Oaxaca

Oaxaca, officially called the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of Mexico’s 31 states. It lies in the southern part of the country, bordered by Guerrero to the west, Puebla to the northwest, Veracruz to the north, and Chiapas to the east. Its southern edge meets the Pacific Ocean. The capital city is Oaxaca de Juárez.

The state is divided into 570 municipalities. Of these, 418—nearly three-quarters—operate under *usos y costumbres*, a system that recognizes local customs and traditions for self-governance.

Oaxaca is especially known for its Indigenous peoples and cultures. The Zapotecs and Mixtecs are the largest and most famous groups, but 16 distinct Indigenous cultures are officially recognized. These cultures have endured better than most in Mexico, largely because the state’s rugged, isolated terrain has helped preserve them. Most Indigenous people live in the Central Valleys region, which is also a key economic area for tourism. Visitors come for archaeological sites like Monte Albán and Mitla, as well as for the region’s native cultures and crafts. Another major tourist draw is the coast, featuring the resort of Huatulco and the sandy beaches of Puerto Escondido, Puerto Ángel, Zipolite, Bahia de Tembo, and Mazunte. Oaxaca is also among Mexico’s top three most biologically diverse states, alongside Chiapas and Veracruz, with high numbers of reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and plants.

**History**

**Name** The state’s name comes from its capital, Oaxaca, which derives from the Nahuatl word *Huaxyacac*. This refers to a tree called *guaje* in Spanish (*Leucaena leucocephala*) found around the capital. The Aztecs, who spoke Nahuatl, originally used the name for the Valley of Oaxaca, and the Spanish adopted it during the conquest of the region. The modern state was created in 1824. The state seal was designed by Alfredo Canseco Feraud and approved under Governor Eduardo Vasconcelos. *Huaxyacac* was transliterated as “Oaxaca” using Medieval Spanish spelling, where the *x* stood for the sound *sh* (as in “shop”), making the pronunciation [waˈʃaka]. In the 16th century, that sound shifted to a hard *kh* (like the *ch* in Scottish “loch”), so Oaxaca became [waˈxaka]. Today, it is pronounced [waˈxaka] or [waˈhaka]—the latter common in southern Mexico, the Caribbean, much of Central America, parts of South America, and the Canary Islands and western Andalusia in Spain, where the *x* sound has softened to an *h*.

**Prehistoric and Pre-Hispanic Period** Most knowledge of prehistoric Oaxaca comes from the Central Valleys region. Evidence of human habitation dating to about 11,000 BCE was found in the Guilá Naquitz cave near Mitla. This site was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2010 because it contains “the earliest known evidence of domesticated plants in the continent,” and corn cob fragments from the same cave are considered the earliest documented evidence of maize domestication. Finds from nomadic peoples date to about 5000 BCE, with early signs of agriculture. By 2000 BCE, agriculture was established in the Central Valleys, with sedentary villages. The diet that developed then—based on corn, beans, chocolate, tomatoes, chili peppers, squash, and gourds—lasted until the Spanish Conquest. Meat came from hunting animals like tepescuintle, turkey, deer, peccary, armadillo, and iguana.

The oldest known major settlements, such as Yanhuitlán and Laguna Zope, are also in this area. Laguna Zope is noted for small figurines called “pretty women” or “baby face.” Between 1200 and 900 BCE, pottery was produced locally, linked to similar work in La Victoria, Guatemala. Other important settlements from that period include Tierras Largas, San José Mogote, and Guadalupe, whose ceramics show Olmec influence. The major language family, Oto-Manguean, is thought to have been spoken in northern Oaxaca around 4400 BCE and to have split into nine branches by 1500 BCE.

Historic events in Oaxaca as far back as the 12th century are recorded in pictographic codices painted by Zapotecs and Mixtecs early in the colonial period. Aside from these, little historical information from pre-colonial Oaxaca exists, so knowledge relies mostly on archaeological remains. By 500 BCE, the Central Valleys were mainly inhabited by the Zapotecs, with the Mixtecs on the western side. These groups often fought during the pre-Hispanic period. Archaeological evidence suggests that between 750 and 1521, the population may have peaked at 2.5 million.

The Zapotecs were the first to dominate the Central Valleys. Their first major dominion centered on Monte Albán, which thrived from 500 BCE to AD 750. At its height, Monte Albán had 25,000 residents and served as the Zapotec capital. It remained a secondary power center until the Mixtecs overran it in 1325. The site is notable for the Danzantes, a set of stone reliefs, and for fine-quality ceramics.

From AD 750 onward, large urban centers like Monte Albán declined across Oaxaca, and smaller dominions grew and evolved until the Spanish Conquest in 1521. Between 700 and 1300, the Mixtecs were scattered among dominions including Achiutla, Tequixtepec-Chazumba, Apoala, and Coixtlahuaca. The Zapotecs occupied a large area from the Central Valleys to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. No major unified empire emerged during this period.