Program Dates: June 23-August 3, 2024

Zapotec, one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages in Mexico, is spoken in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Veracruz. This intensive program is taught by native Isthmus Zapotec speakers and linguists through the Casa de La Cultura in Juchitán. The course, taught in Spanish, includes five hours of classroom instruction, four to five days per week, over a six week period with workshops and field trips to market centers, elementary and secondary schools, hospitals, and other community-based centers of social interaction.

Participants will experience a full immersion in Zapotec culture and language through homestays with Zapotec speaking families. Juchitán, a coastal economic hub, is located between Oaxaca City and the state of Chiapas. Both locations are easily accessed from Juchitán. Professor Thomas Villalobos Aguino of Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (UPN) and the administrators of Casa de la Cultura de Juchitán coordinate the program in Oaxaca along with Dr. Ramona Pérez, a Oaxacan scholar from the Department of Anthropology at SDSU. 

Open to undergraduates, graduates, professors and independent scholars, as well as professionals working with Mixtec and Zapotec communities.

Credits earned in the Zapotec summer program can be used towards satisfying SDSU foreign language requirements.

For more information, please visit the SDSU Aztecs Abroad page for this program.