For the past 50 years little has changed in the ejido except for galvanized roofing. Women still dress in the colorful Popoluca way and walk behind their men and their horses.
The pueblo controls the entrance to the upper Santa Marta region via a road that used to lead to El Bastonal above Miguel Hidalgo in Catemaco. The road previously had been used for access to an abandoned (1965?) mine near El Bastonal and also Catemaco and was ordered "non maintained" , apparently on orders from the Biosphere Resere of Los Tuxtlas, intent on stopping penetration of one of the few remaining natural vegetation regions in Los Tuxtlas. At present that road is only a paradise for 4x4 off track venturers.
The people of the village are extraordinarily uptight over outsider presence to the point of inhibiting their passing through the village to the upper parts of Santa Marta Volcano. They base their claim on loss of genetic material to international biological company researchers, thefts of plantations by casual visitors, a litany of broken promises to enhance their lifestyle by administrators of the Reserva de Los Tuxtlas and the government of its own municipio in Soteapan, and 4x4 off roaders.
Meanwhile the village rests at about 1,200 m (about 4,00o feet) above sea level, a few kilometers above the city of Soteapan, on a murderous hill climb, harboring most clandestine tree loggers in the western part of the Santa Marta´s and happily burning its surroundings for more milpas (maize growing fields) in order to survive.
