The Spanish of Mexico

There is no official language at the federal level in Mexico. Spanish, however, is spoken by 97% of the population. The General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, however, grants all indigenous minority languages spoken in Mexico the same validity as Spanish in all territories in which they are spoken, and indigenous peoples are entitled to request some public services and documents in their languages. Along with Spanish, the law has granted them –more than 60 languages– the status of "national languages". The law includes all Amerindian languages regardless of origin; that is, it includes the Amerindian languages of ethnic groups non-native to the territory. So, Mexico recognizes the language of the Kickapoo, which immigrated from the United States, and of those of the Guatemalan Amerindian refugees. Mexico has the largest Spanish-speaking population having almost two times more speakers than the second Spanish-speaking country, with almost a third of all Spanish speakers around the world. The Mexican government has promoted and established bilingual primary and secondary education in some rural communities. Approximately 6% of the population speaks an indigenous language and 3% do not speak Spanish. Nahuatl is spoken by 1.5 million and Yucatec Maya by 800,000. Some of the national languages are in danger of extinction; Lacandon is spoken by fewer than a hundred people. English is widely used in business, at the border cities, as well as by the one million American citizens that live in Mexico, mostly retirees in small towns in Baja California, Guanajuato and Chiapas. I hope this helps you understand better the languages of Mexico!