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 and the Gulf of Mexico coast. From the Mesoamerican period to the 19th century, this area was part of a larger region called Totonacapan, and area dominated by the Totonac people, extending further east to the Gulf of Mexico. Political maneuvers to weaken the Totonacs led to the region being divided between the modern states of Puebla and Veracruz with the Puebla section given its current name. Until the 19th century, the area was almost exclusively indigenous, with the four main groups still found here today, Totonacs, Nahuas, Otomis and Tepehuas, but coffee cultivation brought in mestizos (mixed indigenous/European people) and some European immigrants who took over political and economic power. While highly marginalized socioeconomically, the area has been developed heavily since the mid 20th century, especially with the building of roadways linking it to the Mexico City area and the Gulf coast.
Geography
The region consists of sixty eight municipalities, most of which are considered rural, located at the far north of the state of Puebla, north and east of where the state of Tlaxcala cuts into Puebla. Most of the Sierra Norte corresponds with the Puebla subregion of the Carso Huasteco, which covers an area of 448,927 hectares or thirteen percent of the state.
The area is at the intersection of the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. These mountains extend eastward into the state of Veracruz until the narrow Gulf of Mexico coastal plain. The areas rocks is mostly sedimentary with some volcanic, but all have been altered by tectonic processes caused by the moving earth and forming the mountains here. The area is very rugged with few narrow valleys with about 60% of the territory made up of steep slopes. Altitudes range from 100 to 2,300 meters above sea level. The area is filled with caves and caverns, many of which are little explored. The area's mountains are divided into the Sierra de Zacapoaxtla, Sierra de Huauchinango, Sierra Teziutlán, Sierra de Tetela de Ocampo, Sierra de Chignahuapan and Sierra de Zacatlán. The highest altitudes are over 4,200 meters above sea level. Main elevations include Apulco, Chichat, Chignahuapan, Soltepec and Tlatlauquitepec.
The Sierra Norte de Puebla is susceptible to landslides due to its many steep inclines and heavy rain. The town of Pahuatlán is over an ancient landslide. The relative prosperity of the 20th century has spurred development of large towns with cement block structure, significantly heavier than traditional homes. This has made a number of areas, such as Pahuatlán, more vulnerable to landslides as they are located on mountainsides. Deforestation and road construction have also increased the risk. Major landslides have occurred in 1955, 1989, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2005, and 2007. The last was due to two hurricanes (Dean and Lorenzo) and isolated a number of communities for days.
The Sierra Norte is the rainiest part of Puebla with average rainfall in most places between 1500 and 3,000mm, with Cuetzalan having the highest precipitation zone at between 4,000 and 6,000mm. Most of the surface water is in fast moving streams and small rivers, some of which run only in the rainy season and many of which can be torrential when rains are heavy. The three most important rivers are the Necaxa and Apulco. Other important rivers include the Pantepec, Laxaxalpan, San Pedro (Zun), Zempoala, Cedro Viego, Salteros and Martínez de la Torre. All of these flow towards the Gulf of Mexico, in the drainage basins of the Nautla, Tecolutla, Cazones and Tuxpan Rivers. As it is one of the rainiest areas of Mexico, the water flow here is high, measuring about 6,697mm2, accounting for sixty percent of new runoff for Puebla with about 2/3 flowing into Veracruz. The main aquifer is the Tecolutla, which has 70% of the underground fresh water in the area, followed by the Libres-Oriental, Martínez de la Torre-Nautla and Perote-Zayaleta.
The region has great biological diversity because of the wide variance in altitude. Wild vegetation can be classed as evergreen tropical forest (the Veracruz moist forests ecoregion), mountain mesophyll or cloud forest (the Veracruz montane forests ecoregion north of the Tecolutla River, and Oaxacan montane forests south of the river) and pine–oak and pine forest (the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine–oak forests ecoregion) with large areas of transition from one to another. The ecosystem of the region is highly disturbed with urban areas along with farms, areas of secondary vegetation as well as areas with primary vegetation.
The Sierra Norte is divided into four subregions, according to its ecology and agriculture. The area nearest the highlands of Puebla and Tlaxcala in the south is called the Bocasierra. This strip of land has elevations between 1,500 and 2,500 meters above sea level, with a primarily temperate and cold climate. Main crops are apples, plums, pears, peaches, avocados and certain flowers and ornamental plants. It is economically and politically the most important area of the Sierra Norte and includes municipalities such as Huauchinango, Zacatlán, Chignahuapan, Tetela de Ocampo, Zacapoaxtla, Zaragoza and Teziutlán. The coffee-growing region has elevations between 200 and 1,500 meters above sea levels with a very humid, temperate-warm climate, which is optimal for coffee and black pepper. This area includes the municipalities of Cuetzalan, Tuzamapan, Huehuetla, Xochitlán de Vicente Suárez, Zapotitlán de Méndez, Hueytlalpan, Ahuacatlán, Aquixtla, Zihuateutla, Pahuatlán and Naupan. The Zona Baja (low area) includes areas below 200 meters above sea level. It has a tropical climate with agriculture dedicated primarily to citrus fruits such as oranges, mandarin oranges, grapefruit, papaya and mamey. It is also noted for its cattle. It includes the municipalities of Francisco Z. Mena, Venustiano Carranza, Pantepec, Jalpan and Tenampulco. The Declive Austral (southern slope) de la Sierra is an arid area as the winds from the Gulf of Mexico that brings in moisture do not get this far as often. This area has large haciendas which use high technology irrigation systems for crops such as barley and wheat. It is also noted for the raising of horses. It includes the municipalities of Ixtacamaxtitlán, Cuyoaco, Tepeyahualco, Libres and Ocotepec.
While much of the agriculture and other economic activities are adapted to the various ecologies of the region; however, overexploitation has severely damaged many of these systems and in turn, the economic support of many indigenous communities. Much of the original forest has been cut for pasture and for cultivation as well as for wood. Deforestation has led to greater danger from landslides.
Climate
The Sierra Norte is one of the rainiest regions in Mexico, with an average of 500 and 800 mm each month on average. The high amount of rainfall, especially on the ocean facing slopes in the north makes landslides more commons as soils saturate. Hurricanes can occur between June and November, at the end of the rainy season. These storms can be catastrophic with the amount of rain causing flash flooding and saturated soils resulting in landslides. Precipitation is lowest in winter because of wind patterns called "nortes." These are polar air masses that collide with the warm waters of the Gulf as they move south. For this region, this usually results in high wind and light rainfall.
The climate of the region is divided into six subtypes. Hot and humid - Am(f) is characterized by abundant rain in the summer with an average annual temperature of between 22 and 24 °C. Precipitation totals vary between 1,200 and 2,500 mm. This climate is found in the very north, along the border with Veracruz in the municipalities of Acatenco, Tenampulco, Hueytamalco and Ayotoxco de Guerrero.
Hot and humid – Af(m) is characterized by rains year round with an average annual temperature of between 22 and 26 °C and annual precipitation of between 1,500 in the lower elevation to over 3,000 in the highest. This climate is found in the municipalities of Ayotoxco de Guerrero, Tuzamapan de Galeana, Cuetzalan del Progresso and parts of Acateno, Yahonáhuac, Teziutlán and Hueyapan.
Semi hot with rain year round – AC(fm) is characterized by an average annual temperature of between 18 and 24 °C with precipitation levels varying between 1,200 and 4,500 mm per year. This is found along a strip in the municipalities of Tlaxco and Hueytamalco at an altitude of between 700 and 1,500 meters above sea level.
Temperate and humid – C(fm) is characterized by year round rain with an average annual temperature of less than 18 °C and precipitation varying from between 1,200 and 3,000. This is found in the municipalities of Atempan, Teziutlán, Hueyapan, Yahonáhuac, Tuzamapan de Galeana, Huehuetla, Cuetzalan, Xiutetelco, Chignautla y completamente cubren los municipios de Jonotla, Ixtepec, Hueytlalpan, Nauzontla, Atletlequizayan and Xochitlán de Vicente Suárez.
Temperate and humid with abundant rain in summer – C(m) is characterized by an average annual temperature of between 12 and 18C with an average annual rainfall of between 1,000 and 2,000mm, most of which falls in the summer. This is found primarily in the north east in the municipalities of Hueytamalco, Huehuetla, Ayotoxco de Guerrero and Cuetzalan.
Temperate and semi-humid with rain in summer – C(m2) is characterized as less humid than C(m) with average annual temperatures between 12 and 18 °C and precipitation between 400 and 800 mm. This is found in the municipalities of Chignautla, Zacapoaxtla and Xochiapulco.
Demographics
The Sierra Norte is a predominantly rural region with a high percentage of indigenous population and an elevated level of socioeconomic marginalization, especially among the indigenous. Those in the region identify themselves as from the mountains (serranos) before identifying with the state of Puebla. Among serranos, there is a division between the various indigenous groups and "mestizos" or people of mixed European-indigenous ethnicity. Mestizos are strongly segregated from the indigenous and found mostly in the urban municipal seats, especially Zacatlán, Chignahuapan, Tetela de Ocampo, Zacapoaxtla, Cuetzalan, Teziutlán, Zaragoza, Zihuateutla and Tlatlauquitepec, with the indigenous in the more rural areas. Indigenous language and traditions are considered inferior or "not modern" by the mestizos and many indigenous because of the poverty associated with indigenous life. Social and economic organizations are best developed among the Nahuas and the Totonacs to promote the communities' interests. Most of these are Nahua and based in Cuetzalan. One of the first organizations of this kind was the Cooperativa Agropecuaria Regional Tosepan Titataniske (CARTT) in the 1970s, with the aim of improving the prospects of small agricultural producers.
The Sierra Norte is a multiethnic area, primarily with Totonacs, Nahuas, Otomis and Tepehua with some Huasteca influence. There are no Huastec communities but the very north is considered to overlap the extreme south of the La Huasteca region. The Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas works in the areas with several centers in Huauchinango, Zacapoaxtla and Teziutlán as well as a radio station, XECTZ in Cuetzalan, called La Voz de la Sierra (The Voice of the Mountains) in Spanish and various indigenous languages. Indigenous beliefs and rituals have been more strongly maintained here than in other areas of Mexico because of its relative isolation. Until the middle of the 19th century, there were few to no non-Indians living in the region.