This was the oldest Mesoamerican culture discovered to date. The earliest population of Soconusco region were the coastal Chantuto peoples, going back to 5500 BC. The area was originally defined as far south as the Tilapa River in what is now Guatemala, but when the final border between Mexico and Guatemala was set in 1882, the Suchiate became the southern boundary. The Mayan name for the area was Zaklohpakab.

The name is derived from 3 words in Nahuatl Xococ (Sour) + Nochtli (Prickly pear cactus) + có (Place) “Xoconochco” means (Place of sour cactus) as noted in the Mendoza Codex. Soconusco lies on the border between Mexico and Central America, but it has had connections with what is now central Mexico since the Mesoamerican period, primarily because of trade routes into Central America and its production of cacao, achiote, and other products. Geographically, it is part of the Chiapas coast, but it has had a distinct cultural and living identity from the rest of Chiapas since Mesoamerican times and remains so to this day. Soconusco is geographically isolated from the political and economic center of Mexico, and it is relatively little known among the rest of the Mexican population. As fact, is the same glyphic of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the Aztec Empire capital in the cactus. The most recent addition is the rambutan, a southeast Asian fruit.Īztec glyph for Xoconochco (Soconusco) region, word means “Place of sour cactus”. Since then other crops such as tropical fruits, flowers and more have been introduced. After exporting cacao to central Mexico for thousands of years, the first modern crop for export was coffee. This area has experienced a boom-and-bust economy with well-studied migration patterns of agricultural workers. Fincas (estates) were erected in the Chiapaneco jungle and given German names such as Hamburgo, Bremen, Lübeck, Argovia, Bismarck, Prussia, and Hanover. Extensive coffee cultivation quickly made Soconusco one of the most successful German colonies, and between 18, 11.5 million kg of coffee had been harvested.

In 1890, Porfirio Díaz and Otto von Bismarck collaborated to take advantage of southern Mexico's agricultural potential by sending 450 German families to Soconusco near Tapachula in the southern state of Chiapas. In the 19th century, the area was disputed between Mexico and Guatemala until a treaty signed in 1882 fixed the modern border by dividing the area's historical extension, with most going to Mexico and a smaller portion east of the Suchiate to Guatemala. Abundant moisture and volcanic soil has always made it rich for agriculture, contributing to the flowering of the Mokaya and Olmec cultures, which were based on Theobroma cacao and rubber of Castilla elastica. It is the southernmost part of the Chiapas coast extending south from the Ulapa River to the Suchiate River, distinguished by its history and economic production. It is a narrow strip of land wedged between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Soconusco is a region in the southwest corner of the state of Chiapas in Mexico along its border with Guatemala.

Into the waves nochtli