Villa de Zaachila
Villa de Zaachila
Zaachila | |
|---|---|
Town and municipality | |
Scene from the weekly market or tianguis of Villa de Zaachila | |
| Coordinates: 16°57′03″N 96°44′57″W / 16.95083°N 96.74917°W | |
| Country | Mexico |
| State | Oaxaca |
| Government | |
| • Municipal President | Noe Pérez Martínez / Miguel Angel Hernandez Vazquez |
| Elevation (of seat) | 1,520 m (4,990 ft) |
| Population (2005) Municipality | |
• Municipality | 28,003 |
| • Seat | 13,721 |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (US Central)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (Central) |
| Postal code (of seat) | 71250 |
Villa de Zaachila is a town and municipality in Oaxaca, Mexico, 6 km (3.7 mi) from Oaxaca City. It is part of the Zaachila District in the west of the Valles Centrales Region. In the pre-Hispanic era, it was the main city-state for the Valley of Oaxaca after the fall of Monte Albán, and the Zaachila Zapotecs were the prominent political force for much of the Valley of Oaxaca when the Spanish arrived. Since then, it has been mostly quiet, but political unrest has been prominent since 2006 and the municipality has two parallel governments.
Zaachila is famous for its Thursday open air markets, which spreads over much of the center of town and has been a tradition since pre-Hispanic times. It is home to a mostly unexplored archeological site and is known for a dance called the Danza de los Zancudos, or Dance of the Stilts. The official name is Villa de Zaachila (Town of Zaachila). The name Zaachila is from the Zapotec language and means "large leaf of the purslane (Portulaca oleracea)".