Oaxaca is the kind of place that people who have never been there already know something about — the mole, the textiles, the mezcal, the tlayudas. And people who have been there come back with the specific problem of trying to explain it to people who haven't. The food alone is one of the great cuisines of the world. The Indigenous cultures — sixteen recognized groups, including the Zapotec and Mixtec, with their own languages and traditions — represent one of the most diverse concentrations of Indigenous heritage in all of Mexico. Oaxaca is not a monolith. It is many worlds in one place.
What is Oaxaca known for?
Oaxaca is a state in southern Mexico, with its capital at Oaxaca de Juárez, and it is internationally recognized for its extraordinary cultural, culinary, and Indigenous heritage. In food, Oaxaca is known for its seven moles (complex chile-based sauces), its tlayudas (large crispy tortillas with beans and toppings), quesillo (Oaxacan string cheese), mezcal (the smoky agave spirit made throughout the state's valleys), and its rich tradition of chocolate making. In craft and textile, Oaxaca is home to the alebrijes (painted wooden fantastical creatures) of the Arrazola village, the geometric rugs of Teotitlán del Valle, and the embroidered blouses and dresses of dozens of Indigenous communities. According to UNESCO, Oaxaca's Guelaguetza celebration — a gathering of Indigenous communities from across the state for music, dance, and cultural exchange — is one of the most significant Indigenous cultural festivals in the Americas.
Zapotec and Mixtec heritage
Oaxaca is one of the centers of the ancient Zapotec civilization — Monte Albán, one of Mesoamerica's earliest cities, sits on a mountain above the capital and was occupied for more than a millennium. The Zapotec and Mixtec peoples and their descendants are still present throughout the state, maintaining languages, agricultural traditions, textile knowledge, and cosmological practices that predate Spanish colonization by centuries. Oaxacan migrants in the United States — concentrated in places like the Central Valley of California and Poughkeepsie, New York — often maintain specifically Zapotec identity, distinct from a general Mexican one.
Oaxacan pride in the diaspora
To be Oaxaqueño/a in the United States is often to carry a particularly layered identity: Mexican, Indigenous, often Zapotec- or Mixtec-speaking, and coming from a state that the rest of Mexico sometimes overlooks despite its extraordinary depth. That specificity matters, and it's worth naming. Smile Mas makes pieces for the community that carries all of it.
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