Santa Cruz Papalutla

Papalutla can be explained in one word: butterflies. The name comes from Nahuatl and means roughly "where butterflies abound", though today the town is better known for what its artisans make than for insects. It sits at 1,585 m in the eastern end of Oaxaca's Central Valleys, inside the Tlacolula district, and is the seat of a very small municipality: the 2010 census gave it only three localities and 1,972 inhabitants, and in 2020 the town itself counted 2,242 people.

What is known of its history is short and dated. The town was founded in 1615, its land titles are from 1786, in 1844 it was a dependency of the Tectipac parish within the Tlacolula subprefecture, and in 1891 it became a town council of the district. At the entrance to the town stands the Santa Cruz church, built of quarried stone and thought to date to the 16th century. Growth has been slow: 1,134 people in 1900, 1,876 in 1980 and 1,597 in 1995, before the count began to climb again.

The local craft is carrizo-cane basketry: bird cages, baskets, barrel-shaped containers, coin purses, key rings, lamps and folding screens, plus small baskets. The traditional table includes pork liver with egg, mole tamales, mezcal as an aperitif and, for dessert, preserved and candied fruit. More than 80% of the land around the town is farmed, in a semi-dry, semi-warm climate of 18 to 22 °C with 600 to 700 mm of rain a year, and only seasonal streams run through, La Bomba and El Salado. Flowers are grown and there is some livestock.