Cuilapan de Guerrero is a town and municipality located in the central valley region of Oaxaca in southern Mexico.

It is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the south of the capital city of Oaxaca on the road leading to Villa de Zaachila, and is in the Centro District in the Valles Centrales region.

[4][5] The ruins of the monastery complex remain mostly as a national monument administered by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

[4] Cuilapan developed as an independent city state until the rise of Monte Albán, which came into dominance because it provided a refuge in a defensible location.

To complicate things further, the Aztecs also had a presence in the central valleys region, and exacted tribute from Cuilapan through their military garrison in Huaxyácac (today the city of Oaxaca).

Cuilapan had a number of its own subject settlements which included Camotlán, Etla, Quauxilotitlan [Huitzo], Guaxaca, Macuilcóchitl, Tlacochahuaya, [San Sebastian] Teítipac and Ocotlán.

[9] The original Mixtec settlement was at the foot of a hill in this area, but the modern town was established by Fray Domingo de Oguinaga and Zapotecs in 1551, with the founding of the monastery of Saint James.

[10] This monastery was a major center of evangelization efforts in the early colonial period in the central valleys region of Oaxaca,[11] although it was never finished.

However, this was not enough to ensure acceptance of the new faith, so the monastery with its large open chapel and elaborate murals was begun in the 1550s to reinforce Christian ideas, modified to relate to traditional Mixtec and Zapotec beliefs.

[16] Today, the town of Cuilapan is primarily Mixtec with just over 11,000 people, filled with brightly colored public buildings and a shady central plaza.

[4][5] Much of the life of the town still centers on religion, with saints’ days and other similar events celebrated with folk dances, masses, processions, fireworks, rodeos and more, accompanied by bands that play chilenas, sones and other regional music.

[2] During festivals and in the markets common dishes such as moles such as negro, rojo coloradito, verde and amarillo as well as tasajo, tlayudas, tamales wrapped in banana leaves and cegueza (ground corn and baked with barbacoa similar to a dumpling) can be found.

The fortress-like complex is easily seen from the highway as one travels south from the city of Oaxaca towards Zaachila, and it is visited by both Mexican and international tourists.

[11] The extravagances of the site include the tall basilica, the elaborate baptismal font, the Gothic cloister and murals, which remain as national treasures.

[21] The decorative work of the monastery, especially its murals, are important because they show a systematic blending of indigenous elements into the Christian framework, done in order to support the evangelization process in the local Mixtec and Zapotec peoples.

[2] As municipal seat, the town of Cuilapan is the governing authority for more than thirty-five other named communities, the largest of which include Cruz Blanca, Carrizal, Manzano and Tiracoz.

About ten percent travel to work in Oaxaca city and some residents are employed as guides at the nearby Monte Albán site.