The organ of Santa María Suchixtlán was originally in another church. A document in the municipal office indicates that it was later sold to the Oaxaca organ builder Jesús Cano, who refurbished it and sold it to Suchixtlan in 1886. After the 1973 earthquake, the organ was lowered from its tribune during repair work in the church. Unfortunately, the case fell apart as it was being raised back to its original position, and its pieces were dispersed. In 2003, the IOHIO found pipes stored in the choir loft, the windchest used in a wall construction, and wooden carvings and parts of the case in a bodega and the former jail. The local people took home anything useful, and one returned the base of the clarin he had saved because he found it interesting. The remaining components are now stored in the church. 

The organbuilder Jesús Cano was active in the Mixteca Alta in the 1870s and 1880s, repairing and building organs. Thanks to the document in Suchixtlán, we know he was from the neighboring community of Chachoapam, where he must have had his shop and where a collection of organ pipes was recently discovered in the church.  Jesús repaired the Tlazoyaltepec organ in 1871, built the monumental Coixtlahuaca organ in 1876, and modified the Yanhuitlán organ in 1886/7. Don Pantaleón Cano tuned the Yucucuí organ in 1876 and must have been a relative.

We asked the authorities to indicate the organs that most resembled theirs in the Banamex catalog. They chose those of Tinú and Ejutla because of the three towers, horizontal trumpets, and dark red painted cases.