Southern Mexico

Southern Mexico — Oaxaca, Chiapas, the Gulf and the Yucatán. The Maya, Zapotec and Mixtec south raised sophisticated civilisations long before the Aztecs, and was conquered later and governed more loosely than the centre, leaving it the most indigenous, rural and Spanish-resistant region, where dozens of native languages still survive. Oaxaca's cuisine (mole, mezcal) and crafts and the Maya cities of Chiapas and the Yucatán make it Mexico's cultural treasure-house, while its enduring poverty and marginalisation erupted in the 1994 Zapatista rising for indigenous rights.

• Existed: 900 CE – present
• Type: Entity