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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,

Mexican Facts and Figures