La Sierra Norte de Oaxaca is a heavily wooded region in the state 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 ...

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 62 km from the city of Oaxaca on Federal highway 175, heading east towards

Tuxtepec San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec ( nah, Tōchtepēc, "on the hill of rabbits"), or simply referred to as Tuxtepec, is the head of the municipality by the same name and is the second most populous city of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is part of the Tu ...

. The region is divided into three districts: Ixtlán, which has 26

municipalities 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 ...

, Villa Alta, which has 25 municipalities and Mixe, which has 17 municipalities.

Environment

The western part of the region is mountainous, containing part 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 includes the Sierra Juárez and Sierra de Villa Alta. To the east, the region slopes down to the

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

coastal plain. The area has one of the best-preserved biospheres in

, as well as a number of interesting towns and villages. The region promotes

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds ...

to help preserve the biosphere with various enterprises offering cabins, camping, access and guides for hiking and mountain-biking trails, horseback riding, bird-watching, and cave exploration. It is also one of richest zones of biodiversity in Mexico, with 400 species of birds and 350 species of butterflies. It contains seven of the nine types of vegetation indigenous to the country.

Communities

There are a number of towns located within this area. Ixtlán is the political and economic center of the region. Ixtlan is noted for its Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle (Iglesia de Santo Tomás Apostal), which is a

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

-style church known for its portals, façades and sculptures. Capulálpam de Méndez is 9 km east of Ixtlán, and also has a church, Church of Saint Matthew (Iglesia de San Mateo) with altars representative of Mexican Baroque style. It also has the ''Centro de Medicina Indígena Tradicional'' (Center for Indigenous Traditional Medicine) which is sponsored by the Mexican Secretary of Health. It is open to the public, including tourists and offers native herbal medicines, massages, temascals and ritual cleansings.

Indigenous peoples of the Sierra Norte

Various peoples of the region include the Zapotecs, Mixes,

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 ...

Tlaxcaltec The Tlaxcalans, or Tlaxcaltecs, are a Nahua people who live in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. Pre-Columbian history The Tlaxcaltecs were originally a conglomeration of three distinct ethnic groups who spoke Nahuatl, Otomi, and Pinome that compr ...

s and the

Nahua The Nahuas () are a group of the indigenous people of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico and second largest in El Salvador. The Mexica (Aztecs) were of Nahua ethnicity, a ...

s. The Zapotecs of the Sierra Norte, who call themselves the ''bene xon,'' are one of 3 major Zapotec regions in southern Mexico. The other three reside in the

Isthmus of Tehuantepec The Isthmus of Tehuantepec () is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major overland transport route known simply as the Te ...

, el Valle and the

Sierra Madre Oriental The Sierra Madre Oriental () is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico. The Sierra Madre Oriental is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that f ...

. Most Zapotecs are found in the Villa Alta district with some in Ixtlán and a few in Choapan. The ''bene xon'' divide into four sub-cultures: Cajonos, El Rincón, Ixtlán and Choapan.

References

External links

Sierra NorteEcoturixtlan
Regions of Oaxaca Sierra Madre de Oaxaca {{Oaxaca-geo-stub