Little by little we have ministered in each of these ethnic groups. Sometimes it is confusing when we say our technicians are recording another Zapotec, Mixtec, or Mazatec New Testament translation, but there are many many different variants of each language represented on this chart.
Later this month we will be returning to Mexico to distribute audio Bibles among the Nahuatl (Aztec), but traveling to villages in the neighboring state of Puebla to do so. In the country of Mexico, there are more than a million speakers of Nahuatl, though most live outside Oaxaca.
Mexico boasts six million indigenous language speakers, though other Latin American countries have a higher percentage of indigenous people. To put it in perspective, the southern state of Oaxaca is 65% indigenous, whereas the country of Guatemala is only 42.8%.
According to YWAM, "Oaxaca contains the largest concentration of people groups in the Americas.... many whom are considered unreached."
Click here to see a short video clip
illustrating how colorful and diverse Oaxaca is.
*The languages in parentheses are considered derivatives of the larger language group, whereas Huave, Nahuatl, and Chontal are each distinct languages that comprise the remaining 7% of languages represented in Oaxaca.
