San Martín Sacatepéquez () is one of 24

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the department of

Quetzaltenango Quetzaltenango (, also known by its Maya name Xelajú or Xela ) is a municipality and namesake department in western Guatemala. The city is located in a mountain valley at an elevation of above sea level at its lowest part. It may reach above ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. San Martín Sacatepéquez has a surface area of . The center of the town is situated at

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. According to the 2000 government survey, it had 28,926 inhabitants.

Geography

San Martín Sacatepéquez is located on the edge of the

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

chain that divides the Western Highlands of Guatemala from the

coastal plain A coastal plain (also coastal plains, coastal lowland, coastal lowlands) is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and an upland area. Formation Coastal plains can f ...

. Just below the volcanic chain, to the southwest, the rich ''Boca Costa'' (piedmont) soils extend toward the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The Boca Costa occupies the warmer more

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

lands from above sea level. To the northeast lies the altiplano, the elevated

pumice Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of extremely vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicula ...

-laden volcanic highlands. The altiplano encompasses the colder territory found at higher elevations, ranging from above sea level to the peak of the Siete Orejas Volcano, San Martín's highest point at above sea level. The town is also known as San Martín Chile Verde, due to the large quantity of

green chili Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to add pungency ( ...

peppers its farmers historically grew and brought to Quetzaltenango to sell. As is true throughout much of the highlands of Guatemala, in San Martín weather is divided into two seasons: the rainy season—which lasts from early May to early November—and the dry season—which lasts from early November to early May.

Culture

San Martín Sacatepéquez is predominantly inhabited by

Indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

, Mam descent.

Linguistically Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent gestures i ...

, San Martín is part of the Southern Mam speaking region of Guatemala. The Laguna Chicabal, a

crater lake Crater Lake ( Klamath: ) is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the Western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is a tourist attraction for its deep blue color and water clarity. T ...

and holy site for the Mam, is located within the municipal boundary of San Martín. San Martín is also notable due to the colorful traditional garb (known in Guatemala as ''traje'') still worn by the residents. Although most Maya men throughout Guatemala have adopted Western clothing, a large population of men in San Martín still wear ''traje''.

Notes

External links

Travel writing on San Martín SacatepéquezLocal website (in Spanish)
Municipalities of the Quetzaltenango Department {{Guatemala-geo-stub