It is situated at 2,540 metres (8,330 ft) above sea level in the Cuchumatanes mountain range and covers 560 km² (220 sq mi) of terrain.

On the other hand, historian Jorge Luis Areola considers "Ixtatán" to be from the Nahuatl language, from the words Ixtat = salt and tlan = close or nearby.

[7] He described the inhabitants as quarrelsome and complained that they had built a pagan shrine in the hills among the ruins of precolumbian temples, where they burnt incense and offerings and sacrificed turkeys.

[7] Fray Alonso de León informed the colonial authorities that the practices of the natives were such that they were Christian in name only.

[7] In 1684, a council led by Enrique Enriquez de Guzmán, the then governor of Guatemala, decided upon the reduction of San Mateo Ixtatán and nearby Santa Eulalia, both within the colonial administrative district of the Corregimiento of Huehuetenango.

[11] The governor himself arrived in San Mateo Ixtatán on 3 February, where captain Melchor Rodríguez Mazariegos was already awaiting him.

[12] After this, governor Enrique Enriquez de Guzmán left San Mateo Ixtatán for Comitán in Chiapas, to enter the Lacandon region via Ocosingo.

[17] San Mateo Ixtatán was forced to give up some of their territory to create the municipality of Nentón in 1876 and it struggled to keep its communal lands.

[citation needed] During the liberal government of Justo Rufino Barrios, extreme poverty and forced migrations to the southern coast created a lasting state of tension in the northern communities of Huehuetenango and specifically in San Mateo Ixtatán.

These contractors gave money to local people promising double or triple the amount if they came to work in their coffee and cotton plantations.

The locals signed documents insuring their manual labor, but were essentially enslaved because the contracts were unjust and treatment inhumane.

[19] The Northern Transversal Strip was officially created during the government of General Carlos Arana Osorio in 1970, by Legislative Decree 60–70, for agricultural development.

Women haul the salt-water up the long mountainside in plastic jugs where they use it as is or boil it to make a tasty, white salt.

It is made of two woven pieces of brown or black sheep's wool, sewn together on the sides leaving the sleeves open for the arms.