San Marcos Arteaga

San Marcos Arteaga is named for Saint Mark the Evangelist, its patron, and for Simón Arteaga, a member of the triumvirate that governed Oaxaca in 1846 with Fernández del Campo and Benito Juárez. The municipality was created on 31 October 1891 in the Huajuapan district of the Mixteca, and before the conquest this was Mixtec land.

The seat lies at 1,455 m and had 1,115 residents in 2020 (INEGI). Its census series peaks at 1,511 people in 1960 and bottoms out at 706 in 1900, with swings since. The whole municipality has 1,568 residents in five localities; the largest after the seat is Vista Hermosa Lázaro Cárdenas with 347, then Cerro de Agua with 102.

The terrain is sierra: 1,300 to 2,200 m, mostly in the Cordillera Costera del Sur and partly in the Mixteca Alta, over limestone, shale and sandstone. The Río Mixteco, a Balsas tributary, is the main stream. The climate is semi-warm subhumid with summer rains, averaging 18 to 22 °C and 700 to 1,000 mm a year.

The sources We found describe no monuments or local fiestas; what the town has is a central plaza, shown in the Wikipedia photo, and a dry-hill landscape that shifts with the rains. It is a stop for anyone travelling the Mixteca who wants a small, little-visited seat.