San Juan Tepeuxila

Tepeuxila is the seat of the municipality of San Juan Tepeuxila, in the Cuicatlán district in the north of Oaxaca's Cañada region. The village stands at about 2,116 m and the 2020 census counted 482 residents, while the whole municipality covers about 366 km² and had 2,914 people in 2005. The name is Nahuatl and is read as "place where the hummingbirds of the hill abound"; San Juan is the patron saint, John the Baptist.

It is one of the two towns where Cuicatec is spoken, a language related to Mixtec; the other variant is that of Teutila. In the municipality about two thirds of people aged three and over speak an indigenous language, and nearly all of them speak Cuicatec (around 1,676 speakers).

The village population grew from 588 in 1900 to a peak of 945 in 1960 and has since settled at about 480, the figure for 2000, 2010 and 2020. Inside the municipal territory lies the Zona de Reserva Ecológica Comunal de San Juan Teponaxtla, an area of mountain land that the community itself looks after.

We found no documented tourist services in Tepeuxila. It is wise to tell the municipal authority and local families before heading into the communal reserve.