Yucuquimi de Ocampo

The name comes from Mixtec and means "hill of the morning star", and that hill rises above the rooftops from almost every street. Yucuquimi sits in the Mixteca Baja of Oaxaca at roughly 2,060 metres, in the municipality of Tezoatlán de Segura y Luna. In 2020 it had 2,433 residents, more than many municipal seats in the region, and about 94 percent of people over three speak Mixtec.

The town is divided into five barrios: Centro, Plan de Iguala, Alta Vista, Buenos Aires and Juárez. Each has its own primary school and chapel, while Centro holds the agency office and the square where the year's cultural events take place. Nearly all streets and roads are dirt; there is one paved stretch, leaving through Buenos Aires toward San Andrés Yutatío to the north and San Marcos de Garzón to the west. That road was opened in 1968. Before it, people carrying hats to sell in Tezoatlán walked about three hours, and those who went on to Huajuapan took three days to get home.

Palm is still the local trade: people weave hats, mats, baskets, rope, fire fans and toys. Maize goes in with the first rains in late May or early June and is harvested in November, and many farmers still plough with a team of animals. The big fiestas are San Ramón Nonato on 31 August and the Immaculate Conception on 8 December. Basketball is popular with the young, and most barrios have a court.

Yucuquimi runs on its own community system of government, with San Marcos de Garzón, San Valentín de Gómez, Cuesta Blanca, San Isidro Zaragoza and Rancho Juárez as dependent villages. In September 2019 residents blocked federal highway 190 to demand funds and recognition as an autonomous municipality.