Santa María Apazco

Apazco sits at 2,164 m in the Mixteca Alta, and the name is Nahuatl: an apaztli is a big clay cooking pot, so the town is "the place of the pots". In Mixtec the community is called Ñuu Tava. It belongs to the Nochixtlán district and lies inside the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve.

The 2020 census counted 485 people in the seat. That is little compared with what it once was: 1,742 in 1970, down to 432 by 2010. More than two thirds of residents speak Mixtec, and some older people use almost no Spanish. The weather is cool and damp, with an average near 14 °C, close to 1,000 mm of rain concentrated in summer, and a record low of -0.7 °C.

The centre is the church of La Purísima Concepción, with an image of its patroness inside a gilded altarpiece. Palm is woven into hats, earrings and sashes, and everyday clothes are bought at the markets of Nochixtlán or in the city of Oaxaca. On Day of the Dead the families make maize atole, and students dance the Flor de piña.

The municipality has 13 localities, and the best of it lies outside the seat. Pericón, about 5 km away, has a hillside of orchids that flower in early spring. Tonalán, with a warm climate, has a few small waterfalls. San Isidro has a cave and a display of stones shaped like animals; you visit with the community agent, who gives permission, charges a small fee and guides. From the uninhabited hill of Diki yuku andivi you can see Apazco and its neighbours; the first settlers lived up there before moving down for lack of water.