Pueblos Mancomunados

After getting to Oaxaca I did everything I could to get to the mountainous Zapotec area called the Pueblos Mancomunados.  I took a 6 am bus 2 hours to Llano Grande the next day to start my trek.  I designed a 5 day trip on foot through the small Zapotec communities to my destination of Guelatao, the birthplace of the most famous Zapotec, Benito Juarez.

  The Pueblos Mancomunados (Commonwealth of Villages) are eight remote Zapotec villages in the thickly forested highlands north of the Valle of Tlalucula. For centuries, in a unique form of cooperation, the villages have pooled the natural resources of their 290-sq-km territory, which include extensive pine and oak forests, sharing the profits from forestry and other enterprises.  Elevations range from 2200m to over 3200m, and the landscapes, with their canyons, caves, crags, waterfalls and panoramic lookouts, are spectacular. 

I walked in a counter-clockwise fashion from Llano Grande to Cuajimolya to Benito Juarez, La Neveria, Latuvi, Lachatao and Amatlan.  The villages are about 4 to 6 hours away from each other on foot.  I had a different guide for each leg of the trip.  They taught me about the local flora and fauna, their interesting and unique form of community service called usos y costumbres, and even a little Zapotec history and language.

Sunrise between Llano Grande and Cuajimoloyas.

Zapotec refers to a native people of Mexico, their language family consisting of more than 15 languages, and their historic culture and traditions. Today, most of the Zapotec languages are endangered.

The Zapotec people are centered in Oaxaca, to the south of central Mexico. In Pre-Columbian times they were one of the major Mesoamerican civilizations. 

Looking down on the cloud forest.

In this video I walked by some of the communally owned forested land in the commonwealth of Zapotec villages.  For cooking and heating most families use firewood instead of natural gas.  These villages use a sustainable forestry model to protect the forests that prevent soil erosion in their communal lands.

Wildflowers

In these videos you see my guide Nefreti demonstrate his knowledge of the medicinal plants in the forest.  

Rather than go to the pharmacy, these people are more likely to use traditional Zapotec remedies from local plants.  He explains in Spanish the first video about how a local plant is used to treat anemia.  In the second video I find some wild mushrooms with the help of my guide.  I then explain how impressed I am by their preservation of the forest to prevent soil erosion.

This video demonstrates what to do with the local plants if you get scared. You hit yourself with these branches to beat the fear or bad feelings out of you.  The fear is then destroyed when the branches are burned. Later in my fellowship I took a tamazcal, a Zapotec sweat bath.  A curandera or traditional healer smacked me with these branches and to remove bad feelings and emotions and then threw the branches in a fire to destroy them.  

Behind me to the right hand side you see the town of Cuajimoloyas.  This was a 5 hour hike from Cuajimoloyas going through forests, meadows and farms. 

The azucena flower.

Here I am at the town of Benito Juarez.  This is not to be confused with Guelatao, the birthplace of Benito Juarez.  At this point I am on my way to Guelatao.

Statue of Benito Juarez in the town of Benito Juarez

Orchids in the forest.

The Zapotec call themselves "The People" (Be'ena'a). The implications of this term are many: 'THE people of this place,' 'The true people,' 'Those who didn't come from another place,' 'Those who have always been here.' "The People" tell that their ancestors emerged from the earth, from caves, or that they turned from trees or jaguars into people, while the elite that governed them believed that they descended from supernatural beings that lived among the clouds, and that upon death they would return to such status. In fact, the name by which Zapotecs are known today resulted from this belief. In Central Valley Zapotec "The Cloud People' is "Be'ena' Za'a."  They are called "The Cloud People" or "The People of the Clouds" because the live in the cloud forest.

This hanging moss was everywhere in the cloud forest.

This moss was right next to pine trees and orchids and this cactus.  The wide variety of plants and trees is due to the dramatic changes both in elevation and in rainfall from the dry to the rainy season.

Most of the trip from Latuvi to Lachatao followed this river.