San Juan Achiutla

San Juan Achiutla is the seat of the municipality of the same name, in the Mixteca Alta at 1,992 m, among the Cerro Negro, Yucuquise, Cuate and Totolote hills. The Río Los Sabinos runs through the village and the Cahuayande dam is nearby. The municipality had 408 people in 2020, spread over ten localities, and is governed by usos y costumbres. It is not the same as San Miguel Achiutla, the other Achiutla a few kilometres south, which has its own page.

Achiutla (Ñuu Ndecu, "city of flames" in Mixtec) was one of the great religious centres of the Mixteca. Its shrine kept a sacred green stone, the "Heart of the People", tied to the rain god Dzahui. The Dominicans arrived in 1557 and Fray Benito Hernández destroyed the sacred object. Land titles date from 1584 and 1748, and the municipality was created in the mid-twentieth century. Many people migrated to Veracruz, Mexico City and the United States, and hometown associations paid for schools and water works.

Village life follows the community calendar. Tequio, unpaid communal work, is done about once a month; the family exchange called guelaguetza helps with weddings, baptisms and funerals; and mayordomos pay for the patron fiesta. On 24 December neighbours stage a pastorela with volunteers and no official funding, and 27 December is the fiesta of San Juan Evangelista, with a calenda, brass band, procession and a market selling sapotes, garlic, beans and palm crafts. In the turkey dance, the outgoing mayordomo hands a turkey to the next one.

The centre has a municipal palace, a jail and a bandstand rebuilt in 2016. The church of San Juan Evangelista keeps a 1749 painting. A Banco del Bienestar branch has operated here since 2023.