Huehuetenango Department in the context of "San Miguel Acatán"

Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 124 municipalities as of September 2017 and its capital and largest city is Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Other important population centers in Chiapas include Ocosingo, Tapachula, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Comitán, and Arriaga. Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico, and it borders the states of Oaxaca to the west, Veracruz to the northwest, and Tabasco to the north, and the Petén, Quiché, Huehuetenango, and San Marcos departments of Guatemala to the east and southeast. Chiapas has a significant coastline on the Pacific Ocean to the southwest.

In general, Chiapas has a humid, tropical climate. In the northern area bordering Tabasco, near Teapa, rainfall can average more than 3,000 mm (120 in) per year. In the past, natural vegetation in this region was lowland, tall perennial rainforest, but this vegetation has been almost completely cleared to allow agriculture and ranching. Rainfall decreases moving towards the Pacific Ocean, but it is still abundant enough to allow the farming of bananas and many other tropical crops near Tapachula. On the several parallel sierras or mountain ranges running along the center of Chiapas, the climate can be quite moderate and foggy, allowing the development of cloud forests like those of Reserva de la Biosfera El Triunfo, home to a handful of horned guans, resplendent quetzals, and azure-rumped tanagers.

The international border between Guatemala and Mexico measures 871 km (541 mi). It runs between north and west Guatemala (the Guatemalan departments of San Marcos, Huehuetenango, El Quiché and El Petén) and the Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco and Chiapas. The border includes stretches of the Usumacinta River, the Salinas River, and the Suchiate River.

Geopolitically, this border represents much of the western and northern boundary of the region of Central America within North America. It is across this border that most of the commerce between Mexico and Guatemala and the rest of Central America takes place.

The Tektitek (name in Guatemala) or Teko (name in Mexico) are a Maya people native to southern Chiapas, Mexico and the municipality of Tectitán in the department of Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Huehuetenango ([weweteˈnaŋɡo]) is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated 269 kilometres (167 mi) from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American Highway before the Mexican border at La Mesilla. Its primary export is coffee.

The Jakaltek people are a Maya people who lives alongside the border of the State of Chiapas in southern Mexico and the Department of Huehuetenango in northwestern Guatemala. Since pre-Columbian times they have lived alongside the modern Mexico-Guatemala border near the foothills of the Cuchumatán Mountains, mainly centered on the municipality of Jacaltenango.

The name Jakaltek comes from the Nahuatl language meaning “people of the jacal”.

Akatek is a Mayan language spoken by the Akateko people primarily in the Huehuetenango Department, Guatemala in and around the municipalities of Concepción Huista, Nentón, San Miguel Acatán, San Rafael La Independencia and San Sebastián Coatán. A number of speakers also live in Chiapas, Mexico. It is a living language with 58,600 speakers in 1998, of which 48,500 live in Guatemala and the remaining in Mexico. Alternate spellings for the language include Akatec, Akateko, and Akateco.

Akateko stems from the Q'anjob'alan branch, making it closely related to Q’anjob’al and Chuj.

San Rafael La Independencia (Spanish pronunciation: [san rafaˈel lajndepenˈdensja]) is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. Their native language is akateko.

15°43′N 91°32′W / 15.717°N 91.533°W / 15.717; -91.533