Cuauhcuetzpaltepec

Cuauhcuetzpaltepec, called Guaspaltepec, was the head town of a lordship in the Papaloapan lowlands of southern Veracruz. Its Nahuatl name meant “hill of lizards.”

By the Spanish arrival it was subject to the Aztecs: in 1519 its governor joined Moctezuma’s embassy to Hernán Cortés. Gonzalo de Sandoval conquered the basin in 1522 and kept the town as an encomienda. The crown made it a corregimiento in 1531; it was merged with Cosamaloapan around 1560. The town was abandoned about 1600, its survivors resettling at Cacahuaxuchitlan; by 1640 the district had become the Cosamaloapan alcaldía mayor.