, expect it, and learn to live with the results. Past experiences affect the collective memory. The large floods are stored and recorded in fotos on the walls of restaurants where water exceeded two meters in height, so, when the the sidewalks overflow, as they often do, it does not mean too much, even when it enters their homes. In severe floods the town is evacuated, subject to looting, and severe silting. Silvia, the receptionist at the hotel said that during heavy floods, when patrols travel the roads by boat with too much velocity, the wave action will open weak doors. The contents of the house float out and away. This is why I always wanted to live along a river. Just be patient till the flood delivers unto you building materials and furniture. Tlacotalpan is referred to in a saying recited in the area, "If a frog urinates it floods in Tlacotalpan". Flooding occurs more often during El Niño, who has become more fierce with climate change. He looses his diaper and it leads to disaster.

Tlacotalpan 1962

Many residents claimed that silting of the river bottom, making the channel shallower has added to seasonal devastation. This may have some validity but it is not the only cause of watery woe. The river is a brooding stealthy presence and most of the time he is a constant partner. There are no rapids, no falls. It's just that 'Ole Man River at times can't bear the burden anymore of all that water and he just gives up turning the entire basin to turn into a lake.

O' man river,
Dat ol' man river,
He mus'know sumpin'
But don't say nuthin'
He jes' keeps rollin'
He keeps on rollin' along.

Ole Man River, Tata Papaloapan at dusk. Very peaceful.

The town hall

The town hall meets the river.

Iglesia de la Candelaria

Iglesia de la Candelaria flooded

Tlacotalpan from the air during a flood. The river reclaims all the surrounding area.

                                               Tata Papaloapan quiet and in his place.

There is another ecological matter that plagues the region, the death of the fishing industry in Tlacotalpan due to poor use of the watershed. At one time El Rio Papaloapan teemed with fish. The few boats that now give tourists like me a bucolic ride on the water past the elegant houses of the well connected used to be part of a large fishing fleet. That has all disappeared. The fish served in the restaurants come from somewhere else now. The waters of the river are contaminated and fish species have been severely reduced.

"You who give me life,

You are in my heart

Receive this son

Tata Papaloapan ".

Abel Pérez Rojas.

     What are not immediately visible in this enormous expanse of field, jungle and wetlands are large sugar cane processors. What is visible however are the ragtag fleet of trucks and converted buses and almost anything large with wheels laden with cane lumbering down the highways, or in town. They are filled with a brown spindley cane. The one pictured below looks like it is carrying a giant cat's tongue or sports one of those 80's soccer haircuts.

                               I'd like to buy the world a coke,, or some rum even

     In Vera Cruz there are 22 sugar mills, located in 18 municipalities all of which confer upon Veracruz first place in Mexico for sugar production. Sugar production occupies 36% of the agriculture here.The sugar companies, located near Tlacotalpan, especially in Lerdo de Tejada, have been responsible for the mortality of aquatic species, and even the death of cattle that drink the water. Loose sugar cane and vinasse (residues from the production of alcohol) along with other residues to the lagoon system, are the cause of large fish die offs.
Contaminants thrown with impunity to the Papaloapan River have turned this colossus into a pestilent tide that has nearly erased its nobility. For many centuries the silent passage of the Papaloapan has molded the lives of the people and the environment to such a degree that only the oldest of the oldest remember its sacred character. Such is the magnitude of the neglect and contempt of the new generations that a cultural group based in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, (a great polluter of the river in its own right), has initiated a cultural festival called Que viva y Reviva, in order to foster peaceful coexistence with the waters of the Papaloapan. An enormous space exists between the present state of this once majestic river, and the other version referred to in the Nahuatl language that named it, the "river of butterflies". Tlacotalpan which was once a pastoral fishing village, has been economically devastated. It may deserve and possess World Heritage Status yet one feels something dark lying in ambush.

One of the most controversial events in Tlacotalpan, the Pearl of the Papaloapan, is the fiesta of La Virgen de la Candelaria which starts on the last day of January at three in the afternoon and ends on February 9th. The parties continue day and night for the duration of the festival.
For more than a century, the inhabitants of Tlacotalpan have been paying homage to their patroness, La Virgen de la Candelaria. Female supremacy is evident, at least on that special day, February 2nd, when the faithful sing the traditional "mañanitas" to the Virgin. In the afternoon, she is ferried across the river in a magnificent flower covered barge to be met on the opposite shore by a cavalcade of horsemen.Added to the devotion are clarinets, trumpets, trombones, and drums of bands. The music is heard everywhere in the streets of the town. As night draws near the drinks flow with more force and fireworks begin. In this meeting of musicians, townspeople, campesinos, and those from "away" song fills the air, and verse and melody are everpresent in every colorful corner of the city.

The barge bearing The Virgin

                           The Virgin in her permanent place in La Iglesia de la Candelaria.

      Dia del Toro (Bull's Day) February 1:

This is the source of the controversy between tradition and the rights of animals. In fact in 2016 this part of Tlacotalpan's history was suspended by the government because of pressure from animal rights groups. On february 1st, very early in the morning, regattas were organized on the river. The winning group had to move the bulls from one shore to another, a task that was a collarboration of cowboy culture, former fishermen, and drunks. The bulls were forced to drink aguardiente (cane liquor) before being tied to the gunnels of a boat. The boat and bull would cross the river Papaloapan. As soon as the bull touched the bank on the Tlacotalpan side its captors released the animal who was immediately confronted and provoked by locals, with heavily saturated souls, as drunk as itself, in a kind of Pamplonanda or running of the bulls. The bulls then roamed the city streets taunted by the emboldened. Needless to say there was much trampling and destruction.

Below are some you tube links to the Dia de Los Toros:

https://youtu.be/oTGfZAC8t8c

https://youtu.be/lo6JPX-342Q Sueltan Los Toros

https://youtu.be/7QL6V9mZP3g Embalce de toros