The Tseltal (pronounced "sell-tahl") People are one of twenty-five Maya groups who live in southern México, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. The Tseltales trace their origins to Huehuetenango, Guatemala.  Around 5000 years ago, they traveled north to "Tseltalan" in what is now Chiapas, Mexico, the southernmost state in the Republic of Mexico. (map) Around 700 BC, the group divided into two distinct groups: Tseltales and Tsotsiles. The Tseltales settled in the mountains and jungles of northeast Chiapas. In Chiapas, Tseltal is one of the distinct Mayan languages spoken. Today, the Tseltal People in Chiapas number approximately 300,000--about the size of the population that the Spanish Conquistadores encountered when they invaded Mexico in the 1500s.

Although the Tseltales speak the same language and trace their origins to the same general region, they actually identify themselves as part of thirteen distinct "traditions" or "Ts'umbalil," with special histories, ties to specific ancestral lands, and unique customs. The best translation of "Ts'umbal" is "the root from which we came." The Jesuit Mission and Center for Indigenous Rights serve five of these thirteen "Ts'umbalil": San Jerónimo de Bachajón, San Sebastián de Bachajón, Santo Domingo (Chilón), Me'tic Santa Ana (Guaquitepec), and Xihtalha'.

Since the Spanish Conquest, the Tseltal People, like other indigenous peoples of the Americas, have suffered poverty, discrimination and oppression. Many babies and children die of curable and preventable diseases, including diarrhea, tuberculosis, anemia and malnutrition. Many adults do not have more than a few years of primary education as there are few schools and limited resources expended on education for indigenous people in Mexico. The rate of illiteracy among Tseltales over the age of fifteen is three times the national rate. The Tseltales are among the "poorest of the poor" in Mexico.