Zapotec peoples

Zapotec

Bën za
Total population
c. 400,000-650,000
Regions with significant populations
Mexico 400,000-650,000
Languages
Zapotec, Spanish, English, Albarradas Sign Language
Religion
Christianity: Roman Catholicism, traditional beliefs
Related ethnic groups
Chatinos

The Zapotec (Valley Zapotec: Bën za) are an indigenous people of Mexico. The population is concentrated in the southern state of Oaxaca, but Zapotec communities also exist in neighboring states. The present-day population is estimated at 400,000 to 650,000^[1] persons, many of whom are monolingual in one of the native Zapotec languages and dialects. In pre-Columbian times, the Zapotec civilization was one of the highly developed cultures of Mesoamerica that had a system of writing.

Many people of Zapotec ancestry have emigrated to the United States over several decades. They maintain their own social organizations in the Los Angeles and Central Valley areas of California.

There are four basic groups of Zapotec: the istmeños, who live in the southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec,^[2] the serranos, who live in the northern mountains of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca; the southern Zapotec, who live in the southern mountains of the Sierra Sur; and the Central Valley Zapotec, who live in and around the Valley of Oaxaca.