Oaxaca City

The Zapotec and Mixtec peoples lived in the Valley of Oaxaca for thousands of years, around great centres such as Monte Albán, founded around 500 BC on the ridge above today's city, and Mitla. A military post on the Cerro del Fortín watched over the Zapotec capital of Zaachila and the trade route between the Valley of Mexico, Tehuantepec and Central America. The city's name comes from the Nahuatl Huaxyacac, and its Zapotec name, Ndua, is still used.

When the Spanish arrived in 1521, the Zapotec and Mixtec were at war. Spanish settlers built a town at the foot of the Cerro del Fortín, and the first mass was said on the bank of the Atoyac under a huaje tree, but Hernán Cortés twice drove them out. They re-established it in 1529 as Antequera, named after Nuño de Guzmán's home town, laying out the main square that year, and the crown confirmed its status in 1532. The Dominicans received land for their convent of Santo Domingo in 1551, and the cathedral, begun around 1535, was rebuilt after earthquakes and consecrated in 1733. Built from local green stone, the town became known as the green Antequera.

After independence the city took the name Oaxaca, and in 1872 "de Juárez" was added for Benito Juárez, who had lived here from 1818 and became president of Mexico. During the Reform Santo Domingo was turned into a stable; its convent buildings now house a cultural centre. In 1987 the city and Monte Albán were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2006 the teachers' union's annual occupation of the Zócalo grew into months of protest after police tried to clear it on 14 June; a broad movement, the APPO, formed, and in October federal forces were sent to retake the city.

The Guelaguetza is the city's great festival. Its name is Zapotec for an offering or act of cooperation, and its roots are pre-Hispanic: after the conquest, ceremonies on the Cerro del Fortín were rededicated to the Virgin. Since 1953 it has been organised as a festival of dance groups from across the state, and since 1969 it has been held on the two Mondays after 16 July, with concerts and plays through July. The Night of the Radishes on 23 December, a contest of carved radishes held formally since 1897, and the Day of the Dead are the other great occasions.

Oaxaca has a strong art scene. Rufino Tamayo, whose collection of pre-Hispanic art fills a city museum, and Francisco Toledo, who helped found cultural institutions here, are the best-known Oaxacan artists, and after the 2006 crisis political printmaking, muralism and street art collectives grew so fast that by 2017 the city was being called the capital of Mexican printmaking. These collectives continue to address issues such as gentrification and violence against women.

Spanish is the main language, but in the 2005 census 20,109 people in the municipality, between seven and eight per cent, spoke an Indigenous language, and Zapotec and Mixtec traditions are visible in markets, dress and festivals. The city's coat of arms bears Donají, a Zapotec noblewoman of legend killed during the wars with the Mixtec.

The municipality covers about 85 square kilometres, and the metropolitan area around the city had 744,912 people in 2020. The city is the state's capital and its main attraction, and its economy depends heavily on visitors: tourism became the dominant factor between 1984 and 2009, and about 77 per cent of jobs in the municipality are related to it in some way. Visitor numbers peak at Holy Week, in summer around the Guelaguetza and at New Year.

Politics is part of daily life. The Zócalo, the government buildings around it and the roads into the city are regular sites of demonstrations and blockades, and the teachers' union has occupied the square every summer since 1989. The 2006 conflict badly damaged tourism for a time, and the art and print collectives that grew out of it still comment on public life from the city's walls.

Markets set much of the rhythm. Residents shop at the Benito Juárez and 20 de Noviembre markets near the Zócalo and at the large Mercado de Abastos, and the villages of the valley hold their markets on fixed days of the week: Wednesday in Etla and Zimatlán for cheese and dairy products, Sunday in Tlacolula, when mezcal is sold. Colectivos link those villages with the city.

Oaxaca has long been called Mexico's culinary capital, and its moles are the reason. These complex sauces of chillies, spices and seeds — to which ingredients such as tomatoes, peanuts, avocado leaves and chocolate were added after the conquest — come in more varieties here than anywhere else: negro, colorado, coloradito, chichilo, verde, amarillo and manchamanteles among them.

The markets serve the rest of the city's classics. The 20 de Noviembre market, the food market, is known for moles, tasajo, thin dried beef, and tlayudas, large crisp tortillas spread with toppings, and for its Pasillo de Humo, a narrow hall where vendors grill the meat customers have just bought. Pan de yema is a rich egg bread; chapulines are grasshoppers fried with chilli; and quesillo, the stringy cheese known elsewhere as Oaxaca cheese, is sold beside queso fresco.

Chocolate has been important here since long before the conquest. Oaxacan chocolate is ground with cinnamon, almonds and sugar, sold in bars in the markets and drunk hot, made with water or milk and served in large cups with a sweet roll. To drink, the region prefers mezcal: like tequila it is made from agave, but unlike tequila it can be made from many different species of the plant, and on Sundays it is sold at the Tlacolula market east of the city.