Santa María Pápalo

Pápalo is seen first from above: houses on a slope and, all around, hills with names of their own such as Pueblo Unido, Amarillo la Paz, El Pelón, La Paz and Volcán Prieto. Santa María Pápalo is the seat of a municipality in the northern Cañada sierra, in the Cuicatlán district, with about 56 to 58 km² and three localities: the seat (1,429 people in 2020), Peña Verde (440) and San Juan Teponapa (189). Most people speak Cuicatec, and some Chinantec speakers are also recorded.

The land is high sierra, between 900 and 3,300 m, with forest over nearly three quarters of the area and only 13% farmed. It is cool: 12 to 22 °C, with 800 to 2,000 mm of rain a year and a damp temperate climate in the upper parts. The Tres, Blanco, Mosco and Santa María rivers run all year and the municipality drains toward the Papaloapan. The traditional founding date given is 1500, and a carved stone monument from Santa María Pápalo is kept today at the Santo Domingo Cultural Centre in the city of Oaxaca. The village church was raised through tequio, communal labour.

It borders Concepción Pápalo and Santos Reyes Pápalo (north and west), San Pedro Sochiápam (east) and San Juan Tepeuxila (south). It is governed by customary law; the altitude of the seat is usually given as between 2,000 and 2,500 m depending on the source.