The Colonia San Miguel community was officially recognized as a community in 1994, and has been characterized by the municipality as a place with unique natural diversity. We are only 750 meters away from completing a dirt road leading to our community, but we have no potable water or sanitary facilities. Our buildings are rustic, made with local materials, and our community has a two-room schoolhouse for preschool and elementary education, in addition to a small health clinic that is used to treat basic health needs and as a meeting place for community meetings. We are a small community of 18 mazateca-speaking families. Our community has two separate religious belief systems, and our land is divided into small properties without any legal definition. We produce a diversity of basic foods for the community such as native corn, three types of bean, roots and tubers (yucca, taro, yams, sweet potato, etc.) fruits (such are mandarin, lemon, organge, bananas, mamey, and other, non-commercial varieties), a variety of chilies, potatoes, achiote, heart of palm, palm fruits, nopal cactus, chayote squash, tomatoes, etc. We also produce cocoa, sugarcane, horse chestnut, and trees for timber. The community has a vast area of wild flora and fauna, and each family is allotted 2-3 hectares in this area on which to hunt and collect as needed as long as they are respectful of hunting seasons. We have learned from our ancestors to use species sustainably, while only observing and treasuring others. Our parents and grandparents have taught us when to leave the forests and rivers in peace during certain periods so as not to take too much from our ecosystems, and we have learned to live in balance with nature without formal training (although with the new road connecting us with the outside world, we would like more training in order to ensure that we always properly care for our resources despite potential changes to our community).