Meaning of chilango by Anonimo

The Mexican essayist Gabriel Zaid in his article "Chilango as demonym " 9 writes that " chilango " It is a variation which took place in the State of Veracruz the word chilango who comes from the Mayan xilaan which means desgreñado. In the same article refers to Caesar Corzo Espinosa who proposed that the word " chilango " It has a Nahuatl origin in the word Chilam-co that means " where are the Red " and it refers to the skin color of the inhabitants of the city of Mexico. It is also said that the term was first used in Veracruz. In the past, the majority of convicted criminals were sent to the Federal District to concentrate them and then send them to the prison of San Juan de Ulúa in Veracruz. Arriving at the port, prisoners were tied up hands and formed in a row in a similar way, they, told a chilanga, known then as a bound of chiles. That is why the chilango is associated with those " offenders " from the Federal District. Finally, it seems to be that the term chilango was referring to a lagoon which converged several rivers; by analogy, the arrival of people from outside the city of Mexico compared with the arrival of rivers to the lagoon or the large lake where he settled the great Tenochtitlan. (Taken from 41 Wilkipedia;