San Miguel Tilquiapam 'is the 284th municipality in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. It is located 42 km from the state capital and belongs to the district of Ocotlan de Morelos in the Region of the Central Valleys. Its inhabitants come mainly from the Zapotec culture and their mother tongue is the Zapotec. San Miguel Tilquiapam proudly belongs to one of the 18 recognized ethnic groups in the state of Oaxaca. The "Dizaa" is the language with which the inhabitants of this town were born, and it is still preserved by the natives of the town. The "Danguia" is the only largest hill in the central valleys and with the greatest diversity of leafy and large trees that has been conserved for many years.
According to historians the word Tilquiapam has its origin in the largest and most visible stone in the whole valley of ocotlan and its surroundings located on top of this hill called in Spanish "la granada" and "danguia en Dizaa". No documents have been found that affirm the beginnings of the municipality, it is only known that at the beginning of the 16th century, the population was very small and they would have divided into two small ranches with an approximate distance of 1 km between each one, its inhabitants spoke in the whole pure Zapotec with a small change of tone between each ranchería. The small population divided into two rancherías, had as main activity the agriculture, the families conformed by a father, a mother and their children, they spent the days working in the field cultivating corn, beans in their lands of sowing, while their animals like goats, calves, cows and their yuntas that they occupied to plow the land.
In their houses they also had chickens, turkeys and other poultry with which they were supplied in their daily food. The large tracts of land held by the inhabitants of San Miguel Tilquiapam, kept them busy throughout the year, since the rains gave the sufficient amount of water that kept the rivers always full of fresh water. In addition the vegetation in the field was always green. In this way, people became accustomed to always working in the field. Over the years the population grew and the two rancherías joined, and in that way San Miguel Tilquiapam was formed in a single municipality. Before this happened there were small differences between each ranchería and they were not allowed to visit because they had certain security barriers that did not allow the other ranchería to approach. But this disappeared and both communities joined.
When the government began mining works for the search of precious metals in the area of San Jeronimo Taviche and Tilquiapam, they came to inhabit inhabitants who came from very far part of the territory of Tilquiapam, in the western part of the country. The inhabitants of Yaxe were populated and in the eastern part the inhabitants of Minas were left. Currently both towns are already municipalities but their territories long ago belonged to Tilquiapam. Since once the mining works were finished the population of mines and of Yaxe had already grown considerably and it was difficult for them to return to their lands of origin. That is how the authorities of Tilquiapam and the mining authorities agreed to grant a part of the territory in order to stay forever. In San Miguel Tilquiapam there is the greatest diversity of flora and fauna in the central valleys.
In each of the hills that surround it there are different plants that have a very special characteristic, since they do not repeat themselves in the territory. Over the years, water has been scarce in rivers due to the lack of rain, however trees that are many years old are still green.