Jarabe Ejuteco

Ejutla de Crespo is a small community south of Oaxaca that will become our next stop. This time, our client is an ONG that is dedicated to promote education around sustainable technologies in this and another state closer to Mexico City.

Oldest picture taken of Ejutla de Crespo [1880 - 1890]

According to different web sources, in Mixtec dialect, "Ejutla" means "where the green beans prosper" and is formed by the root words: "exotl" - green bean and "tla"- abundance. The original name of the place in Zapotec dialect is actually "Lubisa", which means "bean place" but according to historian Martínez Gracida, it was Axayácatl, who later conquered the zapotec tribe and not only did he change the name but incorporated them to the taxation system for the Aztec Empire. [source] 

The Crespo part of Ejutla de Crespo is in honor of priest Manuel Sabino Crespo, a born "ejuteco" that played an important role in the Independence War. 

According to this source, while he was a deputy to the Chilpancingo Congress, he was ambushed while he was having a secret meeting with Don Luis Alconejo and taken as prisoner to Apam by the realist commander, Don Luis Águila in 1825.

Sabino Crespo's funeral

To be pardoned, he was suggested to betray the insurgents, to which he replied:"I'd rather die that live a tormented life with the idea of betraying my oath and my country". His death was ordered by Calleja, and though the Viceroy of the New Spain offered him to write against the American cause, he refused the shameful proposal twice.

Finally, I loved the poetic way this paragraph was written to describe the following:"The character and nature of the 'ejutecos' is peaceful, kind, hard-working,industrious, lovers of public order, law and justice. The gentleness of their women is famous, the same goes to the exquisite and honest personal approach of it's maidens." [source]