[2][3] The government also recognizes 63 indigenous languages spoken in their communities out of respect, including Nahuatl, Mayan, Mixtec, etc.

The Mexican government uses solely Spanish for official and legislative purposes, but it has yet to declare it the national language mostly out of respect to the indigenous communities that still exist.

From the arrival of the first Franciscan missionaries, Spanish, Latin, and indigenous languages played parts in the evangelization of Mexico.

Many 16th-century churchmen studied indigenous languages in order to instruct native peoples in Christian doctrine.

[6][7][9][10][11][12] In 2002, Mexico's constitution was amended to reinforce the nation's pluricultural nature by giving the State the obligation to protect and nurture the expressions of this diversity.

The second article of the 1917 Constitution defines the country as multicultural, recognizes the right of the indigenous peoples to "preserve and enrich their languages" and promotes "bilingual and intercultural education".

In 2003, the Mexican Congress approved the General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples (Spanish: Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos), which is a law that recognizes that Mexico's history makes its indigenous languages "national languages".

At the same time, legislators made no specific provisions for the official or legal status of the Spanish language.

However, a relatively small percentage of Mexico's population speaks an indigenous language compared to other countries in the Americas, such as Guatemala (42.8%), Peru (35%), and even Ecuador (9.4%), Panama (8.3%),[22] Paraguay and Bolivia.

[27][28] The non-Spanish and non-indigenous languages spoken in Mexico include English (by English-speaking as well as by the residents of border states).

One example of this group is of the American Mormon colony of Nueva Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, which settled in the late 19th century.