San José Chinantequilla

Chinantequilla clings to a hillside of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca at 1,171 m and is a municipal agency of Totontepec Villa de Morelos, in the Mixe district. The 2020 census counted 519 people in about 127 occupied homes; roughly half of those over five speak an indigenous language and nearly all of them also speak Spanish. The closest neighbours are San Juan Comaltepec, about 3.6 km west, and Santiago Amatepec, about 4 km northeast.

The name comes from Chinantec and is usually glossed as "at the edge of the grass"; in Mixe it is written Më³eviam. Local accounts say migrants from Guanajuato founded the village around 1913, the year Ignacio Franco received the land title after a dispute with the Chinantec people of San Juan Comaltepec. A 1920 decree made it a municipal agency of Totontepec under the name Chinantequilla, and since 1969 it has been San José Chinantequilla.

People live off the land: maize, beans, bananas, fruit and vegetables, and some families distil aguardiente. There is no market in the village, so shopping is done in local shops or at the tianguis of nearby towns. The landscape is cloud forest, pine and oak, with heavy summer rain, and the best-known hill is Cerro de Algodón, 1,396 m, visible from the centre.

The main fiesta is San José on 11 May. Other dates are Day of the Dead (1 and 2 November), the Virgin of Guadalupe on 12 December and Christmas Eve, and Holy Week brings processions. Local dances include the Danza de los Negritos and the Danza de la Conquista. Typical food is machuco de semilla de calabaza, quebarajado de plátano, memelas, tamales and champurrado. There are two basketball courts, the village's sport.