The state of Mexico’s northeastern towns are all tied together: it’s difficult to know where one ends and the other begins. The streets are narrow, and flanked by single-story houses. On some outer walls there are paintings of rural motifs, worn by time: Emiliano Zapata portraits, political mottos, phrases repeated in several colors and fonts. Some houses have brick facades. Others, metal gates painted with electrostatic enamel. As the car slowly drives into one of the towns, following the pace of load trucks, the streets become narrow labyrinths with dead ends. We may be in Atenco, Nexquipayac, or Tocuila, municipalities bound by streets that have a different names on each side of the imaginary border, or even keep the same name through it. People walk down the narrow stone and cement sidewalks. The stores are open, displaying announcements handwritten or printed in colorful tarps. A smell of food wafts into the moving car. In the center of each town there is a square, a church, and fruit stands that show up under red tents some days of the week. [...]
Town
in ENCYCLOPEDIA