The Tecolutla River is a river in the state of

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and the main drainage of the historical and cultural region of Totonacapan. It is principally fed by four rivers that rise in the

Sierra Norte de Puebla The Sierra Norte de Puebla is a rugged mountainous region accounting for the northern third of the state of Puebla, Mexico. It is at the intersection of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and the Sierra Madre Oriental, between the Mexican Plateau a ...

: from north to south, they are the

Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Club Necaxa, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in Aguascalientes (city), Aguascalientes. It competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican ...

, the Lajajalpan (or Laxaxalpan), the Tecuantepec and the Apulco. These rivers converge in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Espinal, Veracruz Espinal is a municipality that is located in the central area of the state of Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states w ...

, and from here the Tecolutla flows about east through the

coastal plain A coastal plain (also coastal plains, coastal lowland, coastal lowlands) is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and an upland area. Formation Coastal plains can f ...

and the municipalities of Papantla and Gutiérrez Zamora to its mouth at the town of Tecolutla on the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

, On its south bank the Tecolutla receives the Joloapan River near Paso del Correo, and the Chichicatzapan River via the Ostiones estuary near its mouth. The furthest source of the Tecolutla is the Arroyo Zapata, located north of

Huamantla Huamantla () is a small city in Huamantla Municipality, the municipality of the same name in the eastern half of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. The area has a long indigenous history, but the city itself was not founded until the early colonial per ...

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala, is one of the 32 federal entities that comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Tlaxcala, 60 municipalities and t ...

at an elevation of . This '' arroyo'' flows into the Coyuca River, which in turn drains into the Apulco. The total length of the river measured from this source is . The watershed drained by the Tecolutla covers an area of and has a mean natural

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow or terrestrial runoff) is the unconfined flow of water over the ground surface, in contrast to ''channel runoff'' (or ''stream flow''). It occurs when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other ...

of per year. The first important

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

facilities in Mexico were built in the Tecolutla watershed on the Necaxa River. Nevertheless, the Tecolutla is considered one of the most well-preserved rivers in the state of Veracruz and its floodplains are agriculturally productive.

Vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). ''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...

may have been first cultivated by the

Totonac The Totonac are an Indigenous people of Mexico who reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo. They are one of the possible builders of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacán (a cit ...

in this area and has been an important part of their culture for centuries. In general, the Tecolutla River Basin provided a strong foundation for the development of a relatively prosperous indigenous agriculture environment. This was because of a variety of factors such as its year long warm temperature, strong winds, and its rainfall patterns that allow for two crops of maize a year to be obtained without the assistance of irrigation.

References

Rivers of Veracruz Drainage basins of the Gulf of Mexico {{Commons