Zoque People - Contemporary Culture

Contemporary Culture

The Zoque traditional dress is worn almost exclusively by women, and on special occasions. Some elderly men in remote communities wear white cotton shirts. The women traditionally wear short-sleeved white blouses, with colourfully embroidered open necklines, and long poplin skirts in various colors. More recently they wear kneelength dresses in various bright colours with white lacy trims. Up to the recent past it was customary for married women to undress the upper halve of the body while working in the heat. Younger generations of women have become more timid about exposing their chests.

Their houses are mainly rectangular, with one or two rooms. Traditionally the walls were made of adobe, or mud bricks, whitewashed inside and out, and the houses had earthen floors and roofs consisting of four sloping sides of tile or thatch. More recently they are constructed with concrete blocks, cemented floors, and corrugated iron roofs. The kitchen is usually a separate structure from the main house.

As with other groups, agriculture is their prime economic activity. The crops vary according to the topography of the terrain. For the most part they raise maize, beans, chiles, and squash. Their commercial crops are coffee, cocoa, peppers, bananas, mamey, sweetsop, and guava. The soil is of poor quality, and therefore the output is low. They raise pigs and domesticated fowl in small quantities to augment their diet.

The Zoque also work in the construction industry in the cities.