San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas
If you are planning a trip to Mexico then we at Hablarama highly recommend making space in your itinerary for the state of Chiapas and the city of San Cristóbal de las casas.
In this listening, aimed at intermediate or advanced beginner students, we’ll find out some basic facts about this city in the hills, including its difficult recent past.
We’ll also learn some new Spanish vocabulary too!
Key vocabulary
| capital cultural | cultural capital |
| zona montañosa | mountainous area |
| época colonial | colonial era |
| cultura indígena | indigenous culture |
| tienda | shop |
| mercado | market |
| levantamiento armado | armed uprising |
| liderazgo | leadership |
San Cristóbal de la Casas es una de las principales ciudades del estado mexicano de Chiapas. No es la capital política de Chiapas pero se considera como su capital cultural. Está ubicada en una zona montañosa, a una altura de 2.200 mil metros. La ciudad conserva gran número de edificios de su época colonial y atrae a miles de visitantes cada año. San Cristóbal también es una buena base para descubrir la cultura indígena del estado de Chiapas. Muchos indígenas viven en la ciudad o cerca de ella. En las tiendas y mercados de San Cristóbal se pueden comprar muchos productos elaborados por estas comunidades indígenas.
En 1994 San Cristóbal fue el centro de un levantamiento armado organizado por el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional. El EZLN, bajo el liderazgo del ‘subcomandante Marcos’, se hizo con el control de varias zonas de Chiapas y se enfrentó al ejército mexicano.
Machu Picchu is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the whole of Latin America. It is known as the ‘lost city of the Incas’. It is located in the south of Peru, 400km from lake Titicaca and 80km from the city of Cusco. Machu Picchu is a ruin nowadays, but its spectacular locations, amongst the majestic Andes mountains mean that is is one of the most well-known places on the continent. It receives almost 1.5 million tourists every year.
A reflexive verb which means:
“to face”
Sometimes Spanish reflexive verbs have the same meaning as the Passive Voice in English:
Se pueden* comprar
Can be bought
You could also use the singular here.
made by
We use ‘por’ to indicate the author of an action:
hechos por – made by
elaborados por – manufactured by
dirigido por – directed by
It is incorrect to use ‘para’ in these situations.
Reflexive verbs end in SE:
lavarse, encontrarse, ubicarse…
In theory, reflexive verbs are actions which the subject does to themself:
lavarse – wash oneself
peinarse – brush one’s hair
However, many reflexive verbs are ‘reflexive’ in form only. They can be used in a transitive sense:
me peleaba con ella – I fought with her
me comí un pastel enorme – I ate a big cake
By S. Bollmann - Own work This file was uploaded with Commonist., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51154976 The Sónar music festival, Barcelona 
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