Reconstruction: 1996-1997 by organ builder Susan Tattershall of Órganos Históricos de México, thanks to the initiative of the priest Alberto Pacheco Quiroz; the project was financed by Fomento Social Banamex.

The first organ in the Oaxaca Cathedral is cited in a document from 1544 and refers to a small table organ, imported from Spain, Mexico City, or Puebla. In 1569-70 the organbuilder Agustín de Santiago was commissioned to construct another “large” organ, and since then until the beginning of the twentieth century, there were always at least two organs in the Cathedral, located on either side of the choir gallery. The existing organ was built in 1711-1712 by Matías de Chávez, who reused three ranks of pipes from Santiago’s organ. This is the earliest definitively dated extant organ in Oaxaca (the 1703 reference to the Tiltepec organ is less exact). In the following years, more ranks of pipes were added to reach a total of twelve registers in 1758, confirming that this was one of the largest and most important organs in Oaxaca. 

From the eighteenth though the twentieth centuries, the organ was continuously altered, and all these interventions are documented in the account ledgers of the Cathedral. In 1907-1908 it was moved to its actual location in the center of the choir gallery. Between 1912 and 1957 the instrument was severely altered in order to modernize it, effectively erasing its original baroque character. Among other alterations, the windchest and the keyboard were reversed so the organist could face the altar, and the painted decoration was scraped off the façade pipes (traces remain on one pipe).

It became clear during the 1997 reconstruction that the existing pipes were quite old, dating from the eighteenth century or before. The actual instrument thus includes a mix of pipes, some antique and some new. The magnificent upper case, richly carved and gilded, is largely intact, while the damaged lower case had to be replaced yet again and reconstructed with cedar. Although no trace of the original remains, it must have been decorated as lavishly as the Yanhuitlán, Soledad, and Santo Domingo (lost) organs since there was continuous competition among the most important churches. In 2002 the contract of 1711 with organ builder Matías de Chávez for the organ’s construction was discovered in the Notarial Archives of Oaxaca, which described in detail the design of the desired instrument, both mechanical and aesthetic.