San Juan Cotzocon is a town and
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in
Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
in south-western
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
It is part of the
Sierra Mixe
The Sierra Mixe or Mixes District is a district in the east of the Sierra Norte Region of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It comprises 17 municipalities and covers 4,930 km2 at an average elevation of 1,200 meters above sea level.
As of 2005 the dis ...
district within the
Sierra Norte de Oaxaca
La Sierra Norte de Oaxaca is a heavily wooded region in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.
It is 62 km from the city of Oaxaca on Federal highway 175, heading east towards Tuxtepec.
The region is divided into three districts: Ixtlán, which has ...
Region.
Name
The name "Cotzocón" or "Cozogón" means "Dark Mountain".
Environment
The municipality covers an area of 945.4 km². The territory is rugged, with grazing and cultivation of coffee and corn practiced only the lower irregular plains. The Chiquito River runs through the northern part, a tributary of the Rio Grande. The climate is warm and humid, with rain almost all year round. The forested areas contain pine, cedar, and ceiba.
[
]
People
As of 2005, the municipality had 5,030 households with a total population of 22,478 of whom 10,712 spoke an indigenous language.
The main town is now María Lombardo de Caso, located at a height of 140 meters above sea level.
Although in a Mixe area, many of the people in this town are Mazatec
The Mazatec are an indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca and some communities in the adjacent states of Puebla and Veracruz.
Language family
The Mazatecan languages are part of the Popolocan family wh ...
or Chinantec
The Chinantec or Chinantecan languages constitute a branch of the Oto-Manguean family. Though traditionally considered a single language, ''Ethnologue'' lists 14 partially mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinantec.Palancar, Enrique L. (2014) ...
who moved here after being displaced by the Miguel Alemán Dam
The Miguel Alemán Dam is on the Tonto River in the Papaloapan Region of Oaxaca state in southern Mexico, just upstream from the town of Temascal or Nuevo Soyaltepec, forming the Miguel Alemán Lake with an area of 47,800 hectares.
The dam opera ...
in the 1960s.[
In the 1950s the remote municipality, accessible only via dirt track, drew visitors from the USA investigating use of hallucinogenic ]psilocybin mushroom
Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of mushroom, fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include ''Psilocyb ...
s in the traditional Mixe ceremonies.
Economy
The main economic activity is coffee cultivation, followed by livestock raising.[
Some of the Mixe women of the village of San Juan Cotzocon use back strap looms to weave traditional ]huipil
''Huipil'' (Nahuatl: '' huīpīlli'' ; Ch'orti': ''b’ujk''; Chuj: ''nip'') is the most common traditional garment worn by indigenous women from central Mexico to Central America.
It is a loose-fitting tunic, generally made from two or three re ...
, rebosos, napkins, table cloths and other textile crafts.
The Union of Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus Region
The Union of Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus Region ( es, Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Región del Istmo, or UCIRI), is a farmer's cooperative in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. It was established in 1982 to assist in production, mark ...
, a cooperative founded in 1982, assists in production and distribution of the local products, notably coffee, under a fair trade
Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and enviro ...
label.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Juan Cotzocon
Municipalities of Oaxaca