Guevea de Humboldt

Guevea de Humboldt is the seat of a 515 km² Zapotec municipality in the north of the Tehuantepec district, where the Isthmus lowlands climb into the Sierra Mixe, at about 620 meters. The name comes from Zapotec Guie'e-via, glossed as "flower of muddy water" or "river lily". For centuries it was Santiago Guevea; it took its present name in the late 1930s to honor the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who Wikipedia says spent time in the town.

Its written history starts with a cotton cloth painting dated 1540 that shows Guevea and neighboring Santo Domingo Petapa. It records the people's migration from Zaachila and was made to establish land rights, and it names Pedro Santiago as the first ruler under Spanish authority.

Farming carries the local economy: coffee, sugar cane, rice and coconut, plus corn and beans. In 1982 growers in the region formed a union of Indigenous communities of the Isthmus to get better coffee prices, and over the years its members won organic certification and links to fair trade. The municipal vegetation mixes pine and oak with mahogany, ceiba and cedar, and the wildlife listed for it includes jaguar, tapir, toucan and paca.

The town sits on a geological fault, with cracks reported since 1982. The earthquakes of September 7 and 23, 2017 brought down or damaged hundreds of houses, and NVI Noticias counted more than 900 affected families. This is a place for community and mountain scenery, with no formal tourist infrastructure: people come because they have a reason to.