San Pablo Huitzo

San Pablo Huitzo sits at the northern end of the Etla valley, about 31 km from Oaxaca city at roughly 1,700 m. It had 5,519 inhabitants in 2010 and is a farming town known for its vegetables and flowers. The town is divided into three sections, plus the outlying agency of Santa María Tenexpan.

People have lived here for a very long time. Around 1400 the Zapotec settlement on the nearby hilltops was called Huijazoo, usually translated as "warriors' watchtower"; after the Mexica conquest it was known as Guaxolotitlan, and by about 1700 the name Huitzo had taken hold. After the Spanish arrival in 1522, people were moved down from the hilltops to a new town beside the Atoyac river. The friars chose Saint Paul as patron and built what is now the parish church, a 16th-century Dominican former convent with a stone facade, twin bell towers and an interior full of colonial statues of saints. The town also sits on the old national road, and Benito Juárez is remembered to have stayed here for two days.

Huitzo made national news in 2025, when INAH archaeologists, following up a report of looting, found Tomb 10 on top of Cerro de la Cantera: a nearly intact Zapotec crypt from the Late Classic (AD 600 to 900), 5.55 m long, with a stepped vault, a stucco mask, a frieze, carved jambs and painted murals. It lies close to Tomb 5 of Huijazoo, on the Suchilquitongo side of the same hills, and INAH believes the area was an acropolis contemporary with Monte Albán. Restorers are stabilising its murals, and in January 2026 the federal Culture Secretary said the aim was to open it to the public by the end of the year.