Pan-American Highway, National Geographic Book: Zapotec Wedding Celebration

Rembrandt light falls across the face of a woman dressed in colorful traditional clothing and a flowered wreath at a wedding party.

A young Zapotec woman adorned in a flower wreath sits in the shadows during a wedding celebration in the Chagigo neighborhood of Juchitan. Wedding celebrations happen on weekends in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where traditional culture is strong. Women take leading roles in business and government in the town with the population of approximately 70,000 people. The Isthmus never became part of the Aztec Empire, as resistance to the Spanish was strong in the mid-1500s.