Lerdo de Tejada is a

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' ...

in the

Mexican state A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

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 ...

, located southeast of the state capital

Xalapa Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexico, Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In 2020 census the city reported a population of 443,063 ...

. It is named after

Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada y Corral (; 24 April 1823 – 21 April 1889) was a Mexican liberal politician and jurist who served as the 31st president of Mexico from 1872 to 1876. A successor to Benito Juárez, who died in office in July 1872, ...

, the 27th

President of Mexico The president of Mexico (), officially the president of the United Mexican States (), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Constitution of Mexico, the president heads the executive branch of the federal government and ...

Geography

The municipality of Lerdo de Tejada is located in southern Veracruz on the coastal plain of 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 ...

. It borders the municipalities of

Ángel R. Cabada Ángel R. Cabada is a town ''(villa)'' in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Located in the state's Papaloapan River region, it serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. In the 2005 INEGI Census, the town report ...

to the east,

Saltabarranca Saltabarranca is a municipality located in the south zone of the Mexican state of Veracruz, about from the state capital Xalapa. It has an area of . It is located at . The origin of the name of this existing municipality is not known from the c ...

to the south,

Tlacotalpan Tlacotalpan is a city in Tlacotalpan Municipality in the Mexican state of Veracruz, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998 primarily for its architecture and colonial-era layout. The town was established in 1550 on what was originally an ...

to the southwest and Alvarado to the west. The municipality covers an area of and comprises 0.1% of the state's area. The wetland La Popotera is located in Lerdo de Tejada and the adjacent municipality of Alvarado. It is protected as a

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Papaloapan River The Papaloapan River () is one of the main rivers of the Political divisions of Mexico, Mexican state of Veracruz (state), Veracruz. Its name comes from the Nahuatl ''papaloapan'' meaning "river of the Butterfly, butterflies". In 1518 Juan de Grij ...

and also serves as the municipality's southwestern border. There is also a small lake known as the Laguna del Márquez located on the municipality's eastern border with Ángel R. Cabada. Lerdo de Tejada's climate is warm and humid with abundant rain in the summer. Average temperatures in the municipality range between , and average annual precipitation ranges between .

History

The

Codex Mendoza The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codices, Aztec codex, believed to have been created around the year 1541. It contains a history of both the Aztec rulers and their conquests as well as a description of the daily life of pre-conquest Aztec society. ...

mentions a ''

calpulli In pre-Columbian Aztec society, calpulli (from Classical Nahuatl '' calpōlli'', , meaning "large houses", singular calpul) were units of commoner housing that had been split into kin-based or other land holding groups within Nahua city-states or ...

'' of

called Tlazintla located in what is now Lerdo de Tejada. After the

Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistad ...

, Tlazintla served as a port for one of

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

's first

sugarcane mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw sugar or plantation white sugar. Some sugar mills are situated next to a back-end refinery, that turns raw sugar into (refined) white sugar. The term is also used to refer ...

s built by

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

near

San Andrés Tuxtla San Andrés Tuxtla is a city and Municipalities of Veracruz, municipality in the south of the Mexico, Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Veracruz. The city is the largest in the Los Tuxtlas region. It was founded after an eruption of the Sa ...

, which remained in operation for over fifty years. In the 1800s, the San Pedro and San Francisco sugarcane mills were built in the area. Around 1876, the ''

ranchería The Spanish word ranchería, or rancherío, refers to a small, rural settlement. In the Americas the term was applied to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, native villages or bunkhouses. Anglo-Americans adopted the term with both these meaning ...

'' of San Francisco Naranjal was founded by settlers from San Andrés and

Santiago Tuxtla Santiago Tuxtla is a small city and municipality in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The area was originally part of lands granted to Hernán Cortés by the Spanish Crown in 1531. The city was founded in 1525, but it did not gain municipal status un ...

. On 31 December 1901, San Francisco Naranjal became the seat of the municipality of Saltabarranca. On 23 January 1923, San Francisco Naranjal was separated from the rest of Saltabarranca and became its own municipality, which on 11 August 1923 was renamed Lerdo de Tejada.

Administration

The municipal government comprises a president, a councillor (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''síndico''), and two trustees (''regidores''), one elected by

relative majority A plurality vote (in North American English) or relative majority (in British English) describes the circumstance when a party, candidate, or proposition polls more votes than any other but does not receive more than half of all votes cast. For ...

and one by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

. The current president of the municipality is Hermas Cortes García.

Demographics

In the 2010 Census, the municipality of Lerdo de Tejada recorded a population of 20,141 inhabitants living in 5987 households. It recorded a population of 19,606 inhabitants in the 2015 Intercensal Survey. There are 30 localities in the municipality, of which only the municipal seat is classified as urban. Also called Lerdo de Tejada, it recorded a population of 18,715 inhabitants in the 2010 Census.

Economy

Sugarcane is the main crop grown in Lerdo de Tejada and sugarcane processing is the main industrial activity. Declining sugar prices since 2011 have caused a crisis in the local economy and forced the closure of the San Francisco Naranjal mill. The remaining San Pedro mill, located southwest of the municipal seat at , produced 119,150 tonnes of sugar in the 2014–2015 season.

References

{{Veracruz Municipalities of Veracruz 1923 establishments in Mexico States and territories established in 1923