During pre-Hispanic times, a vast cultural region known as Mesoamerica developed, encompassing much of central and southern Mexico and Central America. In the eastern part of this region, the Maya civilization flourished and thrived.

The pre-Columbian Maya legacy remains visible in the ruins of vanished cities and in the objects uncovered there. It is also evident in the more than thirty contemporary Maya peoples who still inhabit nearly the same territories, speak languages derived from their ancestral linguistic root, Proto-Maya, and preserve the essence of their customs, rituals, and worldview—albeit with distinct influences from Spanish colonization and the passage of time.