Communities

Santos Reyes Nopala is situated on a fortress-like hill top surrounded by even loftier peaks thick with trees. Coffee is a staple of the economy here, which has helped Nopala maintain its scenic beauty. The coffee bushes need the shade of larger trees, so the area remains heavily wooded.

The views are spectacular: steep, narrow alleyways drop away to reveal mosaics of tiled roofs and patios (where the beans are sun dried), the river valley dotted with hillocks and the mountains. It's a great town to explore: the churches, the market (Nopala has a traditional Indian market on Sundays) and small restaurants where you can sometimes find venison, quail or crawdads on the menu.

You can see archeological remains of the ancient culture in the municipal palace, the kiosk in the main plaza, and in some private homes. These stelae, large stone carvings, date from around 600 to 800 A.D. and are believed to be funereal monuments to great chiefs and priests.

The town's Chatino rulers intermarried with royalty of the neighboring Mixtecs and managed to maintain an equal footing with their powerful neighbors until the death of the great Mixtec king, 8 Deer, whose son was married to a Chatina girl in 1000 AD. Then began centuries of subjugation, first as tributaries of the Mixtec, then by the Spanish and, after Independence and the Reforms, by wealthy merchants, ranchers and plantation owners.

But the Nopaltecos have shown a remarkable resiliency in maintaining their culture and traditions, perhaps best symbolized by the ancient stone carving now visible in a wall of the old church, but hidden for centuries behind a Christian altar.

There always seems to be something going on in Santos Reyes Nopala. The narrow streets suddenly fill with people following the ubiquitous brass band in some form of religious observation or celebration.

You can visit a coffee plantation or see how the traditional trapiche works. This is a wooden mill, powered by oxen to crush sugar cane for the juice that is used to produce panela, a raw sugar and tepache, fermented cane juice, essential to any celebration in the region.

Another ancient production process can be seen at Santa Magdalena Tiltepec, where the women make all kinds of pots and vases, clay figurines and the comal, the un-greased clay griddles essential to Oaxacan cooking.