So

why do they speak Spanish in Mexico?

The land you see to the left, which is today called
Mexico, has had people living in it for over 13,000
years! There were all different kinds of people who
spoke many different languages. At one time there
were actually HUNDREDS of languages spoken in the
land that is today called Mexico! Even today, there
are over 70 languages spoken in Mexico.

So maybe you know that today most people in
Mexico speak Spanish. Why is that? Why do people in
Mexico speak Spanish? It is interesting that there have
been people in this land for over 13,000 years, but for
most of that time NO ONE spoke Spanish there.
Spanish is a language that comes from the country of
Spain. So how did it get to Mexico?

It all started in the year 1519. At that time, most of
the people who lived in Mexico were called Aztecs, and they spoke a language called
Nahuatl. The King of Spain sent a man named Hernn Corts to Mexico with an army of
soldiers on ships. Corts and the King of Spain wanted the land of Mexico all to
themselves so they came ready to fight and kill the
This map
shows
Aztecs.
where the

Yucatan is,
where
Corts and his army landed in a place called the
Hernn
Yucatan. They fought and killed most of the Aztec
Corts first
landed in
people there. The ones who they did not kill they
Mexico
forced to give them everything they had. They even
took the mothers of their families from them.

Corts and his army were only the first of many armies to come to Mexico from
Spain. Over time the people who were already living there were killed or made to work
as slaves for the new Spanish-speaking people that had come. Because of this the
population in Mexico changed from a people who mostly spoke Nahuatl or other
languages to a people who mostly spoke Spanish, and they still speak Spanish today.

People
have lived
in Mexico
for over
13,000
years. But
they did not
always call
it Mexico.

Spain is on
the other
side of the
ocean from
Mexico. So
how did
Spanish get
to Mexico?