Culture
Most of the municipality's cultural heritage is based on that of the Amuzgos, as the largest community of this ethnicity. Children from the municipality have been gathering indigenous oral stories for recording as part of the Concurso National de Narraciones Orales en Lenguas Indígenas (National Contest for Oral Narrations in Indigenous Languages). Juana Iriabth Moctezuma Tapia won the contest in 2004.
Most of the population is classified as Catholic although there is a small but growing percentage of Protestants. Protestantism was introduced to the region by the Instituto Lingüistico de Verano in the 1940s. Catholic beliefs are generally a syncretism with Amuzgo ones. On the feast day of Saint Mark, which comes at the beginning of the rainy season, chickens are sacrificed over a set of blue rocks which represent thunder and lightning. This is in petition for abundant rain and crops for the coming growing season. The end of the growing season and harvest are marked by the feast day of the Archangel Michael on September 29. Traditional medicine men and healing are still preferred by many as illness is generally conceived of as spiritual. Other important festivals include Carnival and the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12. In the community of Cozoyoapan, the feast day of Saint Sebastian on January 20 is important.
Most women and even men wear traditional clothing, made with either commercial or hand woven fabric. Industrial weaving has made hand weaving obsolete except for specialty garments or for those made for sale. the Amugo women of Xochistlahuaca are known for their hand woven fabric using the most traditional techniques and designs. Most of this fabric is sewn into huipils, a traditional women's garment and other traditional items such as tablecloths, napkins and rebozos. All pieces are original with no two exactly alike. Amuzgo women begin learning the weaving process when they are children with simple tasks such as cleaning and carding cotton. As they grow, they learn more difficult techniques and designs from the mothers and grandmothers using a traditional backstrap loom. Historically, weaving was to make clothing from the family, but it has become an important source of income for many Amuzgo families. A number of Xochistlahuaca weavers have won awards for their work such as the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in 2004 and the weavers receive support from federal and other sources. Cooperation with government and university institutions has allowed the weavers to create new items and designs including pants, bathrobes, skirts and more. However, the huipil remains the most common and most sought-after item even though they tend to sell better to foreign buyers than Mexican ones as foreigners tend to appreciate the effort that goes into traditional weaving.
The traditional diet of the municipality is based on corn and other locally grown products. Chocolate is generally consumed as a beverage, especially during special events such as weddings. Tamales are a fundamental part of the diet and come in a variety of forms and fillings such as sweet corn, pork, chicken, freshwater shrimp and more. One local dish is called the cabeza de viejo or old man's head and there is a type of sweetened tortilla called a ticaso.
Read more about this topic: Xochistlahuaca (municipality)
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“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”
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“The genius of American culture and its integrity comes from fidelity to the light. Plain as day, we say. Happy as the day is long. Early to bed, early to rise. American virtues are daylight virtues: honesty, integrity, plain speech. We say yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no, and all else comes from the evil one. America presumes innocence and even the right to happiness.”
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