San Pedro Pochutla is a city and municipality located in the south of
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 ...
state, Mexico next to the Pacific Ocean.
It is an important commercial, transportation and administrative hub for the
Pochutla District in the east of the
Costa Region
The Costa Region or Costa Chica lies on the Pacific coast of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, south of the more mountainous Sierra Sur inland from the coast. It includes the districts of Jamiltepec, Juquila and Pochutla.
Climate
The region has a tro ...
.
Pochutla is located at the junction of coastal
Highway 200 and
Highway 175 to Oaxaca, with 175 functioning as the town's main thoroughfare.
Its name means "place of kapok trees (
Ceiba pentandra
''Ceiba pentandra'' is a tropical tree of the order Malvales and the family Malvaceae (previously emplaced in the family Bombacaceae), native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, northern South America, and (as the variety ''C. pentandr ...
)",
and most of the city is built on a lakebed which was drained during the colonial period.
The municipality is best known as being the home of the oceanside communities of
Puerto Ángel
Puerto Ángel (English: "Angel Port").Is a small coastal town in the Mexican state of Oaxaca located in the municipality of San Pedro Pochutla. It, along with San Agustinillo and Playa Zipolite are known as the "Riviera Oaxaqueña". It is located ...
and
Zipolite
Playa Zipolite is a beach community located in San Pedro Pochutla municipality on the southern coast of Oaxaca state in Mexico between Huatulco and Puerto Escondido.
Zipolite is best known as being Mexico’s first and only legal public nude ...
.
History
The Pochutla area was settled by
Zapotec tribes from
Amatlán,
Miahuatlán and
Cuatlan in the 8th century. The settlement now known as Pochutla was founded around the same time as nearby
Loxicha,
Cozoaltepec and others. The area was part of the dominion of
Tututepec
Tututepec is a Mesoamerican archaeological site. It is located in the lower Río Verde valley on the coast of Oaxaca that formed the nucleus of an extensive Mixtec state during the Late Postclassic period (ca. 12th to early 16th centuries). At i ...
.
At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Spanish town of Pochutla was founded by Pedro Molina, Isidro Salinas, Julio Diaz and others, initially with the name of Huehuetan. The locals were converted to Christianity and the first church was founded just south of the modern town and called San Pedro Huehuetán Laguna. Much of the modern city is built on what was a lakebed. Because of illnesses such as
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
and
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
, this lake was drained. Later in the colonial period, the name was changed to Pochutla due to the number of kapok trees in the area.
According to tradition and archeological evidence located in the hills of Vigía, Espino and El Cometa, there were arms hidden here by pirates, who were called Pichilingües.
In 1833, Conservative rebels led by General
Valentín Canalizo
Valentín Canalizo (14 January 1794 – 20 February 1850), was a Mexican general and statesman who served twice as interim president during the Centralist Republic of Mexico and was later made Minister of War during the Mexican American War.
A ...
fled through here as they were pursued by government troops. Their last battle was at the nearby Soledad Ranch in which they were destroyed by federal forces, forcing the remaining soldiers to scatter.
Conservative rebels continued to be active in this region until the 1860s with José Eustaquio Manzano and Apolonio Manzano leading the rebel cause, reinvigorated due to the passage of the Reform Laws. In 1858 and 1859, federal forces were dispatched here to subdue the rebels who had taken to guerrilla warfare. The last battle between the Manzano brothers and federal troops took place in 1860, with the brothers captured and taken to the state capital in 1861.
The municipality has a
petroleum reserve
Oil and gas reserves denote ''discovered'' quantities of crude oil and natural gas (oil or gas fields) that can be profitably produced/recovered from an approved development. Oil and gas reserves tied to approved operational plans filed on th ...
called Aragón, five km from the community of Puerto Angel. The deposit was going to be exploited by an English company, who brought over equipment in 1937, but expropriation of oil in 1938 by President
Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (; 21 May 1895 – 19 October 1970) was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940.
Born in Jiquilpan, Michoacán, to a working-class family, Cárdenas joined the M ...
brought this to a halt. It has yet to be tapped.
Until late in the 20th century, much of the population of the area lived on subsistence farming, with the only work available during the harvest season on the coffee plantations. In the 1970, the state government expropriated most of the coastal land from Zipolite to Zapotengo and made it
ejido
An ''ejido'' (, from Latin ''exitum'') is an area of communal land used for agriculture in which community members have usufruct rights rather than ownership rights to land, which in Mexico is held by the Mexican state. People awarded ejidos in ...
or communal land with the aim of development.
During the
2006 teachers strike in the state of Oaxaca, groups supporting and opposing the strike clashed here on the main road, Highway 175. The highway was blocked by those supporting the strike to prevent those opposing it from realizing their “March for Education.” The highway was blocked with busses and cars preventing those bound for the state capital from leaving.
Other recent strikes include those by taxi drivers and others in transportation who have blocked roads resulting in monetary losses for the municipality. The dispute centered on concessions for passenger transportation between Pochutla and beach communities such as Zipolite. Actions by strikers have included the blockage of roads including coastal Highway 200.
The city
![PalacioMunicipalPochutla](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/PalacioMunicipalPochutla.JPG)
The city is the commercial, transportation and administrative center for the area. It contains banks, supermarkets and specialty stores that serve the coastal and isolated mountain communities of the
Sierra Madre de Oaxaca
The Sierra Madre de Oaxaca is a mountain range in southern Mexico. It is primarily in the state of Oaxaca, and extends north into the states of Puebla and Veracruz.
Geography
The mountain range begins at Pico de Orizaba, and extends in a southeas ...
which generally lack these things.
The city is on the crossroads of Highway 175, which connects Oaxaca city with Puerto Angel and coastal Highway 200 that connects communities such as Puerto Angel, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Huatulco and Salina Cruz.
It is a transportation hub filled with buses, taxis and dust. Taxis called “colectivos” (collectives) go to the area's beaches as well as pickup trucks fitted to carry passengers. There are two bus stations with first and second class buses to
Oaxaca city
Oaxaca de Juárez (), also Oaxaca City or simply Oaxaca (Valley Zapotec languages, Zapotec: ''Ndua''), is the capital and largest city of the eponymous Administrative divisions of Mexico, Mexican state Oaxaca. It is the municipal seat for the surr ...
,
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
and
Huatulco
Huatulco (; ''wah-TOOL-coh''), formally Bahías de Huatulco, centered on the town of La Crucecita, is a tourist development in Mexico. It is located on the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca. Huatulco's tourism industry is centered on its nine ...
.
It is not a tourist attraction but it serves tourists as a place for banking services and supplies not available in the beach communities as well as a transfer point for buses.
In the evening, the main road through town has a variety of street food.
The parish church was begun in 1840 but was not finished until 1957. The municipal palace was built in 1873.
The center, especially the main plaza and the municipal palace, has recently been renovated and a new amphitheatre has been built to host cultural and sporting events.
The patron saint's day is 29 June in which people celebrate with masks, and fireworks, some set in frames called “castles.”
Pochutla gained the title of city in March 2003.
It is the seat of the
Pochutla District, and is also the head of the Parish of Pochutla which oversees 39 other communities.
The municipality
![BayPAngel1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/BayPAngel1.JPG)
As municipal seat, the city of San Pedro Pochutla is the governing authority over 238 other named communities,
with a total area of 421km2.
This municipality has a total population of 38,798 of which 12,117 live in the city proper.
The most important communities other than the seat include
Puerto Angel
Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to:
Places
*El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain
*Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
*Puerto Colombia, Colombia
*Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela
*Puerto Galera, Orient ...
and
Zipolite
Playa Zipolite is a beach community located in San Pedro Pochutla municipality on the southern coast of Oaxaca state in Mexico between Huatulco and Puerto Escondido.
Zipolite is best known as being Mexico’s first and only legal public nude ...
, both of which are oceanside communities. Zipolite is a popular tourist attraction and Puerto Angel was a coffee export port whose economy now is based on tourism and fishing. Other beaches include La Mina, where waves crash noisily against rocks and Zapotengo with has miles of coconut groves next to the sand. There is also a fresh water spring in San José Chacalapa.
The municipality borders
Candelaria Loxicha
Candelaria Loxicha is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 86.8 km².
It is part of the Pochutla District in the east of the Costa Region
The Costa Region or Costa Chica lies on the Pacif ...
,
Pluma Hidalgo,
Santa María Huatulco
Santa María Huatulco is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico.
It is part of the Pochutla District in the east of the Costa Region.
The meaning of Huatulco, or Guatulco Coatulco is, "where they worship the tree", referring ...
, Cozoaltepec and Santo Domingo with the Pacific Ocean to the south.
The climate here is hot and humid due to its proximity to the ocean with a rainy season in the summer.
Average temperatures vary between 30 and 38C. The south of the municipality is oceanfront and the north is formed by mountains of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca.
Various rivers pass through here on their way to the Pacific Ocean even more
arroyos filling during the summer rainy season. Most of the rain falls in the mountains areas of the municipality rather than on the coast. Principal elevations include Vigia and Espino from which the main river flows. Despite the drainage of the principal lake,
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
is still a concern here.
Vegetation is of the tropical and sub-tropical types and include a number of valuable tropical wood trees such as huanacastle,
mahogany
Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...
,
cedar
Cedar may refer to:
Trees and plants
*''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae
*Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar
Places United States
* Cedar, Arizona
* ...
and
Guaiacum coulteri
''Guaiacum coulteri'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae, that is native to western Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It ...
, which are primarily used to make furniture. Common wildlife includes
iguana
''Iguana'' (, ) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his bo ...
s, deer, wild boar,
armadillo
Armadillos (meaning "little armored ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, along wi ...
s, rabbits,
raccoon
The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...
s and numerous birds native to the area.
Coastal species include black coral, turtles sea bass, sharks and crabs, with bass,
mojarra
The mojarras are a family, Gerreidae, of fish in the order Perciformes. The family includes about 53 species found worldwide in tropical and warm temperate regions. They mostly inhabit coastal salt and brackish waters, although some occur in fr ...
and shrimp found in the rivers.
The principal cultivated crop here is coffee, which provides most of the employment of the rural population. This is raised in the mountain areas. Second is the raising of coconuts and products based on it such as coconut oil. Another important crop is
mango
A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree ''Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South a ...
s.
Other crops grown include corn, sesame seed, peanuts, limes, plums, bananas, watermelons and other melons.
About 50% of the total population is dedicated to commerce, especially that related to tourism. About 22% is dedicated to mining, petroleum, and industry.
A number of traditions are maintained, mostly in the rural areas. In rural communities, various dialects of the
Zapotec language
The Zapotec languages are a group of around 50 closely related indigenous Mesoamerican languages that constitute a main branch of the Oto-Manguean language family and which is spoken by the Zapotec people from the southwestern-central highland ...
are still spoken.
Crafts include figures carved from coconuts, in the regional penitentiary are made necklaces and figures from black coral, wood and other materials. Traditional dress until recently consisted of loose fitting white pants and shirts made of lightweight canvas but this has mostly given way to modern clothing especially in the city. However, older women can still be seen in canvas blouses,
rebozo
A rebozo is a long flat garment, very similar to a shawl, worn mostly by women in Mexico. It can be worn in various ways, usually folded or wrapped around the head and/or upper body to shade from the sun, provide warmth and as an accessory to an ...
s, sandals and wearing long braids. Local specialties include iguana
tamale
A tamale, in Spanish tamal, is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of masa, a dough made from nixtamalized corn, which is steamed in a corn husk or banana leaf. The wrapping can either be discarded prior to eating or used as a plate. Tamale ...
s and
venison
Venison originally meant the meat of a game animal but now refers primarily to the meat of antlered ungulates such as elk or deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, in ...
in yellow or red mole.
Traditional music includes songs called “sones” and chilenas. Local “sones” include titles such as El Perro, El Arriero, El Borracho, El Zopilote, El Toro and El Panadero. Dance garb for women includes long, wide skirts and blouses in various bright colors adorned with ribbons and with the blouses embroidered with flowers. Accessories include rebozos, sandals and palm-leaf hats. The men wear white pants and shirts with sandals and palm-leaf hats. Most of the dances have themes relating to flirting and falling in love.
A dance called the “Kirio” is performed at weddings.
In Puerto Angel, the
Universidad del Mar (University of the Sea) was founded in 1991 by Heladio Ramirez Lopez, governor of the state of Oaxaca.
References
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Oaxaca