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The Desert Speaks
Cactus Capital of the World
Season 13
Episode 6
Villages in the Valle de Tehuacán and nearby Oaxaca have endured for centuries in a desert environment. One of the staples of this environment was and still is the cactus, which formed the basis for their material culture. Today eighteen species of columnar cacti grow in the valley (as opposed to three in Arizona, eight in Sonora), all of them used one way or another by native peoples.
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