Bundikin · Discovery city
Oaxaca de Juárez
The green-stone city · Oaxaca, Mexico
A colonial city from 1529 on older Zapotec and Mixtec ground
Oaxaca de Juárez sits in a high valley that Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations shaped long before a Spanish grid was laid in 1529. Monte Albán looks down from the ridge. In the center, Santo Domingo's carved monastery and the green cantera stone of the buildings give the courtyards their gravity.
The state is a mosaic of languages, mezcal villages, and markets. Mole is a family of sauces, not a single recipe. Alebrijes, black pottery, and Guelaguetza dancing keep older obligations public. A courtyard here is not leftover space. It is the room that decides who is welcome.
Things worth knowing
- Monte Albán, a Zapotec capital from around 500 BCE, overlooks the modern city and is a UNESCO site along with Oaxaca's historic center.
- Cantera verde — local green stone — gives many central buildings their color.
- Oaxaca is the heartland of mezcal: agave roasted in earth ovens, a village craft before it was a cocktail.
- Guelaguetza, from a Zapotec word for mutual offering, is the summer gathering of the state's regional dances.
- Benito Juárez, Mexico's 19th-century president, was Zapotec from this state; the city carries his name.
