Mixtepec Mixtec
(ISO code mix)

Mixtepec Mixtec is spoken in the region known as the Lower Mixteca. Like all the Mixtec variants it is part of the Mixtecan language family, one of the most important branches of the Otomanguean stock.

Most speakers call their language sa'an ntavi, which means “poor language”. Others prefer to call it sa'an savi, which means “rain language”.

According to the INEGI census of the year 2000 there are 9500 speakers of Mixtepec Mixtec living in the area of San Juan Mixtepec, district of Juxtlahuaca, state of Oaxaca. Another 3000 live in such places as Tlaxiaco, San Quintín Baja California, Santa María California, Oregon and other places in the US. The population in the language area is spread between the main town of San Juan Mixtepec, 6 large villages, 12 smaller villages and 53 settlements.

General information

Mixtec society is primarily agricultural, and the people of Mixtepec live from their harvests. They mainly plant corn and beans, but also squash, coreander, onion, garlic, and other vegetables. Corn tortillas are the staple of their diet; they eat them with chile sauce, beans, eggs, coreander and other herbs and vegetables such as “pozole”, beef, chicken, “mole”, rice or “tamales”.

Traditional houses consist of one big room and a smaller construction that is used for cooking. Nowadays the houses are built of cement blocks, but in the past they were made of wood or of adobe.

How Mixtepec got its name

According to the people of Mixtepec there was a very tall evergreen cypress tree in their village, which was taller than any other tree. Its trunk was divided in two main branches. It was so tall that the clouds gathered around its crown. In Mixtec the town is called Xnuviko, which means “clouds are lowering”. (Others call it Xini Viko or Yoso Nuviko.) An eagle came to the crown of the cypress and built its nest there. Water sprang out from underneath the tree and formed a lake. A red-painted gourd bowl was floating in circles on the lake, and many children fell into the lake and drowned because they tried to grab the bowl. Finally the people decided to cut the tree down. When they began to cut they couldn't finish within one day because the tree was too thick, so they decided to continue the next day. But when they came back the next day they saw that the tree was whole again. So they decided to work day and night, and finally they managed to cut the giant evergreen down. One of the halves of its crown fell into a village called Tixitu, which means ‘long top’; and the other half fell into a village called Yuku Xitu, which in Spanish is called “El Retoño” (‘The Shoot’). The eagle had to leave the tree. It flew away and perched on a nopal (prickly-pear cactus) at the place where Mexico City was founded. That is why some elders say that San Juan Mixtepec would have become the capital of the country. The eagle on a nopal became the symbol of Mexico; it appears on the Mexican flag.

—María M. Nieves, Gisela Beckmann

More information about Mixtepec Mixtec

• Linguistic tidbits:
  • Idioms

Publications available on this site:

Literacy and literature

• Kunka'vi hora ka (Read the Time)
• Kunchau hora ka (Write the Time)
• ¿Nchii inkaa vilu? (Where is the cat?)
• ¿A tsinu kue tsa'a kiti? (Whose Feet Are These?)
• Nixi ntsikoo sa'ma yakui ka (How the Armadillo Got His Armor)
• Staa nti'i (The Fat Tortilla)
• Tu'un sa'an ntavi (Mixtepec Mixtec Words)
• Ña xiko xikui (The Milkmaid)
• Chuun luu ka ña sachuun xeen ti (The Diligent Hen)
• Uni ntikuain (The Three Squirrels)
• Ntantuku ichi (Finding the Way)
• Naka'vo sa'an ntavi Xnuviko (Let's Read Mixtepec Mixtec)
• To'lo ña ma nikuu ka kana (The Rooster That Couldn't Crow Any Longer)