Santa María Chimalapa

"Golden gourd bowl": that is what Chimalapa means in the Zoque language, and the name is attached to one of the largest and best-preserved forests in the country. Santa María is the seat of the municipality, in the far east of Oaxaca, in the Isthmus region and the Juchitán district. Its 2,516 inhabitants (2020 census) live in territory where the Zoque people are the majority in the seat and Chimalapa Zoque is spoken; the town council is chosen by customary law.

The municipality is huge and almost empty: about 4,500 km², the largest in the state, with 55 localities and 9,578 people in all, barely two per square kilometre. The biggest localities after the seat are San Francisco la Paz (819) and La Esperanza (775). It borders Matías Romero Avendaño to the west, Veracruz to the north and Chiapas to the east, where the boundary is still disputed. The climate runs from 14 to 26 °C with 1,000 to 3,500 mm of rain a year, and the forest holds cedar, mahogany, ceiba and pine, with jaguar, deer and toucan. The town's water comes from the El Corte river, which runs down from the Zoque forest.

Local life turns on maize, beans, coffee and sugar cane, with some cattle and poultry and a sawmill that produces fine wood. Roads and schools are few. This is not a set-up destination for visitors: people who come usually do so for fieldwork, family or conservation projects, and it is wise to introduce yourself to the communal authorities before going into the forest.