Tonallan

Tonalá lies on the Pacific coastal plain of Chiapas, between the mountains and the sea. In 1524 Pedro de Alvarado’s force encountered resistance near the town as it moved towards Guatemala. Nearly three centuries later the region became a battleground in the struggle for Mexican independence: in 1813 Mariano Matamoros defeated royalist troops under Manuel Fernando Dambrini at Tonalá. That year the port received rights to trade with Guatemala, New Spain and Peru.