San Juan Cotzocón Explained

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.

Name

The name "Cotzocón" or "Cozogón" means "Dark Mountain".[1]

Geography

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]

Population

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]

Economy

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]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: San Juan Cotzocon. Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México. Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo y el Desarrollo Municipal. 2010-07-22. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070528044908/http://www.e-local.gob.mx/work/templates/enciclo/oaxaca/municipios/20190a.htm. 2007-05-28.
  2. Book: 138ff . The sacred mushroom seeker: tributes to R. Gordon Wasson . Terence K. McKenna, Thomas J. Riedlinger . Inner Traditions / Bear & Company . 1997 . 0-89281-338-5.
  3. Web site: Cotzocon Mixe . Mexican Indigenous Textile Project . 2010-07-22.
  4. Web site: Union of Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus Region . GPIAtlantic . 2010-07-18.