La Matanza and even in the mountainous region near Canchaque. Further south, the colonial city of Zaña or farming towns like Capote and Tuman in Lambayeque are also important regions with Afro-Peruvian presence. Asian According to the 2017 census, 3-10% of the population identifies as having either Chinese or Japanese heritage. Peru has the largest population of Chinese descendants in Latin America since Peru became independent from Spain in 1821 and banned the imports of slaves. The first group of Asians came in 1849 on the Danish ship named Federico Guillermo to replace slavery as part of the plan to abolished slavery in 1854 by replacing it with Asian labor force. During the next 25 years, 100,000 Chinese arrived to Peru, hired in eight-year contracts from Macao, Hong Kong, Canton, and Fujian, including some Sangley people. They were hired for sugar cane fields, rice fields, extracting guano and constructing the railroads in the Andes in semi-slavery working conditions. Geographically Chinese descendant communities are found throughout the Peruvian upper Amazon, including cities such as Yurimaguas, Nauta, Iquitos and the north-central coast (Lambayeque and Trujillo) and the capital Lima. In contrast to the Japanese community in Peru, the Chinese appear to have intermarried much more since they came to work in the rice fields during the Viceroyalty and to replace the African slaves, as laborers during the abolition of slavery itself. Despite the presence of Peruvians of Asian heritage being quite recent, in the past decade, they have made significant advancements in business and political fields; a past president (Alberto Fujimori), several past cabinet members, and one member of the Peruvian congress are of Chinese or Japanese origin. There are also large numbers of Arab Peruvians, mostly Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqis. Immigration after independence After independence, there has been a gradual European immigration from Spain, Italy, Croatia, France, Germany, and Austria. Chinese arrived in the 1850s as a replacement for slave workers in the sugar plantations of the north coast and have since become a major influence in Peruvian society. Languages Peruvian Spanish, is the main language of 82.6% majorly spoken in the Coastal cities, It is the primary language of the country used for the public media, television, radio, newspapers, internet in general with very minimal exceptions. It coexists with several Indigenous languages, the most common Quechua,13.9% and Aymara 1.6%, both spoken mostly in the Andes, Ashaninka 0.3% in the Rainforest.