by Regina López and Adán Luna
On Monday 25th of May 2026, approximately at 3:30pm, an unprecedented event was experienced in Ixhuatán, a community in the region of Istmo de Tehuantepec, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Heavy rain mixed with strong winds up to 200 km/h. Thunderstorms and hailstones struck the community, leaving multiple material damages in houses and public infrastructure all around the village
This community has been historically harassed by foreign megaprojects such as wind power parks and mining companies. In this context, the Communitarian High School Jose Martí (Preparatoria Comunitaria José Martí) and the Autonomous Communal University of Oaxaca campus Ixhuatán (UACO) – both educational projects related to each other and sharing, among other aspects, the school facilities themselves— have become a reference for communal pedagogies and a breeding ground for caring practices, such as the protection of the land in the whole region.
While enduring other emergency situations, such as the 2017 earthquake –the strongest recorded in the country in nearly a century, that left damages that still can’t be fully measured– the high school was the only educational institution that, rather than closing their doors and canceling activities, brought the classrooms to the streets of their town. They installed documentation centers to manage the impact of the damage, and organized aid collections and community kitchens for the affected people in Ixhuatán and nearby communities.
Likewise, during the COVID-19 crisis, the school focused their efforts on sharing knowledge around integral healthcare and traditional herbal medicine. Within this educational movement, various remedies were produced in response to the pandemic. Oxygen tanks, masks, oximeters and other specialized equipment were also distributed for the treatment of the virus.
Fallen trees and walls are some of the visible damage in the facilities of the comunitary high-school José Martí.
Now, once again, the school community is focusing on evaluating the reparation costs on their facilities, calculating approximately $80,000 mxn (around $4,500usd) of resources needed to face the material devastation of the storm: fallen trees that still need to be completely cut down for safety concerns during the rain season, bathrooms that were hit by fallen tree logs, the recently installed radio signal tower and antenna were also affected, just like a large area of the school fence; the vegetable and medicine plants garden project, key spaces for educational purpose such as the living farmacy, the chicken coop, iguana enclosure and fish farm, who were also affected. All of these spaces are the result of years of work, effort and commitment of the people who shaped and still sustain this pedagogic project. Most of the students report damages in their own homes and have been afflicted by emotional crises. The whole town registered similar damages: plenty of houses with broken roofs, hundreds of fallen trees in the streets impacted the town which remains partially incommunicated and unreachable, rendering basic services inaccessible for days at the time.
The coordinator in charge of these educational initiatives tells the story from a indigenous Binnizá worldview perspective:
Bendayuuze in Ixhuatan
Our mythology holds an event that already appeared written by Andrés Henestrosa in Los hombres que dispersó la danza, which now I’ll narrate in a slightly different way, as it was narrated to me.
It was very common in my childhood days that, at night, after sundown, our parents, in most cases, gathered us to tell stories. Perhaps to entertain us, perhaps to distract, perhaps to frighten us a little or maybe to pass on identity and science knowledge that belongs to our people.
One of those stories was about Bendayuuze or Horned Snake -- who might be the prototype (or even the original) Quetzalcóatl.
They say this snake is born among the hills and journeys toward the sea. It lives, mostly, in the lagoons formed by deep streams and rivers. Her movement is slow, growing little by little until its body is as thick as the trunk of a coconut palm, nearly 30 or 40 centimeters, so its skin hardens like fish scales that shimmer with the sun into countless colors, as if covered by the feathers of a quetzal.
This grandmother serpent, an old serpent, starts to shape her face and her head in such a way that a kind of horn grows from her nose or her forehead,. It’s a unicorn snake, by which her name Bendayuuze is given, literally meaning Horned Serpent.
When the serpent reaches this stage of maturity, she arrives at the sea-lagoons on the southeast of Ixhuatán, near the sandbar of Cachimbo. Of course, every region of Mesoamerica has its own way to tell this story, placing the serpent in its own specific landscape.
There, where the serpent inhabits –whether in a lagoon close to the ocean, or in a sea-lagoon– the winds meet; one of them is usually cooler that the other, triggering a whirlwind tornado inside the dead sea; that tornado is formed surrounding the snake with such power, that Bendayuuze rises into the sky flying north, back into the hills.
One portion of the seawater raised by the tornado falls in the form of a storm upon the nearby towns that conform the Istmo’s plain, in this case Ixhuatán. It is said that Bedayuuze continues her flight, sometimes towards Tabasco or Veracruz, other times towards the west.
Within those fierce downpours, fish often fall from the sky, large and small, of every kind, in the nearby villages. Shrimp also fall down, even small sharks. Not crabs though, they don’t fall because they don’t like to fly: sometimes instead of walking forward they move backwards, instead of showing out they hide, crabs are a bit weird, that’s why they don’t join the flight and they don’t fall from the sky to be transformed into a seafood soup gathered by the people.
So, our elders told us this is the reason why –oftentimes– the lagoons, even if there are no streams connecting them, are full of fish; those are the fish that fell by the wake of Bendayuuze. When there are people in the rain zones, they gather that fish; it’s a blessing.
Bendayuuze does not appear at a fixed time or season, nor does it come every year. We have not yet paid attention to understand its seasons or the many ways in which she reveals herself. Sometimes, when it emerges at the end of a rainy season, the rains become relentless, lingering over the region for weeks. Then our elders—keepers of the wisdom and ancient art of nature—gather to seek the fire serpent, whose presence can quiet the storm.
We often romanticize our myths and would like to believe that Bendayuuze always brings fish, that her passing is marked only by generous rains and abundance. We picture a gentle downpour that fills the land with joy. Yet perhaps, it does not always bring fish. Perhaps the tempest that swept through us this time, was the passage of Bendayuuze.
On the 25th of May, Bendayuuze brought us just branches and fallen trees. Winds exceeding 200 kilometers per hour ripped away trees, roofs and infrastructure.
Maybe it was not only Bendayuuze, there was also an opposite rain or wind that made the water come back from the northwest. It is important to say that this wind had nowhere to hold on to now because in past months, existing natural forests were burnt down, with immediate order approval for the new projects, specially the ones concerning the massive production of agave. Therefore, as there was no place for the wind to hold to, it hit with even more aggression.
Experiencing mythology is not always to delight with what it leaves behind; it may be that Bendayuuze is inviting us to care for nature, to become part of it, to learn from Her, to live alongside the world that surrounds us. Let's remember that Earth does not belong to us, we belong to her. Our school community, as it has done in the past, seeks to be a place that supports sustaining and nurturing the life of its community; for that, we have launched a fundraising, sharing the following accounts, for us to be able to face and recover from the damages caused by the storm.
We will recover with the strength of our community as it had happened in the past. We fondly thank your solidarity, care and affection; sending you hugs from afar. Receive our warmest regards.
Manuel Antonio Ruiz.
For international support to Communitarian High School José Martí and UACO campus Ixhuatán, please go to the following GoFound me link:
GOFundme
https://gofund.me/51b95bec5
For supporting Prepa comunitaria José Martí y la UACO Ixhuatán in Mexico:
CUENTA BABIEN (Bienestar): 0070814694 CLABE 166616000708146947
Titular: Patronato Pro Escuela Preparatoria Por Cooperación de San Francisco Ixhuatán, Oaxaca AC
CUENTA BANCOMER TARJETA: 4555113009412448
Titular: Patronato Pro Esc Pre
BANCO SANTANDER No. De Tarjeta: 5579070165613343
CUENTA: 60598443387 CLABE: 014617605984433878
Titular: Manuel Antonio Ruiz
GOFundme
https://gofund.me/51b95bec5
