ABSTRACT
The mountains surrounding "san martín" and "Quetzalan" have always been a place of refuge for those escaping the power struggles and other problems of richer and more accessible areas of Mexico. Joining the Otomí, Totonac, and Tepehua who had come earlier, many of the Toltec ancestors of the Sanmartinos fled there when their empire collapsed sometime in the twelfth century. Later, other groups arrived escaping the Spanish Conquest and its aftermath. Today it is hard to imagine that the peoples of San Martín, eking out a living growing corn or coffee or practicing simple building trades in this marginal area, carry on the traditions of the builders of empires, mighty pyramids, and great cities.
