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In September — the month the Catholic Church especially dedicates to the Bible — Mexico, a country with rich linguistic diversity, stands out for its efforts to translate the holy Scriptures into various Indigenous languages.

According to official data, Mexico has 69 national languages ​​— 68 Indigenous and Spanish — which places it “among the top 10 nations with the most native languages ​​and occupies second place with this characteristic in Latin America after Brazil.”

Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, the bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas state, has led the Mexican bishops’ initiatives to bring the word of God to Indigenous communities. In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, the cardinal stated that the Bibles that have been translated are mainly found in communities in the Chiapas highlands.

Arizmendi said that since the first translation in 2003 into Tzeltal, a language spoken by more than half a million people, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference has facilitated the complete translation of the Bible in 2015 into the Tzotzil spoken in the Zinacantán area and of the New Testament into the Tzotzil spoken in the Huixtán region, both in Chiapas.

The prelate said that this year the complete translation into the Tzotzil of the San Juan Chamula area, “spoken by approximately 350,000 people,” has been achieved.

The ecumenical translation of the deuterocanonical books has also been made into Ch’ol, in collaboration with the Bible Societies.