# Santiago Yosondúa

Santiago Yosondúa is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in southwestern Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 215.61 km$^2$. It is part of the Tlaxiaco District in the south of the Mixteca Region. It is about 5+1⁄2 hours from Oaxaca City and 2 hours from the Tlaxiaco District. The municipality is recognized as the top municipal with 3 municipal agencies.

## Topography

Naturally, Yosondúa has an irregular topography, since it has different altitudes from areas with no incline and others with a bit of incline up to areas with a pronounced incline of 45 to 70 degrees. There are areas where there are big ravines, around 90 degrees, that add to the diversity of microclimates.

## Demographics

As of 2020, the municipality had a total population of 7,991. Males make up 47% of the population, with a total of 3,753 people and females make up 53% of the population, with a total of 4,238 people. The concentrated age range is 10 to 14 years old (843 people), 5 to 9 years old (796 people), and 0 to 4 years old (745 people) making it a total of 29.8% of the total population.

## Early history

There is limited knowledge of the founders and early history of Yosondúa because there aren't many physical writings regarding their history. Most of what is known is through oral histories and the very few material objects like the construction of graves, shrines, stone axes, idols, metates (grinding stone), and ceramic fragments. The artifacts that are found were scattered in caves and lands in Yosondúa.
On a very simplified retelling of Yosondúa's founding, it starts with a primitive man who, after traveling in search of subsistence, settled on the top and the slopes of the mountain Jañuu, founded next to the Esmeralda River. The man depended on the root collection such as wild fruits, and hunting to get by. The river's positionally next to the hill allowing the group to access the plains on top of the banks that would be the home for their crops and water for irrigation. The location where the people of Yosondúa inhabited was thought out thoroughly for its defense and food production.
Dating back to 1500-500 BC, the upper Mixtec population's settlements are known to be the early villages of Oaxaca. San José Mogote and Monte Albán settlements are examples of settlements on top of hills in the Valley of Oaxaca. To contextualize, the first settlement of Tlaxiaco, was located on top of a tall hill next to the Yuta Toto River where the temple of the gods is also situated. Ndiji Nuu, otherwise known as Tlaxiaco means “he who has good eyesight or can look far away”. It is inferred that the name was related to the Aztec warriors’ surveillance post which was made to control the Mixtec people's activities or the fact that they were located on the top of a hill where they had a clear view of great distance. The ruins of their settlement are mostly located in Jaha Nuu or Yuku Yuu and the community thinks it needs to be preserved to help protect against looting.
In addition, there needs to be an increase in archaeological studies to help reconstruct the early settlements as an archaeological zone. Moreover, labeling it as an archaeological zone will allow for the establishment of the antiquity of the zone by using the Carbon-14, or radiocarbon dating system on the artifacts that are found in the tombs: stone axes, idols, polished green stones, flint beads, obsidian arrowheads, grinding wheels, and metates (mortars and molcajetes). The scattered ceramic fragments found all over the town's territory are inferred to be from the upper neolithic and paleolithic era.
The gods gave the year and the day to observe, which is the festival of the people of Yosondúa Oaxaca. It is said that they were born in the spirit of their ancestors, the dead ancestors who were their parents. Between the four cardinal points is the settlement of the Mixtec people and is where they will go to this land the day they abandon humanity.

## Municipal organization

The municipality is organized as follows:
* Municipal Presidency: The political representative is the one who is directly responsible for the municipal public administration, and is responsible for certifying the right carrying out of the provisions of the City Council, therefore needing to monitor the needs of the population and arrangements for carrying out municipal public works.
* Municipal Trustee: The municipal trustee is the legal representation within the municipal territory, as he is the person who is responsible for surveilling the heritage and municipal public administration
* Municipal Aldermen: The aldermen are a part of the collegiate body of municipal authority and are members of the city council that represent the city hall community. Their specific roles entail discussing, approving, and monitoring the observance of regulations that govern the activity of the municipal bodies like the conduct of citizens to the municipal government while overseeing the activity of each municipal agency commission intermixed by different types (public security, finance, public works, etc.). Finally, the aldermen need to attend civic events.
* The only mayor, who is in service to the citizens such as overseeing the boundary verification of properties, and measurement of the land to be processed.
* Municipal Secretary: Summon City Council Sessions prepare the minutes of the city council sessions, collect signatures from the members of the city council, and attend the hearing of the municipal president. They also compile and distribute the laws, decrees, regulations, official publications of the state government, circulars, and orders to different agencies of the municipal public administration
* Authority auxiliaries: Otherwise known as municipal agents and policy or sector bosses that have jurisdictions via city council representatives. They can take charge to maintain order and security as ordered by the system and traditions.
Overall, people working within the municipal be trained to have the technical tools for the municipal government to be able to adapt to a more informed and participatory society. The municipal public administration has to be institutional to have the best performance possible.

## Social organization

Social and political organization is organized at the community level either carried out through prior appointments by the rural police officer, where they can reach an agreement to be able to carry out a collective work, called “Tequio”. Similarly, “Guezas” or “turned hand” is made up of mutual aid between neighbors and relatives in tasks like preparing the land, and planting and harvesting the cornfields and beans, which is not paid with money but with the same labor. Usually, women's role in the community consists of managing the home through food preparation, cleaning, grinding to make tortillas, and taking care of children, although they also participate in activities outside the house, such as cultivation tasks like weeding, picking, cutting wheat, or planting.
Social infrastructure: The health center has a doctor and four nurses where minimal illnesses are treated, in most cases when there are serious illnesses, they are transferred to the hospital located in the district of Tlaxiaco and Oaxaca City, which costs more. In addition, 4 other health centers in the municipality have one doctor and two nurses. 375 of the population does not receive medical attention.
Apartments: There are a total of 2127 homes as of today on the 2010 census. The houses are usually made up of wooden walls and cardboard which is galvanized or has sheet or tile roofs. Some rooms are made out of cement. Drainage service is available in the municipal seat which entails around 70% of the houses, the rest without the service solely have outhouses constructed out of wood and metal. Water line service is used in 90% of the homes in Yosondúa through hoses with a key or plumbing installation in some cases. Water comes from springs or ponds or in very minimal communities, there is piped water but just comes to the center of the town, therefore, it needs to be carried via buckets or horses to their respective homes.
Food and Supply: The Yosondúa community receives supplies on Sunday that bring food and necessities. The market is the most substantial in the micro-region, where merchants from different municipalities such as Santo Domingo Ixcatlán, Santamaría Yolotepéc, and Chalcatongo de Hidalgo.

## Environment

Agriculture: Many families rely on subsistence agriculture mostly cultivating corn and bean crops. In addition, they grow wheat, beans, tomatoes, tomato, nopal, pumpkin, chilacayote, oats, and chayote, and in the lower geographical areas, they also grow palm, cane, orange, mango, mamey, avocado, banana, lemon, and cane. For the Cuajilotes community, palm harvesting is an activity given priority. Tomato has been cultivated for more than 25 years by Buena Vista and El Vergel, although due to pest incidents and increasing resistance to chemical products, there was an increase in the pest population. The first greenhouse was made in the Cascade community in 2004 for tomato production and two more followed in the Empire community and one in sector 3 of Santiago Yosondúa. These greenhouse projects initiated greenhouse tomato production, in the municipality because of its high profitability and the potential it can bring to the region. Sugar cane is also produced in the Yerbasanta, parts of Vergel, Santa Catarina Cuanana and Yollotepéc de la Paz communities mostly to sell in the Plaza of Santiago, Yosondua in November and December. Unfortunately, sugar cane has been affected by the lack of irrigation systems for lands above the river. More recently, about 10 years ago, watermelon and melon were cultivated half a hectare away from the community of Yerbasanta. With the help of solidarity fund programs, Nopal has been introduced and cultivated in the Cabandihui community. Wheat and Oats are cultivated in the communities of Imperio, Cabecera of Cañada, Cañada de Galicia, Atalaya, Alacrán, Yosondúa, La Casacada, congregation Lázaro Cárdenas and more. The grain, from the wheat, is used to sell or make flour for bread.
Livestock: Families mostly have sheep, goats, pigs, ranch chickens, bull teams, turkeys, horses, and donkeys. Animals help with activities such as agriculture and represent savings for the family's economy as they can be used as payment of passage for youths who want to immigrate, sickness, grave accident of a family member, or significant parties to the region. Only some producers in the municipal are trying to dedicate themselves to taking care of the cows of race (Holstein) for the production of milk and other products like cheese, and are found in the sector 3 communities: Imperio and Vergel.
Forest Use: The most used out of the forest is firewood, where firewood is picked up that has already fallen, down trunks and dead trees from pinocote, oak, strawberry trees, etc. The lower branches are cut to prevent killing the tree and are stored for later use during the rainy season, pear, peach is planted in temperate zones along with mamey, banana, coffee, mango, black sapote, avocado, red plum, orange, lemon, medlar, papaya, and lime.

### Important rivers

Esmeralda: This river supplies water to the communities of Waterfall, Cabandihui, and Vergel. This river is contaminated by human resources such as bags, bottles, and soap coming from the municipality itself and affecting 5 communities: Centro Yosondúa, La Cascada, Cabandihui, El Vergel, and Cuajilote. During the months of February and April, the Esmeralda River has a width of 50 cm and is 15 cm deep.
Palomita: This is a permanent river that comes from the north of the municipality, going through communities in the Congregación Lázaro Cárdenas. This river comes together with other runoffs that eventually merge with Esmeralda River. Cacalote: This river goes through the community Lázaro Cárdenas and also joins the Esmeralda River, though it shrinks to a great quantity during the dry season.
Cacalote: goes through the community of Lázaro Cárdenas, and it comes together with the Esmeralda River, a bit more than the river Palomita, but it shrinks a lot during the dry season.
Yutamá: This river is joined with the Esmeralda River which forms Tecomate and since it is far away from homes, it is hardly used. During April, the river is 30 to 50 cm deep and 2 meters wide and in some parts, natural deep ponds are formed.
Tecomate: Tecomate comes from Esmeralda and the Yutamá and like the Yutamá is hardly used. It is 80 cm deep and 1 to 2 meters wide but can be up to 3 meters during the dry season.
Rió de Cañada y Yutiangito: This hardly used river joins the Cuanana River's waterway. It is not continuous as it is formed during the rainy seasons and usually stops until April and May.
Cuanana: This river is used more than the rest, as it is used for irrigation of the neighboring lands and extracting sand and gravel from it by the Santa Catarina Cuanana and Yolotepéc agencies. The river is 12 meters wide and 80 cm deep but can be up to 1 meter deep during March and, like many other rivers, increases during the rainy season (up to 3 meters deep).

## Climate

There are various microclimates throughout Santiago Yosondúa as the region brings different physiography and topography. In general, the temperature range is from 12 to 26 Celsius and the range of precipitation is 1000 to 2000 millimeters. During the summer with rain, it is temperate subhumid of 43.64%, the semi-warm subhumid is 31.62%, and the humidity medium is 13.81% with the warm subhumid is 10.93%. It is usually foggy in the summer (June to September) with an average temperature of 18.9 Celsius and an average annual precipitation of 1409 millimeters. The dry months are from January to May and the cold season is from the middle of March with the coldest temperatures in December and January where frost can appear.
In the Southern part of Yosondúa, the climate can vary from being subhumid to semi-dry. During February and March, and sometimes in April, some winds can be consequential. For instance, in Atalaya, there have been large whirlpools that at some points caused some destruction to homes. In addition, whirlpools can be found in Alacrán, Imperio, Cabecera de Cañada, Primavera, and San Miguel Ixcatlán.

## Education and cultural revitalization

The average schooling is low with a 52.94% percentage of the population 15 years old and older who did not finish their studies, which can be due to external factors such as a lack of economic resources. This is further seen as the population of 10 years or younger start to work either in outdoor activities (boys and girls) in caring for the sheep and goats or the girls begin to work indoors such as grinding, making food, and cleaning the household. Moreover, becoming 15 comes with new responsibilities like taking care of bulls while studying. If they are not studying anymore, usually after primary school, they take on full employment such as being assistants to a plumber, bricklayer, carpenter, etc., cleaning in neighboring towns, or supporting their parent's lands. In addition, some women marry when they are young and once they have children, do not study anymore.
Since Yosondúa existed before conquest and colonization, the community members are categorized as being Indigenous. Currently, there are elders in the community who continue speaking Mixteco, a form of resistance to past school's attempts to erase their culture. During 1910 and 1911, when schools were first being established, Indigenous children were taught to only learn and speak Spanish. Although elders still know their native language, most do not pass it down to their children, which leads to a decrease in people speaking Mixteco. There is a movement to promote the preservation of their culture, especially with state recognition of Indigenous communities being legal entities of the public law. As a result, there is a demand for bilingual and intercultural education in their communities, and they extend their demand to Indigenous peoples of the world.