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  Let it be said: people in Oaxaca are some of the kindest, warmest folks you can meet, but as a foreigner, you shouldn’t ever expect to be one of the gang—no matter how long you’ve lived there. The city’s current mayor, for example, is referred to as a “Spaniard.” Shocked that Oaxacans would elect a non-Oaxacan, much less a European, we asked how long he’d been in Mexico. The answer? His family had come from Spain to Oaxaca five generations ago.

Photography by Marcela Taboada