San Martín Peras

San Martín Peras was founded in 1730 and is named for its patron saint, Martin of Tours. It stands at about 2,206 metres in the Oaxacan Mixteca and is the seat of a municipality of over 240 km² with 59 localities and 12,436 inhabitants in 2020. The town itself had 3,051 people that year, down from a peak of 3,511 in 2010; the census series swings sharply (2,897 in 1960, only 1,013 in 1970), largely because of migration.

Everyday life runs in Low Mixtec (tu'un savi): in 2020 almost 99% of residents of the seat identified as indigenous, 85% spoke an indigenous language and nearly 22% did not speak Spanish. The municipality is governed by usos y costumbres, and community posts such as mayor or police officer are held as service. At festivals the dish is mole rojo, which can take days to prepare.

This is mountain country of pine and oak, with relief from about 1,500 to 2,900 m. San José (1 km), La Trinidad Peras (1.3 km) and several small paraje hamlets lie right beside the town. In 2020 seven in ten homes had a mobile phone and only six in a hundred had internet. There is no lodging in the village; the nearest is about 20 km to the north, roughly 13 minutes by car on a map estimate.