By Michael Garroni

Oaxaca, long celebrated for its vibrant traditions, cuisine, and biodiversity, is also home to one of the richest legacies of mushroom use in the world. Known locally as hongos or setas, mushrooms have been an integral part of Oaxacan culture for centuries, woven into rituals, medicine, and the kitchen alike.
The Sierra Norte and Sierra Mazateca regions are blessed with diverse ecosystems where dozens of edible, medicinal, and even sacred fungi flourish. For the Mazatec people, mushrooms have long held spiritual significance. Their ceremonial use, led by healers known as curanderos or curanderas, traces back to pre-Hispanic times. These ceremonies use mushrooms as a sacred bridge between the natural and spiritual worlds, a tradition still respected and protected in many indigenous communities.

Perhaps the most renowned figure associated with this tradition is María Sabina, a Mazatec curandera from Huautla de Jiménez. Through her ceremonies with sacred mushrooms, she became an international symbol of the deep spiritual knowledge held by indigenous peoples. “There is a world beyond ours, a world that speaks,” she once said, describing the voices she heard through the mushrooms. Though her story is complex—marked by reverence, cultural misunderstanding, and the influx of outsiders—María Sabina’s legacy continues to shape the way the world views Oaxaca’s spiritual relationship with fungi.

Beyond their ceremonial role, mushrooms also play a vital part in Oaxacan cuisine. During the rainy season, markets across the state come alive with baskets of freshly gathered mushrooms: hongos de encino, setas de burro, nanches, and the prized hongo amarillo. Each variety carries unique flavors and is prepared in soups, tamales, or simply sautéed with garlic and chile, showcasing the Oaxacan talent for elevating local ingredients. Alongside these wild mushrooms, Oaxacan cooks also treasure huitlacoche, the dark, earthy fungus that grows on corn. Sometimes called the “Mexican truffle,” it is folded into tamales, sautéed with chile and onion, or stirred into soups, prized for its deep flavor and cultural significance. As one market vendor in Northern Oaxaca explains with pride: “Cada hongo tiene su secreto y su sabor. Aprenderlos es como aprender una lengua antigua”—“Each mushroom has its secret and its flavor. Learning them is like learning an ancient language.”

For many families in rural Oaxaca, mushroom gathering is also a way of life—a seasonal activity that teaches respect for nature and the forests that provide food and medicine. Elders pass down knowledge of which mushrooms are safe to eat, how to harvest them responsibly, and how they can heal the body or nourish the soul. This living heritage is celebrated most vibrantly in Huautla de Jiménez, where the Festival de los Hongos (Mushroom Festival) takes place every July. Visitors gather to taste local mushroom dishes, join guided walks through the lush Mazatec forests, and participate in cultural events that honor the sacred and culinary value of fungi. The festival is both a celebration and an act of preservation—keeping ancestral wisdom alive while inviting respectful dialogue with the wider world.

Today, interest in Oaxaca’s mycological traditions is only growing. Researchers, chefs, and travelers come seeking knowledge from communities that have safeguarded this wisdom for generations.

Carrying this cultural thread into the present, the Huatulco Art Gallery is proud to host Psilocybe mexicana, an art exhibition celebrating the role of mushrooms in Oaxacan society. Opening on November 28th and 29th, 2025, and running for one month, the exhibition gathers a diverse group of artists whose work reflects the spiritual, ecological, and aesthetic dimensions of fungi. Featured artists include Tomás Pineda, Ixrael Montes, José Alberto Canseco, Irving Cano, Michelle Anderst, Manuel Trapiche, Abdias García Gabriel, Chilango en la Baja, Edna Guzmán, Chris Isner, Edwin Fierros, Paola Mar, Horacio Jiron, Miguel Jiménez, José Aquino Azúa, Albert Von Kitsch, Memo Malo, Ernesto Robles, Andrew Osta, Mario Hernández, Benjamín Sánchez, Liann Aranza León, Gustavo Silva, Michael Garroni, Caesar Rodriguez Martínez, Marco Cortes, Clove Guzmán, and Tania Guzmán.

With painting, sculpture, and mixed media works inspired by mushrooms, Psilocybe mexicana extends the conversation beyond the forest and the kitchen, into the realm of contemporary art. It reflects how the cultural legacy of fungi continues to inspire creativity and dialogue in Oaxaca today—linking tradition with innovation, the sacred with the modern, and the local with the global.

In Oaxaca, mushrooms remind us that tradition is alive in every season’s harvest. They are symbols of the profound connection between land, people, and spirit—an inheritance as rich and diverse as the forests themselves, and now also a source of inspiration for art and community in Huatulco.