San Juan Cotzocón | |
Settlement Type: | Municipality and town |
Pushpin Map: | Mexico |
Pushpin Label Position: | above |
Pushpin Mapsize: | 300 |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Mexico |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Mexico |
Subdivision Type1: | State |
Subdivision Name1: | Oaxaca |
Area Total Km2: | 945.4 |
Population As Of: | 2005 |
Population Total: | 22478 |
Timezone: | Central Standard Time |
Utc Offset: | -6 |
Timezone Dst: | Central Daylight Time |
Utc Offset Dst: | -5 |
Coordinates: | 17.1667°N -142°W |
San Juan Cotzocon is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Sierra Mixe district within the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca Region.
The name "Cotzocón" or "Cozogón" means "Dark Mountain".[1]
The municipality covers an area of 945.4 km². The territory is rugged, with grazing and cultivation of coffee and corn practiced only the lower irregular plains. The Chiquito River runs through the northern part, a tributary of the Rio Grande. The climate is warm and humid, with rain almost all year round. The forested areas contain pine, cedar, and ceiba.[1]
As of 2005, the municipality had 5,030 households with a total population of 22,478 of whom 10,712 spoke an indigenous language.The main town is now María Lombardo de Caso, located at a height of 140 meters above sea level.Although in a Mixe area, many of the people in this town are Mazatec or Chinantec who moved here after being displaced by the Miguel Alemán Dam in the 1960s.[1] In the 1950s the remote municipality, accessible only via dirt track, drew visitors from the USA investigating use of hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms in the traditional Mixe ceremonies.[2]
The main economic activity is coffee cultivation, followed by livestock raising.[1] Some of the Mixe women of the village of San Juan Cotzocon use back strap looms to weave traditional huipil, rebosos, napkins, table cloths and other textile crafts.[3] The Union of Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus Region, a cooperative founded in 1982, assists in production and distribution of the local products, notably coffee, under a fair trade label.[4]