Oaxaca Ethnobotanical Garden

It occupies 2.32 acres of land adjacent to the Church of Santo Domingo.

In 1993, a proposal for the creation of the Ethnobotanical Garden was put forth by Francisco Toledo, a renowned artist from Oaxaca, and the civil association PRO-OAX (Board for the Defense and Conservation of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Oaxaca, A.C.).

[2] Francisco Toledo was interested in preserving and promoting the traditional knowledge of the Zapotec and Mixtec peoples of the Oaxaca region.

The artist was a constant activist and his struggles led him to win great and surprising battles, such as preventing, alongside ProOax, the conversion of the former Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán (a colonial-era building) into a large parking lot and managing to turn it into the current Santo Domingo Cultural Center, which houses the Museum of Cultures and the Ethnobotanical Garden.

[3] Toledo collaborated with anthropologist Alejandro de Ávila Blomberg to design the garden, which showcases the rich diversity of plant species used by indigenous communities in the region for food, medicine, and cultural practices.