Santa María del Tule is a town and a municipality in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is part of the Centro District in the Valles Centrales region. It is located 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) SE of the city of Oaxaca on Highway 190. The town and municipality are named for the patron saint of the place, the Virgin Mary and “Tule” comes from the Náhuatl word “tulle” or “tullin” which means bulrush.

Oaxaca is a state in Southwest Mexico that is divided into 570 municipalities, more than any other state in Mexico. According to Article 113 of the state's constitution, the municipalities are grouped into 30 judicial and tax districts to facilitate the distribution of the state's revenues. It is the only state in Mexico with this particular judicial and tax district organization. Oaxaca is the tenth most populated state with 4,132,148 inhabitants as of the 2020 Mexican census and the fifth largest by land area spanning 93,757.6 square kilometres (36,200.0 sq mi).