San Miguel Ejutla

Ejutla comes from Nahuatl and is read as the place where green beans (ejotes) are plentiful; San Miguel is the patron archangel. The village stands at about 1,450 metres in the south of the Central Valleys, almost against the city of Ejutla de Crespo (about 2 km to the southeast). With 973 people in 2020 it is the centre of the municipality of San Miguel Ejutla. Its population fell from 541 in 1900 to 361 in 1921 and has been climbing since: 622 in 2005, 803 in 2010 and 973 in 2020.

Almost everything happens in Spanish here: only 3.7% of residents speak an indigenous language. Housing figures show a village tied to its large neighbour: of some 262 homes, about 89% have a mobile phone, over 70% have internet and nearly 38% have a car.

The climate is temperate highland, averaging around 19.5 °C, with little rain by Oaxaca standards (about 700 mm a year, June being the wettest month); January is the cool month and May the hot one. The municipality covers about 41 km2 of rolling country among hills such as El Mexicano (1,824 m, about 4 km to the northeast) and El Brujo.

The parish church keeps old religious images that have been photographed in detail: the Dolorosa, Christ in the purple cloak, El Dios de la Peña, the Virgen de la Soledad and several Franciscan and Dominican saints. Around the village are small settlements such as El Higo and La Ciénega, and neighbourhoods that are almost villages of their own, such as Taniche (887 people) and Yegoseve (473).