Chiquihuitlán de Benito Juárez

Chiquihuitlán de Benito Juárez sits at 1,205 m in the north of the Cañada, in the Cuicatlán district, about 198 km from Oaxaca city. The 2020 census recorded 1,462 people in the town, nearly all indigenous, and the language heard is Mazatec. The whole 38.3 km² municipality has 2,179 people in 12 localities; the next largest are La Concepción (206), Agua Tendida (143) and Agua Espina (106). It borders San Pedro Teutila to the east and Santa Ana Cuauhtémoc to the west.

The name comes from Nahuatl and is explained as "place protected by baskets". Local legend tells of an eagle-like bird with two heads that seized people; to drive it off, the villagers drained the lagoon where it hunted, at a spot called La Cruz or Terminal. That is why the municipal coat of arms shows a two-headed eagle with a reed basket. In 1950, comuneros from Santa Ana Cuauhtémoc occupied a large part of the territory, called El Cabildo, and later gained legal title to it.

The economy is agricultural: maize, beans, coffee, sugar cane, squash and tomato, plus fruit trees such as mango, avocado and mamey, which the municipality names as its main natural resource. Cane becomes panela, tepache and aguardiente. Families also make rope bags and sheep-wool gabanes. Elevation runs from about 200 to 1,800 m, and deer, raccoons and iguanas live in the woods.