Tlacotlalpan

Tlacotalpan stands on the banks of the Papaloapan, a river town whose Nahuatl name evokes land amid water. Before the Spanish conquest it was a settlement of the Gulf lowlands brought under Mexica rule. Its position on the river made it a centre for the surrounding communities and their connections with the coast.

After the conquest Tlacotalpan and its subject towns were granted in encomienda to Alonso Romero. A corregimiento was established in 1541, while large estates grew up in the district during the sixteenth century. Early in the seventeenth century the inhabitants resisted an attempt to move them to Cosamaloapan. Later, raiders attacked and burned the town; after another destructive fire in 1788, authorities ordered houses to be rebuilt in masonry.