Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, colloquially Coita, is a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
It is bordered to the north by Tecpatán, to the east by Berriozábal, Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Suchiapa, to the south by Villaflores and to the west by Jiquipilas and Cintalapa.
[2] Other than the city of Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, the municipality had 1,069 localities, the largest of which (with 2010 populations in parentheses) were: Ocuilapa de Juárez (3,921), classified as urban, and Vicente Guerrero (Matamoros) (2,009), Guadalupe Victoria (1,876), Ignacio Zaragoza (El Morro) (1,675), La Independencia (Las Pilas) (1,178), Hermenegildo Galeana (1,068), and Alfonso Moguel (1,022), classified as rural.
[4] On Monday, a large parade is held for about 3 hours, in which various groups compete for recognition as "best-dressed," "best-organized" etc.
This dance has pre-Hispanic origins and honors "Tajaj Jama" or ‘Father Sun.’ Since the Spanish Conquest, European Christian characters have been added to this dance, including "el Mahoma", an Arab figure who represents evil because of his opposition to Christianity, David, who represents good because he protects his people against Goliath and "el Caballo" (the Horse), a character whose mission is to help David.
On this day, all participants and visitors to the Carnival are purified with a "bath" using "zapoyal", a powder extracted from a yellow pod-shaped fruit.