Magdalena Tlacotepec

Magdalena Tlacotepec lies in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec at about 107 m above sea level and is the seat of a small municipality of five localities and 1,297 people in 2020; 1,234 of them live in the town itself. Census figures show it growing from 507 people in 1900 to a peak of 1,439 in 1970, and holding at roughly one to one and a quarter thousand since. The municipality borders Santiago Laollaga and Santo Domingo to the north, and Santa María Mixtequilla and Santo Domingo Tehuantepec to the south.

Zapotecs lived in the area before the Spanish arrived. Wikipedia gives 1650 as the founding date, under the name Xiyicuxha; in 1825 and 1826 it appears as Magdalena Acatepec and then La Magdalena Tlacotepec, and by 1891 it was a municipal agency of the Tehuantepec district. Tlacotepec is Nahuatl and is read as "in the middle of the hill"; Magdalena is for its patron saint, Mary Magdalene. The Templo de Santa María Magdalena is said to be 16th century, which does not fit the founding date.

The climate is hot, with summer rain. The scrub holds mesquite and mango, and wild boar and deer are listed. About 4.5 km to the northeast is the Ojo de Agua de Tlacotepec, a spring with rustic pools, changing rooms and a food area, beside Guiengola, the old Zapotec fortress; it fills up in the hot season.