San Jerónimo Xayacatlán

Though its name is Nahuatl, San Jerónimo Xayacatlán is a Mixtec village: most of its people speak the Mixtec of the Puebla–Oaxaca border, the same variety heard in Xayacatlán de Bravo. The name has two readings: it may come from xayácatl, mask, "place of masks", or from xalli, sand, and yácatl, point, "sand point". The village had 1,229 people in 2020 and sits at about 1,290 m.

The land belonged to the old district of Acatlán; according to the municipal history it was the estate of the landowner Juana Aja, which was sold, and in 1895 the place became a free municipality. Since the 1960s it has been a municipality of emigrants, who leave mainly for Mexico City, Puebla and, more recently, New York.

The municipality, about 230 km², borders Tepexi de Rodríguez, Coyotepec, Acatlán, Xayacatlán de Bravo, Petlalcingo, Totoltepec de Guerrero and the Oaxaca municipalities of Santiago Chazumba and Cosoltepec. Its north belongs to the Sierra de Acatlán, with the 1,950 m Cerro Negro volcano and deposits of barite, lead and silver; its southern half is the Acatlán valley, a narrow strip along the river of the same name, which rises in summer and autumn with the rains.