9781422286944

Mexican Facts and Figures

native language, and a fifth of the state’s population does not speak any Spanish at all. The native artisans are known worldwide for their hand-woven textiles, leather goods, and pottery. Although tourism and the state’s rich mines (especially coal and iron) offer hope for the future, many of the people of Oaxaca are disillusioned with their government. So many of them are desperately poor, and in the past the government has done little to help them. As they look at the rebels in the neighboring state of Chiapas, the people of Oaxaca consider joining the fight for better conditions. Chiapas Chiapas is at the tip of the Mexico Pacific coastline; if you were to continue your journey along the coast, next you would leave Mexico and enter the country of Guatemala. Until 1824, Chiapas was actually a part of Guatemala. Today, it is Mexico’s poorest state. Historically, Chiapas has always been a land of rebellion. In the 19th century, native people in the villages of Chiapas discovered piedras hablantes . These “talking stones” advised the people to rebel against the Spanish, and soon the Rebellion of 1869 was underway. However, the government quickly squashed the revolt. In the 1930s, the Mexican government began the ejido system, where farmland was given to communities to own jointly. This helped the people of Chiapas, but their poverty continued. By the middle of the 1990s, many farmworkers in the state were earning as little as $1.75 a day. In 1994, a group of Amerindians who called themselves Zapatistas began a revolt against the Mexican government. They occupied several towns in Chiapas,

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