Oaxaca

 

city (1990 pop. 212,818), capital of Oaxaca state, S Mexico. The city is officially called Oaxaca de Juárez. Situated in a valley encircled by low mountains, Oaxaca is a commercial and tourist center with gardens and many examples of colonial church architecture. The church and monastery of Santo Domingo de Guzmán is a national monument. Oaxaca is noted for hand-wrought gold and silver filigree, pottery, and sarapes that rank among the finest in Mexico. The city has two museums that feature pre-Hispanic art and a contemporary art museum, and the ancient Zapotec capital of Monte Albán is nearby. There is an annual festival that celebrates indigenous culture. The chief city of S Mexico, Oaxaca is linked with the federal capital by rail and the Inter-American Highway. The city is subject to severe earthquakes.

According to Aztec tradition, Oaxaca was founded as Huasyacac in 1486, during the brief ascendancy of the Aztecs over the Mixtecs and Zapotecs; the present city was laid out by Spanish conquerors in 1529. Prominent in the Mexican revolution against Spain, the city also joined in the War of the Reform and in resistance to the French intervention. Both Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz were born in Oaxaca in the 1800s. During May–Nov., 2006, the city was torn by a bitter protest against Oaxaca state's governor by teachers, leftists, and others and a heavy-handed state response; in October, federal police intervened with force to restore order to the central city.

Oaxaca is the name of both a state in Mexico and that state's capital city. This article is about the city. For the state, see Oaxaca.

Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Mexico
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iii, iv
Reference	415
Region†	Latin America and the Caribbean
Inscription History
Inscription	1987  (11th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

The city of Oaxaca (formally: Oaxaca de Juárez, in honor of 19th-century president and national hero Benito Juárez, who was born nearby) is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name. It is located in the Valley of Oaxaca in the Sierra Madre del Sur Mountains, at 17°05′N 96°45′W / 17.083, -96.75Coordinates: 17°05′N 96°45′W / 17.083, -96.75 near the geographic center of the state, and at an altitude of about 1550 m (5000 feet). The important Monte Albán archaeological site is close to the city. As of the 2005 census, the official population of the city was 258,008 people. Including its surrounding municipality, the total rises to 265,033. However, the Oaxaca metropolitan area, which includes seventeen different municipalities, had a population of 500,970 inhabitants. Oaxaca municipality has an area of 85.48 km² (33 sq mi).

History

There had been Zapotec and Mixtec settlements in the general area of the modern city of Oaxaca for thousands of years, in connection with the important ancient centres of Monte Albán and Mitla. The colonial city, however, dates from 1532, when Spanish settlers who had followed Hernán Cortés' conquistadores successfully petitioned the Queen of Spain for a grant of land. They had already founded a city in the neighbourhood, under the name of Antequera, on the basis of a charter from King Carlos V of Spain, but Cortés had successfully sought to have the entire Valle de Oaxaca declared as part of his personal marquisate, and to have the settlers removed. The Queen's charter, however, secured the townspeople's rights.

The historic centre of the city is laid out in typical Spanish colonial style, with a rectangular grid of streets surrounding a central square, the zócalo. Most of the important buildings are within this central area.

The 2006 Oaxaca protests constituted a major social action by teachers from May to late 2006. Several teachers and their supporters were shot dead, including Indymedia journalist Bradley Roland Will on October 27, 2006^[1] and Roberto López Hernández and Jorge Alberto Beltrán on October 29, 2006 when over 10,000 federal police and army intervened.^{[2] [3]}

On July 16th, 2007 protestors from APPO clashed with the police who used teargas to disperse the crowd resulting in scores injured. The APPO would like to be a socialist group but internal conflict prevents this.

Demographics

As of the census of 2005, there were 258,008 people living in the city of Oaxaca, 265,033 in the municipality, and 500,970 in the metropolitan area.

Oaxaca is the state with the highest indigenous population in Mexico at about 60-70% of the total population. There are also many immigrants from Central America, especially Guatemala and El Salvador, most of whom are illegal immigrants who were destined to the United States but decided to stay in Mexico.

Important buildings

Earthquakes damaged or destroyed many of the earliest buildings in the city, so most of those that currently exist date from no earlier than the beginning of the 18th century.

• Churches and religious buildings
  • Catedral de Oaxaca, also referred to as The Cathedral of the Virgin of the Assumption, replacing an earlier building and completed in 1733, which contains chapels of Santa Cruz de Huatalco (1612) and Los Beatos.
  • Church and former convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán
  • Church of San Augustín, completed in the summer of 1722.
  • Church and former monastery of St John of God (Templo y Exconvento de San Juan de Dios), Oaxaca's oldest church still standing, completed in 1703.
  • Church of San Felipe Neri
  • Former convent (Ex convento) of San Catalina (now the Hotel Camino Real, but open for viewing)
  • Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, which contains a statue of the Virgin of Solitude, crowned with a 2 kg solid gold crown studded with diamonds – though this was the subject of a theft recently.
• Government buildings
  • Governor's palace (Palacio de Gobierno), dating from 1884 though on the site of several earlier buildings serving the same purpose.
• Museums and the arts
  • Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo, occupying the former monastery buildings attached to Santo Domingo church, and beautifully restored in the 1990s to serve as a museum of Oaxacan life from pre-Columban days to the present. Some important artefacts from Monte Albán are displayed here.
  • Museum of Contemporary Art (Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca, MACO), housed in the so-called Casa de Cortés. This is a beautiful colonial building, though as it dates from after the death of Hernán Cortés, it can never actually have served as his house.
  • Rufino Tamayo museum (Museo Arte Prehispánico de Rufino Tamayo) or Museo Rufino Tamayo, with an important collection of pre-Columban art, arranged in an unusual aesthetic and thematic manner
  • Museo de la Soledad, next to the Church of the Soledad.
  • Instituto de Artes Gráficos de Oaxaca
  • Casa de Juárez, a museum devoted to the life of Benito Juárez
  • Photography Museum, the Centro de Fotografía Álvarez Bravo
  • Stamp Museum, the Museo Philatélica de Oaxaca
  • Railway Museum of Southern Mexico, in the former mainline railway station
  • Teatro Macedonio Alcalá, which as well as being a working theatre houses a collection of romantic art.
  • Planetarium, on the Cerro del Fortín
• Commercial buildings
  • Juárez market

• • 20 de Noviembre market
  • Crafts market (Mercado de Artesanías)
  • Mercado de Abastos
  • Los Arquitos (former aqueduct)
• Parks and gardens
  • The Zócalo
  • Alameda de Léon, diagonally adjacent to the Zócalo and in front of the cathedral
  • Ethnobotanical garden, surrounding the former monastery of Santo Domingo
  • Parque Benito Juárez (known as
  • Cerro de Fortín, overlooking the highway that enters the city from Mexico City, and bearing in stone letters Benito Juárez's slogan, "El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz" (Respect for others' rights is peace)
  • Parque Comunal de San Felipe, bordering the city and accessed via the suburb of San Felipe del Agua, and including the 3250-metre Cerro La Peña

Nickname

"Verde Antequera"

Famous Oaxacans

Important people associated with Oaxaca include

• Benito Juárez
• Porfirio Díaz
• José Vasconcelos
• Ricardo Flores Magón
• Margarita Maza, wife of Benito Juárez
• Rodolfo Morales, artist
• Rufino Tamayo, artist
• Adriana Albores, actress
• Francisco Toledo, artist
• Lila Downs, singer
• Vinny Castilla, Major League Baseball Player
• Carlos Castaneda
• Macedonio Alcalá composer
• José López Alavéz musician and composer
• Nadia Yvonne Lopez Ayuso, singer
• Maria Sabina, shaman

Education

A significant barrier for the indigenious populations, a large proportion of the Oaxacan population, is language with regards to participating within the Spanish-speaking Mexican educational systems. In an effort to reduce the education gap between indigenous populations and the latino populations is Oaxaca Streetchildren Grassroots. Oaxaca Streetchildren Grassroots works with indigenous populations in efforts ranging from teaching Spanish to locating sponsors for schoolchildren. These efforts are to facilitate involvement of these populations in Spanish-speaking schools.

In terms of institutions of higher education Oaxaca has several universities. Oaxaca is the site of the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, which has buildings throughout the city centre. Additionally, the Universidad de Mesoamérica has locations in the city.

Transportation

Oaxaca-Xoxocotlan airport (IATA code OAX) is approximately 10 km south of the city centre. Most flights are to Mexico City for onward connection, but there are also flights to Huatulco, Cancún, Tuxtla Gutierrez and Tijuana. Continental Airlines flights between Oaxaca and Houston have also been initiated.

The city has separate first class and second class bus stations, offering services to most places within the state of Oaxaca, including the coastal resorts of Huatulco, Puerto Escondido, Puerto Ángel and Pinotepa Nacional, and also long-distance services to Puebla and Mexico City and other Mexican locations such as Veracruz. There are several bus lines which run in Oaxaca. The largest is TUSUG, a type of "cooperative" company. All of the drivers own their own buses and are aided by other drivers in purchasing new buses.

The major highways serving Oaxaca are Federal Highways 175 and 131, southwards to the Oaxacan coastal resorts; National Highways 190 and 125, southwest to Pinotepa Nacional, Guerrero; National Highways 190 and 130, to Mexico City; the autopista 150D/131D, offering a more rapid route to Mexico City; and National Highway 175 north to Veracruz, Veracruz.

Gallery

Calle Tinoco y Palacios, with the church of San Felipe Neri

Basílica de la Soledad

Calle Morelos

References

• Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005 INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática

• Oaxaca Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México

External links

• Muncipio de Oaxaca de Juárez Official website
• Visitors information
• Arts in Oaxaca

A very active Yahoo Community regarding Oaxaca City can be located at -- http://www.OaxacaCity.net

The Group has 375+ members and includes many expats living in Oaxaca City. The Group called, "Oaxaca City -- Streets and Shops," has several photo albums and is also linked to a sister site with additional photos.

World Heritage Sites in Mexico

Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila · Ancient Maya City of Calakmul, Campeche · Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco · Archaeological Zone of Paquimé, Casas Grandes · Central University City Campus of the UNAM · Earliest 16th-Century Monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl · El Tajín, Pre-Hispanic City · Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro · Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco · Historic Centre of Morelia · Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán · Historic Centre of Puebla · Historic Centre of Zacatecas · Historic Fortified Town of Campeche · Historic Monuments Zone of Querétaro · Historic Monuments Zone of Tlacotalpan · Historic Town of Guanajuato, and Adjacent Mines · Hospicio Cabañas, Guadalajara · Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California · Luis Barragán House and Studio · Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen Itza · Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacán · Pre-Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque · Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal · Rock Paintings of Sierra de San Francisco · Sian Ka'an · Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino

Mexico state capitals
Aguascalientes · Baja California · Baja California Sur · Campeche · Chiapas · Chihuahua · Coahuila · Colima · Durango · Guanajuato · Guerrero · Hidalgo · Jalisco · México · Michoacán · Morelos · Nayarit · Nuevo León · Oaxaca · Puebla · Querétaro · Quintana Roo · San Luis Potosí · Sinaloa · Sonora · Tabasco · Tamaulipas · Tlaxcala · Veracruz · Yucatán · Zacatecas ·

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