Spanish is Ecuador’s official language of business and government, although there are dialectal differences between Sierra and Costa Spanish; Sierra Spanish has been influenced by Quichua. More than 10 indigenous languages exist in Ecuador, and several of these will likely persist as mother tongues.

As the Inca Civil War raged, in 1531 the Spanish landed in Ecuador. Led by Francisco Pizarro, the conquistadors learned that the conflict and disease were destroying the empire. The Spanish then set out to conquer the rest of Tawantinsuyu, capturing Cuzco in November 1533.

During much of the colonial period, what is now Ecuador was under the direct jurisdiction of the law court (audiencia) of Quito and ultimately under the rule of the Spanish crown. In the Sierra, the Spaniards established a colony of large estates worked by indigenous peons. …

The Spanish spoken in Ecuador is very proper and easy to understand. It would be one of the best places to learn Spanish in Latin America if it wasn’t for the influence of the Quechua language.

71.9 percent of Ecuadorians are mestizo, an ethnicity made up of both Spanish and indigenous heritage. Afro-Ecuadorians make up 7.2 percent of the population. Indigenous people comprise another 7 percent, with heavy concentrations around Otavalo and the Amazon Basin. 6.1 percent of the population is white.

Some have drawn sharp distinctions between these two terms, saying for example that Hispanics are people from Spain or from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America (this excludes Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language), while Latinos are people from Latin America regardless of language (this includes …

Indigenous peoples of Mexico (Spanish: gente indígena de México, pueblos indígenas de México), Native Mexicans (Spanish: nativos mexicanos) or Mexican Native Americans (Spanish: pueblos originarios de México, lit.