Cuajinicuilapa is the head town of the municipality of the same name in the Costa Chica region of the Mexican state of Guerrero.

The town of Cuajinicuilapa is 361 km from the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo and has an altitude of fifty meters above sea level.

[6][7][8] Cuajinicuilapa is the largest Afro-Mexican community in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero with most of the population of this ethnicity.

They have become the majority in a number of communities in the municipality including El Cuije and La Petaca.

While the dance and dressing up as devils were exclusively for men, this has changed as many have left to work outside of the Costa Chica.

Versions of La Conquista and Doce Pares de Francia have unusual characters such as Hernán Cortés, Cuauhtémoc, Moctezuma, Charlemagne and Turkish horsemen.

The main feast days are dedicated to the Apostle James (in August) and Nicolas of Tolentino in September.

On the second Friday of Lent, a regional fair exhibits the area's products, such as cattle, along with cockfights, horse racing and popular dance.

[1] Cuajinicuilapa is in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero in the southeast of the state along the Pacific Ocean and the border of Oaxaca.

[6] Near the Pacific Ocean and the Azoyú border in the northwest the land is flat, in the southeast it is semi-flat with gentle hills.

[1] The name comes from the Nahuatl phrase cuauhxinicuilli-atl-pan, which means “in the river of the cuajiicuil plant (a kind of edible legumbre).

During the 16th century, the area lost almost all of its indigenous population due to war, oppression and disease.

[6] The loss of indigenous labor prompted the Spanish to bring African slaves over the colonial period for 300 years.

The isolation of the area and the lack of workers led to an arrangement between Anaus and the runaway slaves, trading cheap labor for sanctuary.

[6] During the Mexican War of Independence the main rebels were Afro-Mexicans Juan Bruno and Francisco Atilano Santa María, but their effect was limited as there was little access to firearms.

The blacks lived in small huts with thatched roofs based on African-style construction.