San Juan Colorado

San Juan Colorado sits in the low hills of Oaxaca's Costa Chica, about 445 m above sea level, among ravines and pastures, roughly 4 km from Pinotepa de Don Luis and San Pedro Atoyac. It is the seat of a municipality of about 120 km² and barely ten localities, with elevations from 200 to 1,600 m. According to INEGI the climate is warm and subhumid with summer rains, 22 to 28 °C and 1,500 to 2,500 mm a year, and much of the land is cultivated pasture (39%), forest (27%) and tropical forest (26%).

The censuses show slow growth: 1,795 people in 1900, 1,330 in 1921 (after the Revolution), 2,571 in 1960 and 5,679 in 2020. In 2020, 98.68% identified as Indigenous and 82% spoke an Indigenous language; 14% spoke only that language. In 1826 the area belonged to the Jamiltepec district, in 1844 it appears as part of the Pinotepa de Don Luis parish, and in 1891 it received its own ayuntamiento.

The patron is San Juan Bautista, whose fiesta is 23 and 24 June; San Andrés is celebrated 28 to 30 November and carnival arrives in February. Dances include Los maromeros, La tortuga, La malinche and Las mascaritas, and the community keeps its mayordomías, the All Saints ceremony and the handover of authority by the tata mandones.

There are no hotels in town; the nearest are in Pinotepa de Don Luis, about 6 km away.