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The Indigenous Languages of Mexico: A Present-Day Overview
Mexico's 1921 Census: A Unique Perspective
Indigenous Mexico Statistics: The 2005 Conteo
Extranjeros in Mexico (1895-2000)
Mexico
and Its
Religions
��
INDIGENOUS
ROOTS IN MEXICO
Indigenous
Roots in Mexico
ZACATECAS HISTORY AND RESEARCH
The History of Zacatecas
The Indigenous People of Zacatecas
The Mexicanization of the Zacatecas Indians
Genealogical Research in Zacatecas
Indigenous Roots: Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Jalisco� (the Chichimeca
Story)
The Caxanes of Nochistl�n: Defenders of their Homeland
�JALISCO HISTORY AND RESEARCH�
Los Tapati�s de California: Returning to Their Jalisco Roots
The History of Jalisco
Indigenous Jalisco: Living in a New Era
�
THE AZTEC
EMPIRE�
The Mexica: From Obscurity to Dominance
The
History of the Tlaxcalans
The Defeat of the Aztecs
SOUTHERN MEXICO�
Campeche: On the Edge of the Mayan World
Oaxaca: A Land of Diversity
The Mixtecs and Zapotecs: Two Enduring Cultures of Oaxaca
NORTHWEST
MEXICO
Indigenous Baja: Living on the
Edge of Existence
�
THE MEXICAN CENSUS
�
The Indigenous Languages of Mexico: A Present-Day Overview
Mexico's 1921 Census: A Unique Perspective
Indigenous Mexico Statistics: The 2005 Conteo
Extranjeros in Mexico (1895-2000)
Mexico
and Its
Religions
The
Indigenous Languages of
By
John P. Schmal
The
most recent census count in Mexico
reveals that a multitude of languages are used by Mexican nationals throughout
the country. It is true that the percentage of Mexicans who are speaking
indigenous languages is steadily declining, but a great many people have held
on to their mother tongue, sometimes taking it with them to other parts of
1. Nahuatl. 1,376,026 Mexicans
speak twenty-eight Nahuatl languages and live in every state of
2. Maya. The Maya language is the
second most commonly spoken language in
3. Mixteco. In 2005, it was
believed that 423,216 Mexicans spoke one of the 57 Mixtec languages,
representing 7.04% of all indigenous speakers. Mixtecs are unique in that they
have migrated in large numbers to every corner of the
4. Zapoteco. It was estimated that
410,901 persons spoke one of the 64 Zapotec languages of
Many people wonder how so many Zapotec and Mixtec languages evolved from the
same origin. But, if one understands the topography of
5. Tzeltal. In 2005, 371,730
persons spoke the Tzeltal language, representing 6.18% of all indigenous
speakers in
6. Tzotzil. The Tzotzil are close
cousins of the Tzeltal who also inhabitants of
7. Otomi. In 2005, 239,850 persons
in
8. Totonaca. The Totonaca language
was spoken by 230,930 persons in 2005, representing 3.84% of the indigenous
speakers in
9. Mazateco. The Mazateco language
was spoken by 206,559 individuals in 2005, accounting for 3.44% of the
indigenous speakers. Mazateco is spoken in several states, but is most
predominanet in
10. Chol. A total of 185,299
persons in
11. Huasteco. In 2005, 149,532
persons in
12. Chinanteca. In 2005, 125,706
person in
13. Mixe. The Mixe language is an
isolated language that is primarily spoken in
14. Mazahua. The Mazahua tongue is
a northern extension of Otomanguean language, which was spoken by
approximately 111,840 Mexicans in 2005, representing 1.86% of all indigenous
speakers. The Mazahua language is most commonly spoken in the State of
15. Purepecha. The Purepecha
people - sometimes referred to as the Tarascans - are a unique people and the
only indigenous group that consistently defeated the Aztecs in battle. Their
language is a language isolate which seems to have no known affiliation with
any other Mexican languages. Some researchers have suggested a South American
origin. At any rate, 105,556 Mexicans spoke Purepecha in 2005, representing
1.76% of all indigenous speakers. Purepechas have migrated all over
16. Tlapaneco. The Tlapanecos in
Guerrero are very similar to the Purepecha of Michoacan. They too speak a
language isolate, with no close affiliation with neighboring languages. The
Tlapanecos also held out against the Aztecs and lived in a small enclave that
resisted Aztec intrusions for more than a century. Their original homeland was
a small area that lies completely within the present-day boundaries of
Guerrero. As a result, 93.5% of all Tlapanecos lived in Guerrero in 2005.
17. Tarahumara. The Tarahumara of
Chihuahua are famous and well-known to many Americans who have journeyed south
of the border to visit these intriguing people. In 2005, 75,371 persons spoke
Tarahumara, representing 1.25% of all indigenous speakers. Although 96.1% of
these people lived in
18. Zoque. The Zoque are one of
the few non-Maya groups living in
19. Amuzgo. The Amuzgos are
another Otomanguean language group. In 2005, 43,761 Mexicans spoke one of
their three languages, representing 0.73% of
20. Tojolabal. In 2005, 43,169
persons spoke the Tojolabal language, representing 0.72% of all indigenous
speakers. This language is a Mayan language which its origins clearly tied to
the State of
There are almost 300 Mexican languages, and roughly 70 of them were tallied in
the 2000 census and 2005 census count. Several more deserve honorable mention.
Huichol: In twenty-fourth place,
the Huichol language survived and prospered even as most of its neighbors in
Nayarit and Jalisco died out from the onslaught of war, disease, assimilation
and mestizaje. In 2005, 35,724 persons spoke the Huichol language in
Mayo. In twenty-fifth place, the
Mayo are one of three surviving Cahita languages. The Cahita people originally
spoke 18 languages, but were largely decimated during the 1500s and 1600s. The
Mayos, and their Yaqui cousins, continued to endure and, at time resist,
against both the Spanish Government and, later, the Mexican Government. In
2005, 32,702 Mexicans spoke the Mayo language, representing 0.54% of all
indigenous speakers. They were primarily distributed across their two homeland
states:
Cora. In twenty-eighth place, the
Cora language was spoken by 17,086 persons in 2005, representing 0.28% of the
indigenous speakers. The Coras primary homeland has always been Nayarit, where
97.0% of their speakers resided in 2005.
Yaqui. In thirty-first place, the
famous Yaqui Indians of Sonora are famous for their resistance against the
Mexican Government. During the early 1900s, many Yaquis had to flee to
�
MEXICO�S 1921 CENSUS: A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE
By John P. Schmal (� 2007)
In the aftermath of the Mexican revolution, Mexico�s Departamento de la
Estad�stica Nacional administered a census that would be unique among
Mexico�s census counts administered between 1895 and 2005. In this new census,
the Mexican Government decided to ask Mexicans about their perception of their
own racial heritage. In the 1921 census, residents of the Mexican Republic were
asked if they fell into one of the following categories:
1. "Ind�gena pura" (of pure indigenous heritage).
2. "Ind�gena mezclada con blanca" (of mixed indigenous and white
heritage).
3. "Blanca" (of White or Spanish heritage).
4. "Extranjeros sin distinci�n de razas" (Foreigners without racial
distinction).
5. "Cualquiera otra o que se ignora la raza" (Either other or chose to
ignore the race)
States With the Largest "Ind�gena Pura" Population
The results were a remarkable reflection of M�xico�s own perception of its indigenous and mestizo identities. Although only three states had more than 50% pure indigenous populations (Oaxaca, Puebla and Tlaxcala), a total of eight states had more than 40% of the same classification (Oaxaca, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Chiapas, Guerrero, Campeche, Yucat�n, and M�xico).
The five states with the largest populations of "ind�gena pura" were:
The Most Indigenous State: Oaxaca
The most indigenous state, in terms of absolute numbers and percentage was Oaxaca, in which
675,119 persons out of 976,005 inhabitants were classified as ind�gena. In effect, this meant that 69.17% of Oaxaca�s population had a pure indigenous identity.
Not all of "pure indigenous" population of Oaxaca, however, spoke indigenous languages. Only 482,478 individuals five years of age or more spoke thirty indigenous languages. This represented 49.43% of the population five years of age and older and 57.18% of the entire state population. [Children up to the age of four in indigenous households were not included in the tally of languages.]
Another 274,752 residents of Oaxaca described themselves as "mezclada," representing an additional 28.1% of the population. The combination of the indigenous and mezclada categories represented 949,871 individuals who had possessed some element of indigenous descent and represented 97.32% of the entire state population.
As a matter of contrast, only 13,910 persons were categorized as "blanca," while another 11,124 did not claim a designation and 1,100 were "extranjeros" (foreigners).
The Second Most Indigenous State: Puebla
The State of Puebla had the second largest "pure indigenous" population, with 560.971 (who represented 54.73% of the entire state population). In addition, 403,221 residents of Puebla were classified as mezclada, representing another 39.34% of the population. Puebla had the sixth largest number of mezclada inhabitants. Combining the pure indigenous with the mezclada element, we can estimate that 964,192 persons were of some indigenous origin, representing 94.07% of the total state population of 1,024,955.
As with Oaxaca, however, a smaller element of the population spoke native tongues. In all, 247,392 individuals five years of age and older spoke a wide range of indigenous languages, representing only 24.14% of the entire state population.
Puebla had a much higher number of blanca residents: a total of 58,032 inhabitants, who made up 5.66% of the state population.
The Third Most Indigenous State: Veracruz
Veracruz has the third largest "ind�gena pura" population with 406,638, representing 35.06% of the state population. Veracruz also had the fourth-highest number of mezclada residents: 556,472 (or 47.97%). Combining the two indigenous classifications, we observed that 963,110 persons out of a total population of 1,110,971 claimed some indigenous descent and that this group represented 86.69% of the state population.
In striking contrast, however, only 120,746 residents of Veracruz spoke indigenous languages, representing 10.87% of the state population and 12.62% of residents five years of age or more.
The Fourth Most Indigenous State: M�xico
The State of M�xico had the fourth largest ind�gena pura population, 372,703, equal to 42.13% of the state population. Together with the mestizo/mezclada population, which numbered 422,001 (47.70% of the state population), the total population with an indigenous heritage was 794,704, or 89.84% of the population.
In stark contrast, only 172,863 residents of the State of M�xico spoke indigenous languages, representing only 19.54% of the total state population.
Other states with significant numbers of ind�gena pura population are as follows:
5. Guerrero - 248,526 persons (43.84%)
6. Hidalgo � 245,704 persons (39.49%)
7. Chiapas � 200.927 persons (47.64%)
8. Jalisco � 199,728 persons (16.76%)
9. Michoac�n � 196,726 persons (20.93%)
10. Distrito Federal� 169,820 (18.75%)
11. Yucat�n � 155,155 persons (43.31%)
12. San Luis Potos� � 136,365 persons (30.60%)
13. Tlaxcala � 97,670 persons (54.70%)
Because the populations of the various states vary widely, the percentage of pure indigenous persons in a given state provide us with a different set of results. The contrast between absolute numbers and percentages of the pure indigenous population was largely contingent on the population of each state. For example, Tlaxcala actually had the third largest percentage of ind�gena pura inhabitants but, because of its small population, was in thirteenth place in terms of percentage.
And Jalisco�s largely pure indigenous population of 199,728 represented only 16.76% of its total population of 1,191,957. Jalisco, as a matter of fact, had the largest population of any state in M�xico, followed closely by Veracruz (1,159,935), Puebla (1,024,955) and the Distrito Federal (906,063).
States With the Largest "Ind�gena Mezclada Con Blanca" Population
In the 1921 census, the status "Ind�gena Mezclada con Blanca"
implied that a person was of mestizo origin. Persons classified by this identity
probably did not speak Indian languages, but still felt an attachment to their
indigenous roots and probably had indigenous facial features.. The eight Mexican
states with the largest populations of "Ind�gena Mezclada con Blanca"
were:
1. Jalisco - 903,830 (75.83%)
2. Guanajuato - 828,724 (96.33%)
3. Michoac�n - 663,391 (70.59%)
4. Veracruz - 556,472 (47.97%)
5. Distrito Federal - 496,359 (54.78%)
6. M�xico � 422,001 (47.71%)
7. Puebla � 403,221 (39.34%)
8. Sinaloa � 335,474 (98.30%)
9. Zacatecas � 326,615 (86.10%)
10. Hidalgo � 320,250 (51.47%)
In terms of percentages, the states with the largest mezclada population were Sinaloa (98.30%), Guanajuato (96.32%), Durango (89.10%), Zacatecas (86.10%), and Quer�taro (80.15%).
The State With the Largest Mezclada Population: Jalisco
As with the other classifications, the percentage of "ind�gena mezclada con blanca" in each state varied widely because of the level of assimilation and the states� overall population. For Jalisco, the large number of mestizos in the state was a reflection of Jalisco�s mestizaje over the centuries. The combination of Jalisco�s mezclada and ind�gena pura populations (903,830 and 199,728) indicated that 92.58% of Jalisco�s total population (1,103,558 out of 1,191,957 people) had an indigenous background. In addition, 87,103 residents of Jalisco claimed to be White (7.31%).
Although the inhabitants of Jalisco had a strong link to their indigenous origins, only 195 persons in the entire state spoke indigenous languages. Two languages dominated within this small group of indigenous speakers (99 Huichol speakers and 81 N�huatl speakers).
Guanajuato: The Second Largest Mezclada Population
Guanajuato was settled early in the colonial period and underwent mestizaje at an early date. 828,724 of Guanajuato�s population of 860,364 classified themselves as ind�gena mezclada con blanca, representing 96.33% of the state population. Only 25,458 persons claimed pure indigenous background (representing 2.96%) of the population and another 4,687 classified themselves as blanca. In contrast, only 220 inhabitants of Guanajuato spoke indigenous languages. [All but one of these indigenous speakers spoke the Otom� tongue.]
Sinaloa: The State with the Largest Percentage of Mezclada
In the 1921 Mexican census, 335,474 persons were classified as mezclada, representing an extraordinary 98.30% of the state population. Incredibly, a mere 3,163 people (or 0.93% of the state population) identified themselves as pura ind�gena. The number of person classified as white was smaller yet: only 644 people out of a total state population of 341,265.
Zacatecas: A State Without Indigenous Speakers
Zacatecas posed one of the most interesting cases in this analysis. With 8.54% of its inhabitants identified as "pura ind�gena" and another 86.1% classified as mestizo, 94.64% of Zacatecas� inhabitants identified with their indigenous origins. At the same time, not a single inhabitant of the state claimed to speak an indigenous language. This would lead one to speculate that in some parts of M�xico, persons who spoke Indian languages may, in fact, have denied this fact.
States With the Largest Blanca Population
The states with the largest populations of "Blanca" or White
persons were:
1. Distrito Federal - 206,514
2. Chihuahua - 145,926
3. Sonora - 115,151
4. Veracruz - 114,150
5. M�xico - 88,660
In terms of percentage, the "blanca" classification was most prominent
in these states:
1. Sonora - 41.85%
2. Chihuahua - 36.33%
3. Baja California Sur - 33.40%
4. Tabasco - 27.56%
5. District Federal - 22.79%
One of the most interesting aspects of the 1921 census is that several Mexican states contained very small numbers of Indigenous speakers but had significant populations of people who were identified as "pura ind�gena." Some examples of these states are:
Coahuila
The State of Coahuila had 44,779 individuals who were identified as "ind�gena pura," representing 11.38% of the state population. If you combined the pure indigenous and mestizo populations, you would recognize that 89.26% of Coahuila�s population had some kind of indigenous heritage. However, in the entire state of 393,480 inhabitants, only 293 persons spoke an indigenous language. [All of these indigenous speakers spoke the Kikap�o language.]
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas presented a similar issue. In 1921, 39,606 inhabitants of the state were recognized as of pure indigenous background, representing 13.80% of the population. The combined "ind�gena pura" and mestizo population was calculated at 83.16%. However, in the entire state only 237 persons spoke more than 15 indigenous languages, of which only one (Huasteca) was actually native to the State.
San Luis Potos�
San Luis Potos�, with large indigenous areas in its eastern regions, boasted a total "ind�gena pura" population of 136,365, which represented 30.6% of the state population. With a mestizo population tallied at 61.88%, the combined percentage of persons with some indigenous origins was 92.48%. However, only 1,738 inhabitants of the state claimed to speak one of the state�s six indigenous languages (Huasteco, Mayo, Mazateco, N�huatl, Otom� and Totonaco).
The Overview
The table below outlines the racial classifications of the 1921 census by percentage:
|
Racial Makeup of the Mexican Republic (1921 Census) � Copyright 2007, John P. Schmal |
||||
|
State |
Ind�gena Pura (% of Total State Population) |
Ind�gena Mezclada con Blanca (% of State Population) |
Blanca (% of State Population) |
Extranjeros sin distinci�n de razas (% of State Population) |
|
Aguascalientes |
16.70% |
66.12% |
16.77% |
0.41% |
|
Baja California |
7.72% |
72.50% |
0.35% |
19.33% |
|
Baja California Sur |
6.06% |
59.61% |
33.40% |
0.93% |
|
Campeche |
43.41% |
41.45% |
14.17% |
0.60% |
|
Coahuila |
11.38% |
77.88% |
10.13% |
0.61% |
|
Colima |
26.00% |
68.54% |
4.50% |
0.12% |
|
Chiapas |
47.64% |
36.27% |
11.82% |
4.27% |
|
Chihuahua |
12.76% |
50.09% |
36.33% |
0.82% |
|
District Federal |
18.75% |
54.78% |
22.79% |
3.26% |
|
Durango |
9.90% |
89.10% |
0.01% |
0.15% |
|
Guanajuato |
2.96% |
96.33% |
0.54% |
0.15% |
|
Guerrero |
43.84% |
54.05% |
2.07% |
0.04% |
|
Hidalgo |
39.49% |
51.47% |
8.83% |
0.21% |
|
Jalisco |
16.76% |
75.83% |
7.31% |
0.10% |
|
M�xico |
42.13% |
47.71% |
10.02% |
0.14% |
|
Michoac�n |
20.93% |
70.59% |
6.90% |
0.08% |
|
Morelos |
34.93% |
61.24% |
3.59% |
0.22% |
|
Nayarit |
18.32% |
66.04% |
5.24% |
0.24% |
|
Nuevo Le�n |
5.14% |
75.47% |
19.23% |
0.08% |
|
Oaxaca |
69.17% |
28.15% |
1.43% |
0.11% |
|
Puebla |
54.73% |
39.34% |
5.66% |
0.22% |
|
Quer�taro |
19.40% |
80.15% |
0.30% |
0.11% |
|
Quintana Roo |
13.08% |
26.90% |
9.63% |
13.64% |
|
San Luis Potos� |
30.60% |
61.88% |
5.41% |
0.24% |
|
Sinaloa |
0.93% |
98.30% |
0.19% |
0.58% |
|
Sonora |
13.78% |
40.38% |
41.85% |
2.05% |
|
Tabasco |
18.50% |
53.67% |
27.56% |
0.27% |
|
Tamaulipas |
13.80% |
69.36% |
13.54% |
2.69% |
|
Tlaxcala |
54.70% |
42.44% |
2.53% |
0.08% |
|
Veracruz |
35.06% |
47.97% |
9.84% |
0.82% |
|
Yucat�n |
43.31% |
33.83% |
21.85% |
0.91% |
|
Zacatecas |
8.54% |
86.10% |
5.26% |
0.10% |
|
The Mexican Republic*** |
29.16% |
59.33% |
9.80% |
0.71% |
|
Classifications: Ind�gena Pura (Pure Indigenous Origins) Ind�gena Mezclada con Blanca (Indigenous Mixed with White) Blanca (White) Extranjeros sin distinction de razas (Foreigners without racial distinction) One percent of the population of the Republic of Mexico chose a fifth option: "Cualquiera otra o que se ignora la raza" (persons who chose to ignore the question or "other." Source: Departamento de la Estad�stica Nacional, "Annuario de 1930" (Tacubaya, Distrito Federal, 1932). |
||||
� 2008, John P. Schmal. All rights reserved.
Sources:
Departamento de la Estad�stica Nacional, "Annuario de 1930" (Tacubaya,
D.F., Mexico, 1932), pp. 40, 48.
The 1921 census figures for each state were published in individual volumes by
state. Each volume was published by the Departamento de la Estad�stica Nacional
between 1927 and 1929 under the titles of "Resumen del Censo General de
Habitantes de 30 de Noviembre de 1921."
About the Author
John Schmal is the coauthor of "The Indigenous Roots of a Mexican-American Family" (available as item M2469 through Heritage Books at http://heritagebooks.com). Recently, he also published "The Journey to Latino Political Representation" (available as item S4114).
�
INDIGENOUS MEXICO STATISTICS: THE 2005 CONTEO
By John P. Schmal
The results of the 2005 Mexican Conteo (Count) have been published and a comparison with the 2000 Mexican Censo (Censo) indicates a decline in the overall number of Mexican citizens who speak indigenous languages. The overall number of indigenous speakers has dropped from 6,044,547 to 6,011,202 persons five years of age and older. This represented a drop in the national percentage of indigenous speakers from 7.2% to 6.7%.
It is important to point out that the criteria in this count represents people who speak indigenous languages and that the number of Mexicans who consider themselves to be indigenous � through culture, tradition, spirit, genetics and other factors � is probably much greater in some parts of the country. Additionally, any children up to the age of four living in indigenous households are not tallied as being indigenous speakers.
N�huatl remains the most widely spoken language in Mexico with 1,376,026 persons five years of age and older using that tongue. N�huatl speakers, in fact, represented 22.89% of the indigenous speakers in the entire Republic in the 20005 Conteo. Some of the other prominent languages are:
2. Maya (759,000 speakers � 12.63% of all indigenous speakers)
3. Mixtec Languages (423,216 � 7.04%)
4. Zapotec Languages (410,901 � 6.84%)
5. Tzeltal (371,730 � 6.18%)
6. Tzotzil (329,937 � 5.49%)
7. Otom� (239,850 � 3.99%)
The N�huatl, Maya, Mixtec and Zapotec languages are found in considerable numbers in many states far from their traditional homelands, in large part because of migration to the north and urban areas.
The states with the largest number of indigenous speakers are, in terms of absolute numbers and percentages, are:
1. Oaxaca (1,091,502 indigenous speakers � 35.3% of the state population)
2. Yucat�n (538,355 speakers � 33.5% of the state population)
3. Chiapas (957,255 speakers � 26.1% of the state population)
4. Quintana Roo (170,982 speakers � 19.3% of the state population)
5. Hidalgo (320,029 � 15.5% of the state population)
6. Guerrero (383,427 � 14.2% of the state population)
7. Campeche (89,084 � 13.3% of the state population)
8. Puebla (548,723 � 11.7% of the state population)
9. San Luis Potos� (234,815 � 11.1% of the state population)
10. Veracruz (605,135 � 9.5% of the state population).
With the exception of the Chiapas dialects, many of the most populous indigenous languages have declined in absolute numbers, possibly due to immigration to the United States and other countries. It is also possible that many indigenous migrants who move from Oaxaca, Puebla, Guerrero, or Campeche to large urban areas in Mexico City or the North may have children who, in the absence of a nurturing mother culture, may tend to assimilate and perhaps stop speaking their mother tongue as they socialize and work with their non-indigenous friends, associates, and neighbors.
We continue to see large numbers of Zapotec and Mixtec speakers dominating the indigenous landscape in many western and northern states, in large part because of decades of migration from Oaxaca to other parts of the country. A long distance from their traditional lands, the Mixtecs represent significant percentages of the indigenous-speaking people in several states, including Baja California (38.2% of indigenous speakers), Baja California Sur (21.5%), Distrito Federal (10.4%), Sinaloa (10.2%) and Estado de M�xico (6.8%).
Similarly, the Zapotecs make up significant portions of the indigenous-speaking populations of several states, including Baja California (9.6%), Baja California Sur (8.7%), Distrito Federal (8.4%), Colima (6.5%) and Sinaloa (5.6%). Nevertheless, both the Zapotec and Mixtec languages saw significant overall population drops between 2000 and 2005 and large-scale immigration to the United States is certainly a compelling factor in that trend.
In the states of the Yucat�n Peninsula, the Yucatec Maya dialect continues to dominate. For example, in the State of Yucat�n, there are 527,107 Maya speakers, who represent 97.9% of the total indigenous-speaking population of the state.
While many languages have declined in absolute numbers, several of the most important Mayan tongues in Chiapas actually increased between the 2000 Censo and the 2005 Conteo. The five most widely spoken languages of Chiapas have all increased in absolute numbers:
1. Tzeltal (362,658 indigenous speakers � 37.9% of the state�s indigenous population)
2. Tzotzil (320,921 indigenous speakers � 33.5%)
3. Chol (161,794 speakers � 16.9%)
4. Zoque (43,936 speakers � 4.6%)
5. Tojolabal (42,798 � 4.5%)
This increase may be related to the high visibility and sense of pride that many Chiapas Indians have begun to feel towards their indigenous heritage, and, in fact, people who did not previously speak Tzotzil or Tzeltal fluently, may be learning the language to take part in the Cultural Renaissance now occurring.
The N�huatl language continues to dominate many of the Mexican states. In Veracruz, for example, the 318,626 N�huatl speakers make up 52.7% of the State�s indigenous speakers. The other widely spoken languages in Veracruz are the Totonac (19.2%), Huasteco (8.4%), Popoluca (5.3%), and Otom� (2.8%).
The Tarahumara Indians, one of the few surviving remnants of Chihuahua�s indigenous heritage, continue to represent 77.3% of Chihuahua�s people who speak Indian languages. But indigenous speakers only represent 3.4% of the total state population five years of age and older.
In Sonora, the two surviving traditional languages still dominate the indigenous-speaking population: the Mayo number 24,470 people (47.3%) and the Yaqui number 13,552 people (14.7%). But, here again, the indigenous speakers represent only 2.5% of Sonora�s entire population five years of age and older.
Mexico�s total population increased from 97,483,412 in the 2000 Censo to 103,263,388 in the 2005 Conteo. Interestingly, women outnumber men by 51.34% by 48.66%, a telling reminder that many breadwinners may have left the country to find gainful employment elsewhere.
Below is a graphic interpretation, illustrating the contrast in the indigenous speaking populations of Mexico�s states between the 2000 Censo and the 2005 Conteo:
�
|
A COMPARISON OF MEXICO�S INDIGENOUS-SPEAKING POPULATIONS BETWEEN THE 2000 CENSO AND THE 2005 CONTEO (BY STATE) - Copyright � 2006, by John P. Schmal. |
||||
|
State |
2000 Censo � Population of Persons Five Years of Age and More Who Speak an Indigenous Language |
2000 Census � Percentage |
2005 Conteo � Population of Persons Five Years of Age and More Who Speak an Indigenous Language |
2005 Conteo � Percentage |
|
Aguascalientes |
1,244 |
0.2 |
2,713 |
0.3 |
|
Baja California |
37,685 |
1.9 |
33,604 |
1.4 |
|
Baja California,Sur |
5,353 |
1.4 |
7,095 |
1.6 |
|
Campeche |
93,765 |
15.5 |
89,084 |
13.3 |
|
Coahuila de Zaragoza |
3,032 |
0.2 |
5,842 |
0.3 |
|
Colima |
2,932 |
0.6 |
2,889 |
0.6 |
|
Chiapas |
809,592 |
24.7 |
957,255 |
26.1 |
|
Chihuahua |
84,086 |
3.2 |
93,709 |
3.4 |
|
Distrito Federal |
141,710 |
1.8 |
118,424 |
1.5 |
|
Durango |
24,934 |
2.0 |
27,792 |
2.1 |
|
Guanajuato |
10,689 |
0.3 |
10,347 |
0.2 |
|
Guerrero |
367,110 |
13.9 |
383,427 |
14.2 |
|
Hidalgo |
339,866 |
17.3 |
320,029 |
15.5 |
|
Jalisco |
39,259 |
0.7 |
42,372 |
0.7 |
|
M�xico |
361,972 |
3.3 |
312,319 |
2.6 |
|
Michoac�n de Ocampo |
121,849 |
3.5 |
113,166 |
3.3 |
|
Morelos |
30,896 |
2.3 |
24,757 |
1.8 |
|
Nayarit |
37,206 |
4.6 |
41,689 |
5.0 |
|
Nuevo Le�n |
15,446 |
0.5 |
29,538 |
0.8 |
|
Oaxaca |
1,120,312 |
37.2 |
1,091,502 |
35.3 |
|
Puebla |
565,509 |
13.1 |
548,723 |
11.7 |
|
Quer�taro Arteaga |
25,269 |
2.1 |
23,363 |
1.7 |
|
Quintana Roo |
173,592 |
23.1 |
170,982 |
19.3 |
|
San Luis Potos� |
235,253 |
11.7 |
234,815 |
11.1 |
|
Sinaloa |
49,744 |
2.2 |
30,459 |
1.3 |
|
Sonora |
55,694 |
2.9 |
51,701 |
2.5 |
|
Tabasco |
62,027 |
3.7 |
52,139 |
3.0 |
|
Tamaulipas |
17,118 |
0.7 |
20,221 |
0.8 |
|
Tlaxcala |
26,662 |
3.2 |
23,807 |
2.5 |
|
Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave |
633,372 |
10.4 |
605,135 |
9.5 |
|
Yucat�n |
549,532 |
37.4 |
538,355 |
33.5 |
|
Zacatecas |
1,837 |
0.2 |
3,949 |
0.3 |
|
Mexican Republic |
6,044,547 |
7.2 |
6,011,202 |
6.7 |
Below is a second illustration indicating the evolution of Mexico�s indigenous languages in terms of their total numbers within the Mexican Republic.
|
THE EVOLUTION OF MEXICO�S INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES FROM 1970 TO 2005 -- Copyright � 2006, by John P. Schmal. |
|||||
|
Primary Languages |
1970 |
1990 |
2000 |
2005 |
2005 - % of all Indigenous Languages Spoken |
|
N�huatl |
799,394 |
1,197,328 |
1,448,936 |
1,376,026 |
22.89% |
|
Maya |
454,675 |
713,520 |
800,291 |
759,000 |
12.63% |
|
Mixtec Languages |
233,235 |
386,874 |
446,236 |
423,216 |
7.04% |
|
Zapoteco Languages |
283,345 |
403,457 |
452,887 |
410,901 |
6.84% |
|
Tzeltal |
99,412 |
261,084 |
284,826 |
371,730 |
6.18% |
|
Tzotzil |
95,383 |
229,203 |
297,561 |
329,937 |
5.49% |
|
Otom� |
221,062 |
280,238 |
291,722 |
239,850 |
3.99% |
|
Totonaca |
124,840 |
207,876 |
240,034 |
230,930 |
3.84% |
|
Mazateco |
101,541 |
168,374 |
214,477 |
206,559 |
3.44% |
|
Chol |
73,253 |
128,240 |
161,766 |
185,299 |
3.08% |
|
Huasteco |
66,091 |
120,739 |
150,257 |
149,532 |
2.49% |
|
Chinanteca Languages |
54,145 |
109,100 |
133,374 |
125,706 |
2.09% |
|
Mixe |
54,403 |
95,264 |
118,924 |
115,824 |
1.93% |
|
Mazahua |
104,729 |
127,826 |
133,430 |
111,840 |
1.86% |
|
Pur�pecha |
60,411 |
94,835 |
121,409 |
105,556 |
1.76% |
|
Tlapaneco |
30,804 |
68,483 |
99,389 |
98,573 |
1.64% |
|
Tarahumara |
25,479 |
54,431 |
75,545 |
75,371 |
1.25% |
|
Zoque |
27,140 |
43,160 |
51,464 |
54,004 |
0.90% |
|
Amuzgo |
13,883 |
28,228 |
41,455 |
43,761 |
0.73% |
|
Tojolabal |
13,303 |
36,011 |
37,986 |
43,169 |
0.72% |
|
Chatino |
11,773 |
29,006 |
40,722 |
42,791 |
0.71% |
|
Chontal |
36,267 |
38,561 |
36,578 |
0.61% |
|
|
Popoluca |
27,818 |
31,254 |
38,477 |
36,406 |
0.61% |
|
Huichol |
6,874 |
19,363 |
30,686 |
35,724 |
0.59% |
|
Mayo |
27,848 |
37,410 |
31,513 |
32,702 |
0.54% |
|
Tepehuano |
5,617 |
18,469 |
25,544 |
31,681 |
0.53% |
|
Cora |
6,242 |
11,923 |
16,410 |
17,086 |
0.28% |
|
Huave |
7,442 |
11,955 |
14,224 |
15,993 |
0.27% |
|
Yaqui |
7,084 |
10,984 |
13,317 |
14,162 |
0.24% |
|
Cuicateco |
10,192 |
12,677 |
13,425 |
12,610 |
0.21% |
|
Other Languages |
63,997 |
308,768 |
179,699 |
278,685 |
4.64% |
|
Total Indigenous Speakers in Mexico |
3,111,415 |
5,282,347 |
6,044,547 |
6,011,202 |
100% |
Source: Instituto Nacional de Estad�stica Geograf�a e Inform�tica (INEGI). Conteos de Poblaci�n y Vivienda, 2005.
Copyright � 2008, by John P. Schmal.
�
EXTRANJEROS IN MEXICO (1895-2000)
By John P. Schmal (� 2007)
Immigration to Mexico
From the early Sixteenth Century to the end of the Nineteenth Century, Mexico saw a continuous surge of immigrants from Spain. But several other countries � most notably Portugal, Italy, Germany, France, the Philippines and China � also contributed a steady stream of immigrants to various parts of Mexico through the centuries. Immigration from North America and other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean has also been healthy over the long haul.
Extranjeros in Mexico�s 1895 Census
According to the 1895 Mexican census, the countries with the largest number of natives living in Mexico were:
The total number of extranjeros living in Mexico numbered 56,355 in 1895. In contrast, the number of people five years of age and older who spoke foreign languages amounted to only 23,916 persons. Of course, those individuals who were born in Spain and Guatemala and spoke Spanish did not speak a foreign language. Therefore the five most widely spoken foreign languages were:
During the reign of Porfirio D�az (1876-1910), foreigners were invited to Mexico to serve as skilled professionals in a number of industries, including the railroad and mining industries. This policy guaranteed a steady stream of immigrant who entered Mexico, some of whom stayed and raised families.
Extranjeros in 1900
The total number of extranjeros living in Mexico increased from 56,355 in 1895 to 67,674 in 1900. Although Spain remained the largest contributor of natives to Mexico, United States moved into second place as the country of birth for Mexican residents. The most represented countries were:
2 United States (15,242)
3 Guatemala (5,820)
4. France (3,970)
Extranjeros in 1910
In 1910, the total number of extranjeros living in Mexico almost doubled to 117,108 persons. Although the largest number of natives continued to be from the Spain, Guatemala and the United States, natives of China increased almost fourfold from 2,660 in 1900 to 13,203 in 1910. The countries most represented by extranjeros in Mexico�s 1910 census were:
In the 1910 census, 56,491 persons five years of age and older spoke some foreign language. The most widely spoken foreign language was English (with 24,480 English speakers), followed by Chinese (12,972 speakers), French (4,729), German (4,132) and Arabic (3,545).
Extranjeros in 1921
Mexico experienced a violent revolution that caused widespread death, destruction and migration from 1910 to 1920. By the time the next census was taken in 1921, more than a million Mexicans had been killed and internal migration had displaced millions more. In 1921, the number of extranjeros dropped from 117,108 in 1910 to 101,312. The countries with the largest representation were:
As a general rule, many of the foreign populations decreased during the revolution as many people fled the country to escape the turmoil. The number of persons speaking foreign languages also dropped from 56,4391 in 1910 to 47,989 in 1921. The six most widely spoken foreign languages were:
Extranjeros in 1930
The number of extranjeros in Mexico increased from 101,312 in 1921 to 159,844 in 1930. The most represented countries were:
Arabic countries saw significant increases with several native populations well represented in the Mexican census: Saudi Arabia (4,435 natives), Lebanon (3,963) and Syria (5,159). However, speakers of foreign languages declined significantly from 47,989 to 8,223. The three most widely spoken languages were: English (5,134 speakers), Chinese (1,008) and German (503). The decline in foreign languages may have been due to a reluctance of individuals to admit that they spoke foreign languages, as well as assimilation of second-generation of Mexicans.
Extranjeros in 1940
The total number of extranjeros in Mexico dropped dramatically from 159,844 in 1930 to 67,548 in 1940. As the older generation of immigrants died out, the Mexican-born children of the foreign-born individuals took their place as natives of Mexico, not a foreign country. The five countries with the largest representation in Mexico during this census year were:
Natives of Arab countries continued to make up a significant portion of the foreign natives: Lebanon (2,454 natives), Saudi Arabia (1,070) and Syria (1,041). Significant numbers of natives from the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union were also represented among the extranjeros.
During this census, the number of people who spoke foreign languages also dropped from 8,223 in 1930 to 6,465 in 1940. German was the most widely spoken foreign language (with 5,111 speakers), followed by English (1,159 speakers). It is likely that many people tallied in the census simply did not admit that they spoke foreign languages. It is also possible that many of the 14,923 natives from Canada and the U.S. may actually have been the children of Mexican immigrants who returned to Mexico with their children during the repatriation of the 1930�s and in the aftermath of a devastating world-wide economic depression.
Extranjeros in 1950
Between 1940 and 1950, the number of foreign-born residents in Mexico increased significantly from 67,548 to 106,015. The largest number of immigrants that had entered Mexico during the last decade came from the United States and Spain. For the first time, United States had the largest representation. The most widely represented countries were:
Other countries represented in significant numbers were France, Germany, Italy, Cuba, Japan, Lebanon and Poland. Speakers of foreign languages also increased dramatically from 6,465 in 1940 to 100,830 in 1950. The five most widely spoken languages correlated to some extent with the influx of natives:
Although the influx of English speakers correlated with the increase of immigrants from Canada, the United Kingdom and the U.S., the number of German speakers (9,383) did not seem to match the number of German-born Mexicans (1,811), indicating possibly that second-generation German-Mexicans may have retained their German language skills. There seemed to be a similar phenomenon with French (5,975 French speakers compared to 1,088 French natives in Mexico). Chinese, on the other hand, seemed to correlate well between the two classifications.
Extranjeros in 1960
Between 1950 and 1960, the number of foreign-born in Mexico more than doubled from 106,015 to 223,468. The United States had the largest number of natives, followed at a great distance by Spain, Guatemala and Germany, as indicated below:
Between 1950 and 1960, the number of persons speaking foreign languages also increased from 100,830 to 147,827. English speakers were the largest group (103,154), followed by French, German, Arabic, Japanese and Polish. Spanish-speakers from Spain, Guatemala and other Latin American countries, of course, would not be included as speakers of foreign languages and, as such, did not figure in the calculations for speakers of foreign languages.
Between 1960 and 1970, the number of foreign-born in Mexico dropped for the first time from 223,468 to 192,208. The number of U.S.-born natives barely decreased from 97,902 to 97,248 while the number of Spanish immigrants dropped significantly from 49,637 to 31,038. Below is a tally of the extranjeros in Mexico at the time of the 1970 census:
One of the most notable increases took place among natives from a variety of Latin American countries. Immigration from 13 Latin American countries accounted for 24,561 foreign-born individuals in the 1970 census. Although a variety of reasons for this immigration may have instigated this enhanced movement, the flight of refuges from Castro�s Cuba probably played a role in placing Cuban-born nationals in fifth place.
Extranjeros in 1980
Between 1970 and 1980, the number of foreign-born persons in Mexico increased from 192,208 to 268,900. Once again, natives from the United States made up the largest segment with 157,080 persons, followed by Spain (32,240). However, natives from 13 Latin American countries totaled 33,981 and made up 12.6% of all the foreign-born residents. The countries most represented by the extranjeros in the 1980 census were:
Extranjeros in 2000
At the time of the 2000 census, 492,617 extranjeros lived in Mexico. A total of 343,591 extranjeros were born in the United States, representing 69.75% of the entire immigrant population. The countries most represented by the extranjeros in the 2000 census were:
1. United States (343,591 natives)
2. Guatemala (23,957)
3. Spain (21,024)
4. Cuba (6,647)
5. Argentina (6,465)
6. Colombia (6,215)
Immigrants from both the United States and the rest of the Americas constituted 87.5% of all extranjeros living in Mexico in 2000. However, Canada, France and Germany also continued to contribute several thousand of their natives to Mexico�s resident population.
If current trends continue in the Twenty-First Century, it is likely that immigration from both the United States and Latin America will continue to constitute the largest number of extranjeros residing in Mexico.
� 2008, John P. Schmal. All rights reserved.
Sources:
Departamento de la Estad�stica Nacional, "Annuario de 1930" (Tacubaya, D.F., Mexico, 1932),
Secretaria de la Economia Nacional, Direccion General de Estadistica, "Annuario Estadistico de los Estados Unidos Mexicano" (1938-1972)
Instituto Nacional de Estad�stica Geograf�a e Inform�tica (INEGI), Censo de Poblacion y Vivienda de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos" (1980-2000).
First published at: http://www.somosprimos.com/sp2007/spdec07/spdec07.htm
Mexico
and Its Religions
By
John P. Schmal
From
the earliest of times, religion has been an important element in the life of
the Mexican people. The pre-Hispanic indigenous inhabitants of
Many
of the Mexican Indians adapted rather quickly to Catholicism but their
conversion was made easier as they were able to incorporate elements of their
old cultures and superstitions. This fusion of Catholicism with some elements
of the original traditions lead to what some persons call Folk
Catholicism, which provided many indigenous people with a smoother
transition to Christianity. This �Folk Catholicism� is practiced in some
parts of
As
the Nineteenth Century progressed,
Starting
in the 1830s, the Conservative Party, advocating the status quo, came into
direct conflict with the Liberal Party, which essentially sought to reduce the
power of the established order � the large landowners and Catholic Church.
Eventually, the Liberals gained control of the Federal Government and enacted
the Constitution of 1857, effectively abolishing many of the Church�s
special privileges. In 1878, schools were secularized and during the next
decade, religious institutions were stripped of their legal status. Finally,
in 1898,
In
spite of these seemingly anti-Catholic government measures enacted over a
period of several decades, the vast majority of the Mexican people remained
staunchly Roman Catholic. By the time of the 1895 census, at least 9,580
Catholic churches or temples existed throughout the land, in contrast to only
189 Protestant churches. The states containing the most Catholic Churches
were:
The
1900 Census
Catholicism
in
In
the 1900 census, twenty-three Mexican states boasted populations of 99% or
more Catholics. In fact, three states spread across different parts of
It
is believed that as many as one in eight Mexicans � almost two million
people � perished in the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). The 1921 census
count reflects this decrease, as the population of
The
Mexican Revolution represented a crisis of major proportions for all elements
of Mexican society, including the Catholic Church. One of the major
consequences of the Mexican Revolution was the Constitution of 1917. The
articles of this constitution deprived the Catholic Church of its traditional
privileged position in Mexican society by secularizing all primary education
and requiring the registration of all clergymen with the government (to
regulate their �professional conduct�).
Article 24, which forbade public worship outside the confines of the church,
had antagonized many Mexican citizens. In 1926, President Plutarco Elias
Calles, in implementing the articles of the Constitution, signed the so-called
Intolerable
Acts. The implementation of these strongly anti-clerical laws
antagonized many Catholics and laid the foundation of the so-called Cristero
Religious War.
During
the period from 1926 to 1932, the government of Jalisco changed hands ten
times. At one point, some 25,000 rebels had been mobilized to resist the
articles of the Constitution. The bloody conflict was formally ended in June
1929. However, outbreaks of violence continued into the 1930s. Over time, the
uneasy relationship between the Church and state relaxed considerably and,
while the oppressive laws originally signed into law by Calles remained on the
books, little effort was made to enforce them.
The
1930 Census
By
the time of the 1930 census, the Cristero Rebellion had ended and Mexican
Catholicism -while greatly reduced in economic power and influence - was still
the religious creed of 16,179,667 individuals, who made up 97.7% of the
Mexican population. The population of the Protestants, by now, had increased
significantly, amounting to 130,322 individuals, equivalent to about 0.7% of
the Mexican population. The number of Buddhists had increased to 6,743, and
the number of Jewish believers reached 9,072 persons.
�
In
the 1930 census, Quer�taro had the largest percentage of Catholics (99.54%),
followed by Guanajuato (99.25%) and
�
The
1950 Census
The 1950 Mexican census counted 25,791,071 persons in all, of which 25,329,498 were Catholics, representing 98.21% of the total population. In the same census, the Protestant population had climbed to 330,111, now making up 1.28% of the population. The Jewish population also reached 17,574 persons.
�
In
1950, the Catholic states with the largest percentage of Catholics were: Quer�taro
(99.77%), Baja California Sur (99.69%), Guanajuato (99.67%), and Colima
(99.53%). The
�
The
2000 Census
In
the 2000 census, the
�
It
is noteworthy that significant numbers of people in the southern states had
become Protestant in recent decades. The states with the largest percentages
of Protestants were:
The Government of Mexico has kept statistics on religion in every census since
1895. All such statistics - including those cited in this work - are available
in various publications of INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estad�stica
Geograf�a e Inform�tica) from the last century.
Sources:
Departamento de la Estad�stica Nacional, Annuario de 1930 (Tacubaya,
D.F., M�xico, 1932).
Secretar�a de Economia, Estad�sticas Sociales del Porfiriato, 1877-1910
(M�xico, 1956).
INEGI, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, XII Censo General de Poblaci�n y Vivienda,
2000. Tabulados B�sicos y por Entidad Federativa. Bases de Datos y Tabulados
de la Muestra Censal.
Carlos Garma, �Religious Affiliation in Indian
�
�
�
�INDIGENOUS
ROOTS IN MEXICO
Tracing Your Indigenous Roots in M�xico
By John P. Schmal
Because I volunteer as a Mexican genealogical consultant at the Los Angeles Family History Center a few days out of each month, many people have asked me for assistance in tracing their indigenous roots in M�xico. For three hundred years, M�xico was blessed with an exceptional record-keeping system. For the most part, Spanish padres in the small Mexican parishes were very diligent in recording the lives of their parishioners.� In many parts of M�xico, expedientes de bautismos, matrimonios y defunciones provide family history researchers with interesting details about the lives and origins of their ancestors that cannot be found in most other countries.
It is possible for people to trace their indigenous roots in M�xico, but it may involve a little bit of work and creative thinking.� Depending upon which state your family came from, you may have great success or you may have very limited success.� Your success depends upon several inter-related factors.
Racial classifications
Up until 1821, most Spanish priests recorded the racial classifications of the persons they baptized and married.� The Spanish racial order included a large variety of categories that included espa�ol (White), mestiso, mulato, indio, coyote and lobo.� Although this method of categorization was, in our present-day eyes, a very racist and degrading system, it does offer the researcher and family historian some insight into their own ethnic makeup. After 1821, the racial classifications were made illegal.
Assimilation and Mestizaje
If a person is trying to determine the name of the Indian tribe from which they descend, they may be disappointed.� The assimilation and mestizaje of the Mexican people started early in the Sixteenth Century and continued at various levels for the next three hundred years of colonial M�xico.� In many parts of M�xico, Indians lost their tribal identity early on. And intermarriage among various indigenous groups was common, thus obscuring one�s descent from a particular ethnic group.
When the Spaniards arrived in some areas, a social transformation took place. The Spaniards, with their superior military tactics, easily overwhelmed the tribes that resisted them. The loss of life from disease or war caused a social chaos among some indigenous groups. But in some areas, the indigenous peoples accepted the suzerainty of the Spaniards and a peaceful process of assimilation resulted.
The processes that took place differed from one region to another, but the effect was the same for the majority of M�xico�s native peoples.� The existing social structures disintegrated and blended into more dominant Indian groups or assimilated into the central Hispanic culture. The pre-Hispanic cultural link that had been handed down from parents to their children was severed. A new religion, Christianity, replaced the old religions. And two languages - Spanish and N�huatl - became the primary languages of the subdued tribes, who essentially evolved into what we now know as the Mexican people.
Because converted Indians were now God-fearing Christians, they no longer felt pride in or reverence for their old cultures. So, after being Christianized and Hispanicized, many indigenous people assumed Christian given names and Spanish surnames.
To help with the social and religious transformation, the Spanish authorities brought peaceful sedentary Christianized Indians from other parts of M�xico into the region. These so-called "civilized" Indians were given the task of helping their Indian brethren to adapt to the new Christian way of life under Spanish tutelage. These Indian groups - the Tlaxcalans, the Mexica, Otom�, and the Pur�pecha, among others - had all undergone the same experience several decades earlier.
The result of this social and cultural transformation is that many people probably are descended from many kinds of Indian tribal groups.� A person from Sain Alto in Zacatecas, for example, may be descended from the Zacatecos Indians who were indigenous to the area, but may also be descended from Otom�, Tlaxcalan and Mexica Indians who settled in the area during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.
The Generic Classification "Indio / India"
Because of the "lost identity" of so many indigenous people, most parish priests employed the generic terms "indio" or "india" to describe the persons being baptized or getting married in their parish books.� The following excerpt from a 1773 document in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco � translated into English � describes the marriage of two Indians:
"In the Parish of Lagos on the 10th of July 1773, having read the marriage banns in solemn Mass on three holy days, on the 13th, 20th, and 24th of June, as required by the Holy Council of Trent, I, Father Miguel D�as asked for the consent of JOSE DIONICIO DELGADO, Indian, originally from and a resident of this parish in the post of Quarenta, legitimate son of Leon Delgado and Josefa Ramires, and RITA QUITERIA DE LARA, Indian, originally from and a resident of this parish in Sabinda, legitimate daughter of Carlos Antonio de Lara, and of Maria Valades, and having expressed mutual consent, I married them..."
Note that the Jos� Dionicio Delgado and his bride Rita Quiteria de Lara are both called Indians, without reference to a specific tribe. This was a widespread practice through many parts of M�xico, where the Indians simply assumed or were given surnames.� It is worth noting that surnames such as de la Cruz and de los Reyes were frequently given to Indian peasants by their parish priests.�
There is no better example of the generic use of "indio" than the baptism of the famous son of Oaxaca: Benito Ju�rez:
"In the Parish Church of Santo Tomas Ixtlan, on the 22nd of March of the year of 1806, I, Father Mariano Cortabarria, assisted by Vicar Antonio Puche, baptized solemnly BENITO PABLO, son of Marcelino Ju�rez and Brigida Garcia, Indians of the village of San Pablo Guelatao, belonging to this main district; his paternal grandparents are Pedro Ju�rez and Justa Lopez; the maternal grandparents: Pablo Garcia and Maria Garcia; the godmother was Apolonia Garcia, an Indian and the wife of Francisco Garcia, and whom I advised of her obligation and spiritual parentage, and in witness thereof we signed the present act." [Source: Pere Foix, Ju�rez (M�xico, D.F.: Editorial Trillas, 1949), p. 23.]
We know that Benito Ju�rez was a Zapotec Indian, but because he was born into a Christian Mexican family, his parents were simply given the generic classification of "indios" in the church recording of his baptism.
Ethnic Classifications
In some states, such as Sonora, Chihuahua, or Coahuila, church records occasionally reference a specific kind of Indian tribe.� In Ciudad de Chihuahua, marriages between "indios de Tarahumara" and "indios de Yaqui" are commonly found in Eighteenth Century records. Such marriages took place because Yaqui laborers from Sonora and Tarahumaras from southern Chihuahua came in significant numbers to the ciudad looking for employment. As an example, the following marriage took place in 1751:
"On the 12st of May of 1751, Father Jos� Ruis de Mexa, having resided over everything that is right, and finding no impediments to marriage resulting, married in the face of the church, BALTHASAR, a Yaqui Indian from the Pueblo of Saguaripa, with MARIA ROSALIA of the Pueblo of Torimp�"
As you can see by this document, the two people being married do not have surnames.� Eventually, all Mexicans would adopt surnames, but in the 1600s and 1700s, some native inhabitants lacked surnames.� This poses a major stumbling block to researching indigenous roots.
Useful Tools
However, some tools are available to assist researchers in analyzing ancestral records. The International Genealogical Index (IGI) for M�xico contains almost 30 million extracts for M�xico.� The IGI and other associate databases can be accessed at the following website:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp
Indigenous Identity
Regardless of the amount of mestizaje and cultural assimilation that may have taken place since the Sixteenth Century, the indigenous identity of the Mexican people was preserved well into the Twentieth Century.� In the 1921 census, 4,179,449 persons claimed to be "ind�gena pura."� These pure indigenous individuals represented 29.16% of the Mexican Republic�s total population.� Even more people, however, recognized the duality of their ethnic identity. In the same census, 8,504,561 Mexican citizens classified themselves as "ind�gena mezclada con blanca," representing 59.33% of the nation�s population.� The population who acknowledged that they were "blanca," amounted to only 9.8% of the population.
Expectations in Research
Tracing indigenous roots in M�xico can be a rewarding and exciting experience, but the most important factor in tracing your family tree is to accept whatever results you find.� When a person has fixed expectations, they are likely to be disappointed.� In my own research over the last 16 years, I have found that every Mexican family has a blend of both Spanish and Indian roots.
Copyright
� 2008 by John P. Schmal. All rights under applicable law are hereby reserved.Primary Sources: John P. Schmal and Donna S. Morales, "Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico" (Heritage Books: 2003).
Various films of the Family History Library. Catalog Website:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp�
�
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�
ZACATECAS HISTORY AND RESEARCH�The
History of Zacatecas
The Indigenous People of Zacatecas
The Mexicanization of the Zacatecas Indians
Genealogical Research in Zacatecas
Indigenous Roots: Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Jalisco� (the Chichimeca
Story)
�
The state of Zacatecas, located in the north-central portion of the Mexican Republic, is a land rich in cultural, religious, and historical significance. With a total of 75,040 square kilometers, Zacatecas is Mexico's eighth largest state and occupies 3.383% of the total surface of the country. Politically, the state is divided into fifty-six municipios and has a total of 5,064 localities, 86% of which correspond to the old haciendas.
With a population of 1,441,734 inhabitants, Zacatecas depends upon
cattle-raising, agriculture, mining, communications, food processing, tourism,
and transportation for its livelihood. Although much of Zacatecas is desert, the
primary economic driver of the state is agriculture. Zacatecas is Mexico's
foremost producer of beans, chili peppers and cactus leaves, and holds second
place in guava production, third in grapes, and fifth in peaches.
In the middle of the Sixteenth Century, Zacatecas was merely one part of a
larger area that the Spaniards referred to as La Gran Chichimeca (which
also included Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Nayarit and Guanajuato). This area, which
was inhabited by several indigenous tribes, had never been conquered by the
Aztec Indians of the south. The Aztecs, in fact, had collectively referred to
these nomadic Indians as the Chichimecas (a derogatory term meaning "the
sons of dogs"). The four primary tribes who inherited the area of
present-day Zacatecas were the Zacatecos, Cazcanes, Guachichiles, and the
Tepehuanes.
After the conquest of southern Mexico in 1521, Hern�n Cort�s sent several
expeditions north to explore La Gran Chichimeca. Juan Alvarez Chico and Alonso
de Avalos each led expeditions northward into the land we now call Zacatecas. By
this time, the Aztec and Tlaxcalan nations had aligned themselves with the
Spaniards and most explorations were undertaken jointly with Spanish soldiers
and Indian warriors. These expeditions went north in the hopes of developing
trade relations with the northern tribes and finding mineral wealth. Each
expedition was accompanied by missionaries who carried Christianity and the Word
of God to native peoples.
However, in 1529, Nu�o de Guzm�n, leading a force of 500 Spaniards and 10,000
Indian allies from the south of Mexico, marched through Michoac�n, Nayarit,
Jalisco, Durango, Sinaloa, and Zacatecas. Although these lands had already been
claimed by Avalos and other explorers, Guzm�n ignored prior rights of discovery
by provoking the natives to revolt so that he might subdue them. Guzm�n's
campaign led to the killing, torture, and enslavement of thousands of Indians.
However, reports of Guzm�n's brutal treatment of the indigenous people got the
attention of the authorities in Mexico City. Eventually, he was arrested and put
on trial. Although Guzm�n was returned to Spain where he died in poverty and
disgrace, his reign of terror had long-lasting repercussions in Zacatecas, which
now became a part of the Spanish colony of Nueva Galicia.
In February 1540, Francisco V�squez de Coronado set out in search of the Seven
Cities of Cibola. However, the departure of Coronado's expedition had left the
small Spanish settlements in Nueva Galicia seriously undermanned. Still reeling
from the cruelty of Guzm�n, the Indian population began a fierce rebellion
against the Spanish authorities and their Indian allies from the south. This
revolt, referred to as the Mixt�n Rebellion, started in the Spring of 1540 and
lasted until December 1541. Eventually, the Spanish forces were able to regain
their advantage and suppress the revolt.
In 1546, a Basque noble, Juan de Tolosa, was the first European to find silver
in Zacatecas when a small group of Indians living near the present-day city of
Zacatecas brought him several pieces of ore as a gift. In the same year, the
small mining settlement of Zacatecas, located 8,148 feet above sea level, was
founded. In the next few years, the dream of quick wealth brought a multitude of
prospectors, entrepreneurs, and laborers streaming into Zacatecas. Rich
mineral-bearing deposits would also be discovered farther north in San Mart�n
(1556), Chalchihuites (1556), Avino (1558), Sombrerete (1558), Fresnillo (1566),
Mazapil (1568), and Nieves (1574).
Unfortunately, the stampede of Spanish settlers and Indian laborers from
southern Mexico had ignored the fact that several indigenous tribes regarded
this land as an inheritance from their ancestors. As the mining camps in
Zacatecas increased in number, a long stretch of unsettled and unexplored
territory surrounded the merchant routes that led out of Zacatecas to Mexico
City. In 1550, the Chichimeca War began when the Zacatecos and Guachichile
Indians began to attack travelers and merchants along these "silver
roads."
The definitive source of information relating to the Chichimeca Indians and the
Chichimeca War is Philip Wayne Powell's Soldiers, Indians, and Silver: North
America's First Frontier War. For several decades, the Zacatecos and Guachichile
Indians waged a fierce guerrilla war, staging attacks on both mining towns and
the small caravans entering the war zone. However, in 1585, Alonso Manrique de
Zu�iga, the Marqu�s de Villamanrique, recently appointed as the Viceroy of
Mexico, decided to investigate Spanish policies in the war zone.
The Viceroy learned that some Spanish soldiers had begun raiding Indian
settlements for the purpose of enslavement. Infuriated by this practice, he
prohibited further enslavement of all captured Indians and freed or placed under
religious care those who had already been captured. Soon, he launched a
full-scale peace offensive and opened up negotiations with the principal
Chichimeca leaders. In trade for peace, Villamanrique offered food, clothing,
lands, and agricultural implements. This policy of "peace by purchase"
worked and by the end of the Sixteenth Century, the Chichimeca War had ended.
In the meantime, Catholic missionaries had began a vigorous campaign to win the
hearts and souls of the native people of Zacatecas. By 1596, fourteen
monasteries dotted the present-day area of Zacatecas. The peace offensive and
missionary efforts were so successful that within a few years, the Zacatecos and
Guachichile Indians had settled down to peaceful living within the small
settlements that now dotted the Zacatecas landscape. Working in the fields and
mines alongside the Aztec, Tlaxcalan, Otom�e and Tarascan Indians who had also
settled in Zacatecas, the Chichimeca Indians were very rapidly assimilated and,
as Mr. Powell writes, "the Sixteenth-century land of war thus became fully
Mexican in its mixture."
For the next two centuries, the prosperity of Zacatecas corresponded with the
vagaries of its silver industry. A period of great prosperity from 1690 to 1752
was followed by a period of economic depression in which the value of silver
dropped. However, in 1768, the silver industry rallied and the next period of
expansion lasted until 1810. This period of prosperity led to a significant
increase in the population of the city of Zacatecas from 15,000 in 1777 to
33,000 in 1803. A census tally in the latter year also revealed the ethnic
composition of the city: 42% Spanish and mestizo extraction; 27% Indian; and 31%
Black and mulato. A mestizo is a person of mixed Spanish and Indian heritage,
while a mulato is a person of mixed Spanish and African ancestry.
In September 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo raised the standard of revolt in nearby
Guanajuato. For several months, Father Hidalgo's rebel forces occupied Zacatecas
and other areas of Mexico. However, eventually Royalist forces routed the
insurgents and captured Father Hidalgo, who was executed on July 31, 1811 by a
firing squad. The war for independence continued for ten more years before the
Spanish Empire was finally forced to give up its prized colony at the Treaty of
Cordoba on August 24, 1821. Two years later, on July 12, 1823, Zacatecas
declared itself an independent state within the Mexican Republic. In the years
to follow, many of the Mexican states, including Zacatecas, would seek
provincial self-government and political autonomy from Mexico City. However, the
self-determination that Zacatecas sought for itself came into direct conflict
with the Federal government.
In the early years of the independent republic, two factions dominated Mexican
politics. The Conservatives, backed by the large landowners, the Catholic Church
and the federal army, favored the old system that had dominated colonial Mexico
for three centuries. The Liberals, however, challenged the old order. In 1832,
Federal forces under President Anastacio Bustamante, representing Conservative
interests, defeated rebellious Zacatecas forces under the command of General
Esteban Moctezuma in the Battle of Gallinero.
Three years later, Zacatecas once again revolted against the national
government. On May 11, 1835, the Zacatecas militia, under the command of
Francisco Garc�a, was defeated at the Battle of Guadalupe by the Federal forces
of General Santa Anna. Soon after this victory, Santa Anna's forces ransacked
the city of Zacatecas and the rich silver mines at Fresnillo. In addition to
seizing large quantities of Zacatecan silver, Santa Anna punished Zacatecas by
separating Aguascalientes from Zacatecas and making it into an independent
territory. Aguascalientes would achieve the status of state in 1857. The loss of
Aguascalientes and its rich agricultural terrain would be a severe blow to the
economy and the spirit of Zacatecas.
The War of the Reform, lasting from 1858 to 1861, pitted the Conservatives
against the Liberals one more time. Once again, Zacatecas became a battleground
and its capital was occupied alternatively by both sides. Finally, in 1859, the
Liberal leader Jesus Gonzalez Ortega seized control of the government in
Zacatecas. However, the Catholic church, which strongly endorsed Conservative
ideals, found itself in direct opposition with the state government. When, on
June 16, 1859, Governor Gonz�lez Ortega decreed a penal law against the
Conservative elements in Zacatecas, causing many Catholic priests to flee the
state.
The French invasion of Mexico in 1861 was just another extension of the conflict
between the Conservatives and Liberals. Invited by the Conservative faction to
invade Mexico, the French forces, against great resistance, were able to make
their way to Mexico City and occupy the capital. In 1864, the French forces
occupied Zacatecas as well. However, the occupation of Zacatecas lasted only two
years and by 1867, the French were expelled from all of Mexico.
In the 1880s, a transportation revolution brought the railroad to Zacatecas. By
the end of the decade, in fact, Zacatecas was linked by rail with several
northern cities, including Ciudad Juarez. The Mexican Central Railway, which ran
from Mexico City through Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, and Chihuahua, became a
major catalyst for the massive immigration from Zacatecas to the United States
during the Twentieth Century. At the same time, the silver industry, which had
declined dramatically during and after the Independence War, started to rebound.
By 1877-1878, silver alone accounted for 60 percent of the value of all Mexican
exports.
During the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), Zacatecas, with its central location
in the Republic, was unable to escape the devastation of war. In June 1914, the
City of Zacatecas was the center of national attention when the city was taken
by Pancho Villa and his Dorados in the famous battle known as La Toma de
Zacatecas (The Taking of Zacatecas). The City of Zacatecas, now a town of
30,000, witnessed the largest and bloodiest battle that took place in the
fighting against General Victoriano Huerta. When the battle ended, some 7,000
soldiers lay dead. In addition, 5,000 combatants were wounded and a large number
of civilians were injured or killed.
Today, Zacatecas has more than fifteen mining districts which yield silver,
lead, zinc, gold, phosphorite, wollastonite, fluorite, and barium. The Zacatecas
region hosts the Fresnillo and Zacatecas silver mines which combined have
produced over 1.5 billion ounces of silver to date. As a matter of fact, thanks
to Zacatecas, even today Mexico is the largest producer of silver in the world,
contributing 17% of the world's total output.
Copyright � 2008 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
Sources:
THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF
ZACATECAS
By John P. Schmal
Millions of Americans today look to the Mexican state of Zacatecas as their
ancestral homeland. But it is very difficult to locate historical information on
Zacatecas in the English language media. As a result, many Zacatecanos
know little or nothing about the region in which their ancestors lived for
thousands of years.
If you look at a present-day linguistic map of Mexico, you will find that no
indigenous languages are spoken in the state today. But, all obvious evidence to
the contrary, Zacatecas was indeed occupied by several Indian groups over the
last two millennia. And these indigenous natives, when confronted by the
Europeans and their Indian allies from southern Mexico did not go quietly into
the night. Instead, for the better part of the Sixteenth Century they waged a
fierce guerrilla war against the intruders who had ventured onto their native
lands.
One of the earliest encounters that the Zacatecas Indians had with the Europeans
took place in 1530 when Juan de O�ate, a lieutenant of the conquistador Nu�o
de Guzm�n, began construction of a small town near the site of present-day
Nochistl�n in southern Zacatecas. O�ate called this small village La Villa
de Esp�ritu Santo de Guadalajara in honor of the Spanish city where Guzm�n
had been born.
However, from the beginning, the small settlement had come under Indian attack
and in 1531, the Indians of nearby Teul massacred the local Spanish garrison as
well as the reinforcements dispatched to subdue them. Recognizing that the
neighborhood was not very receptive to its Spanish neighbors, Guzm�n, in 1533,
decided to move Guadalajara to another site, closer to the center of the
province. The City of Guadalajara - today the second largest urban center of
Mexico - would be founded at its present location farther south in 1542.
But the indigenous history of Zacatecas stretches so far into the past that we
are unable to say exactly when people settled the area. Even today, in many
parts of Zacatecas, a hundred or more ancient ruins in the state give testimony
to an ancient civilization that flourished in western Zacatecas along the
eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental between about 200 and 1250 A.D.
The largest pre-Columbian settlement in Zacatecas can be found in southwestern
Zacatecas. In 1535, when the Spaniards discovered La Quemada, they
commented on its wide streets and "imposing appearance." The massive
ruins at this fortified ceremonial site consist of extensive terraces and broad
stone causeways, as well as gigantic pillars, 18 feet in height and 17 feet in
circumference. First occupied between about 200 and 300 A.D., La Quemada's
population probably peaked after 500 A.D.
Eighteenth Century historians conjectured that this might have been the
legendary Chicomostoc, the place where the Aztecs stayed nine years during their
extended journey from Aztl�n to Tenochtitl�n (the site of present day Mexico
City). Other interpretations of La Quemada have speculated that it may have been
an enclave of Teotihuacan culture, a Toltec market site, or a Tarascan fort.
Between 500 and 700 A.D., it is believed that La Quemada was a trade center for
the collection and redistribution of raw materials (such as salt, minerals and
shells). After 850 A.D., however, La Quemada went into decline, and by 900, the
site was abandoned completely.
The archaeological site of Alta Vista, at Chalchihuites, is located 137 miles to
the northwest of the City of Zacatecas and 102 miles southeast of the City of
Durango. Located to the west of Sombrerete in the northwestern corner of the
state, it is believed that the site was a cultural oasis that was occupied more
or less continuously from 100 A.D. to 1400 A.D.
The archaeologist Manuel Gamio referred to Chalchihuites as a "culture of
transition" between the Mesoamerican civilizations and the so-called
Chichimeca hunters/gatherers who lived in the arid plateau of central Mexico.
Chalchihuites and Le Quemada were both outposts of Mesoamerican settlement in an
ecological and cultural frontier area. However, in this transition zone,
climatic changes caused continual shifts in the available resource base,
discouraging most attempts at creating permanent settlements.
When the Spaniards started exploring north central Mexico in the 1520s, they
encountered several nomadic tribes occupying the area we now call Zacatecas. The
Aztecs had collectively referred to these Indians with the all-encompassing
term, Chichimecas. The primary Chichimeca groups that occupied the present-day
area of Zacatecas were the Zacatecos, Cazcanes, and Guachichiles.
Although the Aztecs employed the term Chichimeca frequently, they acknowledged
that they themselves were the descendants of Chichimeca Indians. Mr. Alfredo
Moreno Gonz�lez, in his book Santa Maria de Los Lagos, explains that the word
Chichimeca has been subject to various interpretations over the years. Some of
these suggestions included "linaje de perros" (of dog lineage), "perros
altaneros" (arrogant dogs), or "chupadores de sangre"
(blood-suckers). With time, however, the Aztecs and other Indians came to fear
and respect the Chichimeca Indians as brave and courageous defenders of their
ancestral homelands.
In December 1529, Nu�o de Guzm�n, left Mexico City at the head of a force of
five hundred Spaniards and 10,000 Indian soldiers. According to J. Lloyd Mecham,
the author of Francisco de Ibarra and Nueva Vizcaya, "Guzm�n was an
able and even brilliant lawyer, a man of great energy and firmness, but
insatiably ambitious, aggressive, wily, and cruel." In a rapid and brutal
campaign lasting from February to June, 1530, Guzm�n traveled through
Michoac�n, Jalisco, and southern Zacatecas. The historian Peter Gerhard writes
that "Guzm�n's strategy throughout was to terrorize the natives with often
unprovoked killing, torture, and enslavement. The army left a path of corpses
and destroyed houses and crops, impressing surviving males into service and
leaving women and children to starve."
Reports of Guzm�n's brutal treatment of the indigenous people got the attention
of the authorities in Mexico City. In 1536, he was arrested, imprisoned and put
on trial. Two years later, his trial was removed to Spain, where he would die in
poverty and disgrace. But the actions of this man would stir up hatred and
resentment that would haunt the Spaniards for the rest of the Sixteenth Century.
In the meantime, the present-day areas of Zacatecas, Jalisco, and Aguascalientes
were all lumped together as part of the Spanish administrative province, Nueva
Galicia.
The historian Philip Wayne Powell has written several books that dealt with the
Chichimeca Indians and the Spanish encounter with these Indians. In his
publication Soldiers Indians and Silver: North America's First Frontier War,
Mr. Powell noted that "Hern�n Cort�s, the Conqueror, defeated the Aztecs
in a two-year campaign" but that his "stunning success created an
illusion of European superiority over the Indian as a warrior." Continuing
with this line of thought, Mr. Powell observed that "this lightning-quick
subjugation of such massive and complex peoples as the Tlaxcalan, Aztec, and
Tarascan, proved to be but prelude to a far longer military struggle against the
peculiar and terrifying prowess of Indian America's more primitive
warriors."
In the Spring of 1540, the Indian population of western Mexico began a fierce
rebellion against the Spanish rule. The indigenous tribes living along today's
Three-Fingers border region between Jalisco and Zacatecas led the way in
fomenting the insurrection. In the hills near Teul and Nochistl�n, the Indians
attacked Spanish settlers and soldiers and destroyed churches.
By April of 1541, the Cazcanes of southern Zacatecas and northern Jalisco were
waging a full-scale revolt against all symbols of Spanish rule. Pedro de
Alvarado, the conqueror of Guatemala, hastened to Guadalajara in June 1541 with
a force of 400 men. Refusing to await reinforcements, Alvarado lead a direct
attack against the Juchipila Indians near Nochistl�n. On June 24, several
thousand Indians attacked the Spaniards with such ferocity that they were forced
to retreat with heavy losses. In this retreat, Alvarado was crushed when he fell
under a horse. He died in Guadalajara from his injuries on July 4, 1541.
It took the better part of two years to contain the Mixt�n Rebellion. Antonio
de Mendoza, who had become the first Viceroy of Nueva Espa�a in 1535, quickly
assembled a force of 450 Spaniards and 30,000 Aztec and Tlaxcalan warriors. In a
series of short sieges and assaults, Mendoza captured the native fortresses one
by one. By December, 1541, the native resistance had been completely crushed.
The Mixt�n Rebellion had a profound effect upon the Spanish expansion into
central and northern Mexico. The historian J. Lloyd Mecham wrote that "the
uprising in Nueva Galicia not only checked advance in that direction, but even
caused a temporary contraction of the frontiers."
However, in 1546, an event of great magnitude that would change the dynamics of
the Zacatecas frontier took place. On September 8, a Basque nobleman, Juan de
Tolosa, meeting with a small group of Indians near the site of the present-day
city of Zacatecas, was taken to some nearby mineral outcroppings. Once it was
determined that the mineral samples from this site were silver ore, a small
mining settlement was very quickly established at Zacatecas.
Suddenly, the dream of quick wealth brought a multitude of prospectors,
entrepreneurs, and laborers streaming into Zacatecas. Indians from southern
Mexico, eager to earn the higher wages offered by miners, flooded into the
region. In the next two decades, rich mineral-bearing deposits would also be
discovered farther north in San Mart�n (1556), Chalchihuites (1556), Avino
(1558), Sombrerete (1558), Fresnillo (1566), Mazapil (1568), and Nieves (1574).
However, "the rather sudden intrusion of the Spaniards," writes Allen
R. Franz, the author of Huichol Ethnohistory: The View From Zacatecas,
soon precipitated a reaction from these "hostile and intractable natives
determined to keep the strangers out."
Most of the semi-nomadic Indians of Zacatecas shared a primitive
hunting-collecting culture, based on the gathering of mesquite and tunas (the
fruit of the nopal). Some of them also lived off of acorns, roots and seeds. In
some areas, they even cultivated maize and calabashes. From the mesquite they
made white bread and wine. Many Chichimeca tribes utilized the juice of the
agave as a substitute for water when the latter was in short supply. Several of
the Chichimeca Indians are described in the following paragraphs:
Zacatecos. The Zacatecos Indians occupied much of what is now
northern Zacatecas and northeastern Durango. Their lands bordered with those of
the Tepehuanes on the west and the Guachichiles on the east. Mr. Powell writes
that the Zacatecos were "brave and bellicose warriors and excellent
marksmen." They were greatly feared by the neighboring tribes, in
particular the Cazcanes, whom they attacked constantly.
Although many of the Chichimeca Indians were nomadic, some of the Zacatecos
Indians had dwellings of a more permanent character, inhabiting areas near the
wooded sierras. They inhabited homes constructed of adobe or sun-dried bricks
and stones. They slept on the floor of their one-room homes. A fireplace in the
middle of the floor, surrounded by rocks, was used for cooking food. The
Zacatecos Indians grew roots, herbs, maize, beans, and some wild fruits. They
hunted rabbits, deer, birds, frogs, snakes, worms, and rats. Eventually, the
Zacatecos would develop a fondness for the meat of the larger animals brought in
to their territory by the Spaniards. During their raids on Spanish settlements,
they frequently stole mules, horses, cattle, and other livestock, all of which
became a part of their diet.
Peter Masten Dunne, the author of Pioneer Jesuits in Northern Mexico, writes
that the Zacatecos were "a tall, well-proportioned, muscular people."
They had oval faces with "long black eyes wide apart, large mouth, thick
lips and small flat noses." The men wore breechcloth, while the women wore
short petticoats of skins or woven maguey. Both sexes wore their hair long,
usually to the waist. The Zacatecos married young, with most girls being married
by the age of fifteen. Monogamy was their general practice. The Indians smeared
their bodies with clay of various colors and painted them with the forms of
reptiles. This paint helped shield them from the sun's rays but also kept vermin
off their skin.
Guachichiles. Of all the Chichimec tribes, the Guachichile Indians
occupied the largest territory, from Saltillo in the north to some parts of Los
Altos (Jalisco) and western Guanajuato in the south. Their territory extended
westward close to the city of Zacatecas. The name Guachichil - given to them by
the Aztecs - meant "head colored red." They had been given this label,
writes Mr. Dunne, because "they were distinguished by red feather
headdresses, by painting themselves red (especially the hair), or by wearing
head coverings (bonetillas) made of hides and painted red." The
archaeologist Paul Kirchhoff wrote that the following traits characterized the
Guachichile Indians: "painting of the body; coloration of the hair; head
gear; matrilocal residence; freedom of the married woman; special forms of
cruelty to enemies."
In the development of tribal alliances, the Guachichiles were considered the
most advanced of the Chichimec tribes. They were a major catalyst in provoking
the other tribes to resist the Spanish settlement and exploitation of Indian
lands. "Their strategic position in relation to Spanish mines and
highways," wrote Mr. Powell, "made them especially effective in
raiding and in escape from Spanish reprisal." The Spanish frontiersmen and
contemporary writers referred to the Guachichiles "as being the most
ferocious, the most valiant, and the most elusive" of all their indigenous
adversaries. In addition, the Christian missionaries found their language
difficult to learn because of its "many sharply variant dialects." As
a result, the conversion of these natives to Christianity did not come easy.
Cazcanes. The Cazcanes Indians occupied southern Zacatecas and
northern Jalisco. Occupying territory to the west of the Guamares and Tecuexes
and south of the Zacatecos Indians, they were a partly nomadic people whose
principal religious and population centers were in Teul, Tlaltenango, Juchipila,
and Teocaltiche. After their defeat in the Mixt�n Rebellion, the Cazcanes began
serving as auxiliaries to the northward Spanish advance. For this reason, they
would occasionally come under attack by the Zacatecos Indians.
The Chichimeca War (1550-1590). Mr. Powell writes that rush to
establish new settlements and pave new roads through Zacatecas, "left in
its wake a long stretch of unsettled and unexplored territory..." As these
settlements and the mineral output of the mines grew in numbers, "the needs
to transport to and from it became a vital concern of miners, merchants, and
government." To function properly, the Zacatecas silver mines
"required well-defined and easily traveled routes." These routes
brought in badly-needed supplies and equipment from distant towns and also
delivered the silver to smelters and royal counting houses in the south.
Mr. Powell wrote that these highways "became the tangible, most frequently
visible evidence of the white man's permanent intrusion" into their land.
As the natives learned about the usefulness of the goods being transported
(silver, food, and clothing), "they quickly appreciated the vulnerability
of this highway movement to any attack they might launch."
In time, the Zacatecos and Guachachile Indians, in whose territory most of the
silver mines could be found, started to resist the intrusion by assaulting the
travelers and merchants using the roads. And thus began La Guerra de los
Chichimecas (The War of the Chichimecas), which eventually became the
longest and most expensive conflict between Spaniards and the indigenous peoples
of New Spain in the history of the colony."
The attacks against the silver caravans usually took place in a narrow pass, in
rocky terrain, at the mouth of a ravine, or in a place with sufficient
forestation to conceal their approach. They usually ambushed their victims at
dawn or dusk and struck with great speed. Mr. Powell wrote that "surprise,
nudity, body paint, shouting, and rapid shooting were all aimed at terrifying
the intended victims and their animals. There is ample evidence that they
usually succeeded in this." The Spaniards' superiority in arms was not
effective when they were taken by surprise.
In hand-to-hand combat, the Chichimeca warriors gained a reputation for courage
and ferocity. Even when the Chichimeca was attacked in his hideout or
stronghold, Mr. Powell writes, "he usually put up vigorous resistance,
especially if unable to escape the onslaught. In such cases, he fought - with
arrows, clubs, or even rocks! Even the women might take up the fight, using the
weapons of fallen braves. The warriors did not readily surrender and were known
to fight on with great strength even after receiving mortal wounds."
The intensity of the attacks increased with each year. Then, in 1554, the worst
disaster of all occurred when a train of sixty wagons with an armed escort was
attacked by the Chichimecas in the Ojuelos Pass. In addition to inflicting great
loss of life, the Chichimecas carried off more than 30,000 pesos worth of
clothing, silver, and other valuables. By the late 1580s, thousands had died and
a general depopulation of the Zacatecas mining camps became a matter of concern
for the Spanish authorities.
If there was any single date that represented a turning of the tide in the
Chichimec War, it would be October 18, 1585. On this day, Alonso Manrique de
Zu�iga, the Marqu�s de Villamanrique, became the seventh viceroy of Mexico.
Mr. Powell writes that "to this great viceroy must go the major share of
credit for planning and largely effecting the end" of the war and "the
development of basic policies to guarantee a sound pacification of the northern
frontier." Villamanrique evaluated the deteriorating situation, consulted
expert advice, and reversed the practices of the past.
The Viceroy learned that many Spanish soldiers had begun raiding peaceful
Indians for the purpose of enslavement. Infuriated by this practice, the
Marqu�s prohibited further enslavement of all captured Indians and freed or
placed under religious care those who had already been captured. He also
appointed Don Antonio de Monroy to conduct investigations into this conduct and
punish the Spaniards involved in the slave trade.
Villamanrique also launched a full-scale peace offensive. He opened negotiations
with the principal Chichimeca leaders, and, according to Mr. Powell, made to
them promises of food, clothing, lands, religious administration, and
agricultural implements to attract them to peaceful settlement." As it
turns out, the olive branch proved to be more persuasive than the sword, and on
November 25, 1589, the Viceroy was able to report to the King that the state of
war had ended.
The policy of peace by persuasion was continued under the next Viceroy, Luis de
Velasco. He sent Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries into the former war zone and
spent more money on food and agricultural tools for the Chichimecas. He also
recruited some 400 families of Tlaxcalans from the south and settled them in
eight towns of the war zone. Velasco's successor, the Conde de Monterrey,
completed Velasco's work by establishing a language school at Zacatecas to teach
missionaries the various Chichimeca dialects. Through this effort, the
conversion of the Chichimeca Indians to Christianity would be streamlined.
The most important component of the "peace by purchase" policy
involved the shipment and distribution of food, clothing, and agricultural
implements to strategically located depots. The clothing shipped, according to
Mr. Powell, included coarse woolen cloth, coarse blankets, woven petticoats,
shirts, hats and capes. The agricultural implements included plows, hoes, axes,
hatchets, leather saddles, and slaughtering knives. "However," writes
Mr. Powell, "the most fundamental contribution to the pacification process
at century's end was the vast quantity of food, mostly maize and beef."
Another important element of the pacification was the maintenance of freedom.
Many of the Indians had been granted exemption from forced service and tribute
and had thus retained their independence of action.
Peter Gerhard, the author of The North Frontier of New Spain, has
explored various jurisdictions of Zacatecas, and it is through this work that we
have some insight into the tribal groups that occupied certain parts of
Zacatecas:
Sombrerete (Northwestern Zacatecas). At contact, the indigenous
people living in this area were Zacatecos Indians. Spanish explorers passed
through the area in 1552 and miners settled at San Mart�n (northwest of
present-day Sombrerete) around 1555.
Jerez (southwestern Zacatecas). According to Peter Gerhard, a
small band of Spaniards settled at the site of present-day Jerez in 1569 and ,
at that time, were surrounded by Chichimecas, "probably Zacateco speakers,
although there may have been Guachichiles in the vicinity." Mr. Gerhard
also comments that western part of this region may have been occupied at contact
by Tepecano farmers. The hostility of the Indians in this area did not taper off
until the 1590s.
Fresnillo (Central Zacatecas). At contact, this area was occupied
by Zacateco-speaking racher�as of hunter-gatherers. To the east of Fresnillo
were Guachichile Indians. On the western fringe of this district, there may have
been some Tepecano and Huichol villages. Up until 1590, the hostility of the
local Indians continued to be a problem to Spanish miners and farmers. Mr.
Gerhard writes that in the 1590s, as the Chichimec War ended, Tlaxcalans moved
into the Valpara�so and Trujillo valleys to work on farms and cattle haciendas.
The Zacatecos Indians in the area either gradually retired to the north or were
assimilated.
Sierra de Pinos (Southeastern Zacatecas). At contact, this area
was sparsely population by Guachichile-speaking hunters and gatherers.
Mazapil (Northeast Zacatecas). This area was ruled over by a
powerful Guachichile leader at contact. Silver was not discovered in this area
until 1568 and the Guachichiles in the area were not pacified until after 1590.
Nieves (Northwest Zacatecas). At contact, most of this
jurisdiction was occupied by rancher�as of Zacateco-speaking Chichimecs.
Zacatecas (South central Zacatecas). At contact, this area, which
had extensive forests (that were destroyed in the Sixteenth Century), was
inhabited by Zacatecos Indians. After the establishment of the mining
settlement, some of the first mine-workers, according to Mr. Gerhard, were the
Zacatecos Indians. However, the Spanish authorities also brought African slaves,
N�huatl-speaking Mexicans and Tlaxcalans, and Tarascans. Cazcanes, who had been
enslaved after the Mixt�n War, also came to work in the area.
In 1562, an attack by the Zacatecos and Guachichile Indians caused great damage
to the city and the mines. But, by 1588, Zacatecas earned the title of city.
Viceroy Mendoza's use of Indian auxiliaries to put down the Mixt�n rebellion
had brought many Indian allies from central Mexico into the Gran Chichimeca.
Some of the early Indian mine laborers at Zacatecas after 1546 were some of the
remnants of Mendoza's forces from the Mixt�n Rebellion.
Near the city of Zacatecas, Mr. Gerhard writes, each Indian group "lived in
its own barrio," and these became pueblos segregated by nationality and
language. Eventually there were barrios for the Aztecs (Mexicalpa), the
Tlaxcalans (Tlacuitlapan), Tarascans (Tonal�a), and Texcocans (El Ni�o).
As the Chichimeca War ended and the Zacatecos and Guachichile Indians settled
down to work for their former enemies, the nomadic tribes of Zacatecas
disappeared. Absorbed into the Spanish and Indian groups that had invaded their
lands half-a-century earlier, the Guachichiles and Zacatecas Indians disappeared
as distinguishable cultural entities. And thus, Mr. Powell concludes, "the
sixteenth-century land of war thus became fully Mexican in its mixture."
Although most Zacatecanos and Mexican Americans can look to the indigenous
peoples of Zacatecas as their ancestors, there is virtually nothing left of the
old cultures. The languages they spoke, the religions they adhered to, the
cultures they practiced are today unknown. Professor Julian Nava, in this
videotape production about Zacatecas, explains that there are many architectural
monuments left by ancient inhabitants of the area, and few have been studied so
far.
The Huicholes and Tepehuanes who occupied portions of far western Zacatecas have
survived to this day, but most of them live in the neighboring states of
Durango, Chihuahua, Nayarit and Jalisco. In the 1930 census, only 27 persons
were tallied as persons over the age of five who spoke an indigenous language.
This number increased to 284 in 1950 and to 1,000 in the 1970 census.
In the 2000 census, a mere 1,837 persons speak indigenous languages, with the
main languages spoken by Tepehu�n (358 persons), Huichol (330 persons),
N�huatl (330), Otom� (119), Mazahua (101), and Pur�pecha (80). The majority
of these speakers of Indian languages are transplants from other states.
The Indigenous peoples of Zacatecas do not exist as individual cultural entities
anymore, but genetically their blood has been passed forward to present
generations of Zacatecanos and Mexican Americans. The fifty-year struggle of the
Zacatecas Indians is a tribute to their resolve and independence, and the fact
that they could not be defeated through war along, but had to be bribed into
peace, is a testimony to their tenacity and strength.
Copyright � 2008 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
�
Sources:
P.J. Bakewell, Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico: Zacatecas,
1546-1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.
Alfredo Moreno Gonz�lez, Santa Maria de Los Lagos. Lagos de Moreno:
D.R.H. Ayuntamiento de Los Lagos de Moreno, 1999.
Donna S. Morales and John P. Schmal, My Family Through Time: The Story of a
Mexican-American Family. Los Angeles, California, 2000.
Philip Wayne Powell, Soldiers Indians and Silver: North America's First
Frontier War. Tempe, Arizona: Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona
State University, 1975.
Peter Masten Dunne, Pioneer Jesuits in Northern Mexico. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1944.
Allen R. Franz, "Huichol Introduction: The View From Zacatecas," in
Stacy B. Schaefer and Peter T. Furst (eds.), People of the Peyote: Huichol
Indian History, Religion, and Survival. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 1996.
Basil C. Hedrick et al., The North Mexican Frontier: Readings in Archaeology,
Ethnohistory, and Ethnography. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1971.
Paul Kirkchhoff, "The Hunter-Gathering People of North Mexico," in the
North Mexican Frontier: Readings in Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and
Ethnography. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971.
About the Author:
John Schmal was born and raised in Inglewood, California. He attended Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles and St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he studied Geography, History and Earth Sciences and received two BA degrees.
Mr. Schmal specializes in Mexican, German, California, Texas and U.S. Census genealogical research. With regards to Mexican research, John Schmal has spent nearly two decades studying and extracting records from the states of Zacatecas, Jalisco, Chihuahua, Sonora, Guanajuato and Michoac�n.
John also provides lectures on Indigenous Mexico to libraries and classes. He is the coauthor of Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico (Heritage Books, 2002). He has also coauthored six other books on Mexican-American themes, all of them published by Heritage Books in Maryland. He is an Associate Editor of www.somosprimos.com and a board member of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR).
Recently, John Schmal published The Journey to Latino Political Representation, about the struggle for Hispanic representation in California, Texas and the U.S. Congress. The preface to this book was written by his friend, Edward Telles, a professor at UCLA and the author of an award-winning book about race in Brazil.
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THE MEXICANIZATION OF THE ZACATECAS INDIANS
by�
John P. Schmal
Across the 756,066 square miles that comprise Mexico you can find a great
variety of landscapes and climates. While mountains and plateaus cover more than
two-thirds of her land mass, the rest of Mexico�s environment is made up of
deserts, tropical forests, and fertile valleys. Mexico�s many mountain ranges
tend to split the country into countless smaller valleys, each forming a world
of its own.
Mexico�s "fragmentation into countless mountain valleys, each with its
own mini-ecology," according to the historian Nigel Davies, led the Indians
within each geographical unit to develop their own language and culture. This
cultural development is a key to understanding Mexican history. Mexico�s
remarkable cultural and linguistic diversity, in large part, led to her conquest
by the Spaniards. Speaking more than 180 mutually alien languages, the original
Mexican Indians viewed each other with great suspicion from the earliest times.
When Hern�n Cort�s (1485-1547) came to Mexico in 1519, he found a large but
fragmented collection of tribes. It was this lack of unity that he exploited to
his advantage. Even today, almost five centuries after The Conquest, sixty-two
ethnic indigenous groups speak ninety-one languages and make up almost ten
percent of Mexico�s population.
The Chichimeca Indians
The Indians of Jalisco, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Guanajuato were
collectively called the Chichimecas, a derogatory epithet given to them by the
Aztec Indians, who were themselves of Chichimec descent. The definitive source
for information relating to the Chichimeca Indians is Philip Wayne Powell�s Soldiers,
Indians, and Silver: North America�s First Frontier War.
The Chichimeca Indians and their fifty-year resistance to Spanish rule
(1550-1600) is significant because the aftermath of that conflict (known as La
Guerra de los Chichimecas � The War of the Chichimecas)
is archetypal of what was repeated many times in other parts of Mexico. The
Chichimeca conflict and other wars of resistance forced the Spaniards to rely
heavily upon their Indian allies. The result of this dependence upon indigenous
allies as soldados (soldiers) and pobladores (settlers) led to enormous and
wide-ranging migration and resettlement patterns that would transform the
geographic nature of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. In describing this
phenomenon, Mr. Powell noted that the "Indians formed the bulk of the
fighting forces against the Chichimeca warriors." Continuing with this
reflection, Mr. Powell wrote:
"As fighters, as burden bearers, as interpreters, as scouts, as emissaries,
the pacified natives of New Spain played significant and often indispensable
roles in subjugating and civilizing the Chichimeca country. Occasionally armies
composed exclusively of these native warriors (particularly the Otom�es) roamed
the tierra de guerra to seek out, defeat, and help Christianize the hostile
nomad of the north. On some parts of the frontier defense against Chichimeca
attacks was at times exclusively in the hands of the native population... "
"Spanish authority and personnel were in most cases supervising agents for
manpower supplied by Indian allies. The white men were the organizers of the
effort; native allies did much of the hard work and often bore the brunt of the
fighting. In the early years of the war the Spaniards placed heavy reliance upon
those natives who had been wholly or partly subdued by the Cortesian conquest
� Mexicans, Tarascans, Otom�es, among others."
"This use of native allies... led eventually to a virtual disappearance of
the nomadic tribes as they were absorbed into the northward-moving Tarascans,
Aztecs, Cholultecans, Otom�es, Tlaxcalans, Cazcanes, and others... within a few
decades of the general pacification at the end of the century the Guachichiles,
Zacatecos, Guamares, and other tribes or nations were disappearing as
distinguishable entities in the Gran Chichimeca."
By the second decade of the Seventeenth Century, Mr. Powell concludes, "the
Sixteenth-Century land of war thus became fully Mexican in its mixture."
Sources:
Nigel Davies, The Ancient Kingdoms of Mexico (London: Penguin Books, 1990), p. 15.
J. Alden Mason, "The Native Languages of Middle America" in The
Maya and Their Neighbors (New York: Appleton-Century Company, 1940), p. 58.
James F. Smith, "Mexico�s Forgotten Find Cause for New Hope," Los
Angeles Times, February 23, 2001, pp. A1, A12.
Philip Wayne Powell, Soldiers, Indians and Silver: North America�s First
Frontier War (Tempe, Arizona: Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona
State University, 1975).
Copyright � 2008, by John P. Schmal. This article has been derived in part from
Donna S. Morales and John P. Schmal, Mexican-American Genealogical Research:
Following the Paper Trail to America. All rights under applicable law are
hereby reserved. Reproduction of this article in whole or in part without the
express permission of John P. Schmal is strictly prohibited.
�
�
GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH IN ZACATECAS
by John P. Schmal
The Mexican state of Zacatecas, located in the north-central portion of the Republic, is a land rich in cultural, religious, and historical significance. Surrounded by Coahuila on the north, San Luis Potosi on the east, Aguascalientes and Jalisco on the south, and Durango on the east, Zacatecas is the eighth largest state in Mexico. The name Zacatecas is derived from the fusion of two N�huatl words, Zacatl (grass, hay) and co (located). Thus, the literal translation of the state name in English would be "the place where a lot of hay is found."
By virtue of its large size (75,040 square kilometers), Zacatecas has contributed its fair share of immigrants to the United States during the last century. In the days preceding and during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), many inhabitants fled Zacatecas for the American states of Texas and California. During the height of the Revolution, the capital city of Zacatecas became the focus of national attention when it was seized by the forces of Pancho Villa in the famous battle known as La Toma de Zacatecas (The Taking of Zacatecas) on June 23, 1914.
In pre-Columbian times, Zacatecas was home to many indigenous tribes. By the time the Spaniards first arrived in the region (1531), the Zacatecos, Caxcanes, Irritilas, Guachichiles, Tecuexes, and Tepehuanes were still making their homes in the area. Most of these Indians put up a fierce resistance to the Spanish encroachment upon their territory. However, in 1546, silver was discovered in Zacatecas. With this discovery, the Spanish incursion into Zacatecas became ever more determined and, in time, the Spanish forces � superior in weaponry and tactics � subdued all the native tribes. Today, Zacatecas has more than fifteen mining districts which yield silver, lead, zinc, gold, phosphorite, wollastonite, fluorite, and barium.
The richest resource available to Americans who are trying to find their roots in Zacatecas can be found in the Family History Library (FHL), whose catalog can be accessed at its website,
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp
When you go to this website, you can utilize the place search by simply entering the name of your ancestral town. The FHL owns church, civil or census records for at least ninety-four separate localities in Zacatecas, and you can view these microfilmed records at your nearest Family History Center.
The Family History Library owns the Catholic church records for at least eighty-six distinct locations in Zacatecas, the earliest of which (the city of Zacatecas) goes back to 1605. All told, eleven towns in Zacatecas have church records going back to the 1600s, while another sixteen localities have records reaching back into the 1700s. For the most part, the baptism and marriage records of the Zacatecas churches are remarkably detailed. With few exceptions, starting around 1800, the baptism records listed the abuelos paternos and abuelos maternos. In addition, marriage records will not only give the age, birthplace, residency, and occupation of the newlyweds, but the same information for their parents and witnesses.
Mexico enacted civil registration in 1859. Within the next decade, nearly all of the fifty-six municipios of Zacatecas started to collect birth, marriage, and death records. The Family History Library has compiled the municipio civil records for forty-nine of these municipios. Most of their records begin between 1861 and 1867. As an added bonus, the FHL also has the 1930 census records for at least forty-two municipios on microfilm.
There are three preliminary steps to take in a successful search for your Zacatecas ancestors: First, you should locate your ancestral town on a map. Secondly, you need to find out the name of the municipio in which the town was located since civil records were only recorded in the capital city of each municipio. Thirdly, it is important to be aware of the names of adjacent villages where your ancestors may have attended church or baptized their children.
For the first step, it is important to realize that maps of Zacatecas in atlases and tourist brochures only show the largest and most historically significant cities. For this reason, I strongly advise that you visit a college or university map library to locate a large scale map (preferably 1:250,000). If you have an ancestral community which you have not been able to locate on a conventional map or in the FHL catalog, you will understand the reason for this course of action.
A few years ago, I was trying to locate the church and civil records for a family that had lived in the small Hacienda de Santa Monica, Zacatecas, during the Nineteenth Century and the first decade of the 1900s. However, I was unable to find the hacienda on any conventional maps of Zacatecas. My next step was to pay a visit to the UCLA Map Library where I located a gazetteer of Zacatecas. Having pinpointed the geographic coordinates of Santa Monica in the gazetteer, I subsequently consulted a large-scale present-day map of Zacatecas, which showed Santa Monica as a small town. I made note of the fact that Santa Monica belonged to the municipio of Sain Alto and was a short distance from the small town of Rio de Medina.
Once I had become familiar with the terrain surrounding Santa Monica, Zacatecas, I was able to check the FHL catalog. I found that the Catholic Church records for Rio de Medina went back to 1899. I also checked the FHL inventory for Sain Alto and found that Sain Alto�s civil records went back to 1862, while some of their church records went back to 1792. I was able to locate the family in question in the records of both towns.
The point of this example is to state that a successful search for your Zacatecas ancestors may be contingent on some extracurricular research. If you are able to do the essential footwork and locate your ancestors, you may be able to trace your ancestors clear back to the Seventeenth Century.
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�
ZACATECAS, GUANAJUATO, AND JALISCO
by John P. Schmal
�
If your ancestors are from Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes or Jalisco,
it is likely that you may be descended from the indigenous peoples who inherited
these areas before the Spaniards arrived from the south. The historian Eric Van
Young of the University of California at San Diego has called this area, the
"the Center-West Region" of Mexico. This cultural region, according to
Dr. Van Young, includes all of the modern states of Jalisco, Michoac�n, Colima,
Nayarit, and Aguascalientes, as well as parts of Zacatecas and Guanajuato,
amounting to about one-tenth of Mexico's national territory.�
The states of Jalisco, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes did not exist in the
Sixteenth Century, but substantial parts of these states belonged to the Spanish
province of Nueva Galicia, which embraced some 180,000 kilometers ranging from
the Pacific Ocean to the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental.�
Across this broad range of territory, a wide array of indigenous groups lived
before 1522 (the year of contact with Spanish explorers). Domingo L�zaro de
Arregui, in his Descripci�n de la Nueva Galicia � published in 1621
� wrote that 72 languages were spoken in the Spanish colonial province of
Nueva Galicia. But, unfortunately, some of the Amerindians who lived in this
area have not been studied extensively. Dr. Van Young - in analyzing this - has
explained that "the extensive and deep-running mestizaje of the area has
meant that at any time much beyond the close of the colonial period the history
of the native peoples has been progressively interwoven with (or submerged in)
that of non-native groups."�
Unfortunately, our image of pre-Hispanic Jalisco is obscured by the cultural
shock, the devastation, and widespread displacement that was inflicted upon the
indigenous peoples of western Mexico during the Sixteenth Century. Four primary
factors influenced the post-contact indigenous distribution of Jalisco as it
evolved into a Spanish colony. These factors are presented below in
chronological order:
A. The occupation and conquest of Nu�o de Guzm�n (1529-1536).
B. The influence of epidemics in reducing the indigenous population.
C. The Mixt�n Rebellion (1540-1541).
D. The Chichimeca War (1550-1590)
The Chichimeca Indians
In 1522, shortly after the fall of Tenochtitl�n (Mexico City), Hern�n Cort�s
commissioned Crist�bal de Olid to journey into the area now known as Jalisco.
In these early days, the Spaniards found it necessary to utilize the services of
their new allies, the Christianized sedentary Indians from the south.�
These indigenous auxiliaries - serving as scouts and soldiers - were usually
Mexica (from Tenochtitl�n), Tarascan (from Michoac�n), Otom� Indians (from
Quer�taro), Cholulans, or Tlaxcalans. Unlike other Indians, they were permitted
to ride horses and to carry side arms as soldiers in the service of Spain.
As the Spaniards and their Amerindian allies from the south made their way
north into present-day Jalisco, Guanajuato and Zacatecas, they started to
encounter large numbers of nomadic Chichimeca Indians. Philip Wayne Powell -
whose Soldiers, Indians, and Silver: North America's First Frontier War
is the definitive source of information relating to the Chichimeca Indians -
referred to Chichimeca as "an all-inclusive epithet" that had "a
spiteful connotation."
Utilizing the N�huatl terms for dog (chichi) and rope (mecatl), the Mexica
had referred to the Chichimecas literally as "of dog lineage." But
some historians have explained that the word Chichimeca has been subject to
various interpretations over the years, including "perros altaneros"
(arrogant dogs) and "chupadores de sangre" (blood-suckers). The
Spaniards borrowed this designation from their Mexica allies and started to
refer to the large stretch Chichimeca territory as La Gran Chichimeca
(the Great Chichimeca).�
Although Chichimeca was used as an umbrella term for all of the nomadic
hunters and gatherers inhabiting this part of Mexico, these indigenous peoples
were actually divided into several distinct cultures. However, because most of
the Chichimeca Indians were rapidly assimilated into the Hispanic culture of
Seventeenth Century Mexico, there have been very few historical investigations
into their now extinct cultures and languages. Ironically, these indigenous
peoples are - in large part - the genetic ancestors of the present-day
inhabitants of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Aguascalientes. And, as a
result, they are thus the ancestors of many Mexican Americans.
The historian Paul Kirchhoff, in his work "The Hunting-Gathering People
of North Mexico," has provided us with the best description of the
Chichimeca Indian groups. Most of the Chichimeca Indians shared a primitive
hunting-collecting culture, based on the gathering of mesquite, agave, and tunas
(the fruit of the nopal). However, many of them also lived off of acorns, roots
and seeds.�In some areas, the Chichimecas even cultivated maize and some
calabashes. From the mesquite they made white bread and wine. Many Chichimec
tribes utilized the juice of the agave as a substitute for water when the latter
was in short supply.
The Zacatecos Indians
The Zacatecos Indians, occupying 60,000 square kilometers in the present-day
states of Zacatecas, eastern Durango, and Aguascalientes, may have received
their name from the Mexica word zacate (grass). But some contemporary sources
have said that the name was actually taken from the Zacatecos language and that
it meant cabeza negra ("black head"). This would be a reference to the
Chichimeca's penchant for painting their bodies and faces with various pigments
(in this case, black pigment).
The Zacatecos Indians lived closest to the silver mines that the Spaniards
would discover in 1546. The Zacatecos Indians inhabited large portions of
northwest and southwest Zacatecas. Their lands bordered with those of the
Tepehuanes on the west and the Guachichiles on the east. They roamed as far
north as Parras, where they came into contact with the Irritilas of Coahuila.
The Zacatecos Indians belonged to the Aztecoidan Language Family and were
thus of Uto-Aztecan stock. It was believed that the Zacatecos were closely
related to the Caxcanes Indians of northern Jalisco and southern Zacatecas. The
Zacatecos were "a tall, well-proportioned, muscular people, their strength
being evidenced by the great burdens they carried for the Spaniards." They
had oval faces with "long black eyes wide apart, large mouth, thick lips
and small flat noses." The men wore breechcloth, while the women wore short
petticoats of skins or woven maguey. Both sexes wore their hair long, usually to
the waist.
The Zacatecos Indians married young, with most girls being married by the age
of fifteen. Monogamy was their general practice. The Indians smeared their
bodies with clay of various colors and painted them with the forms of reptiles.
This paint helped shield them from the sun's rays but also kept vermin off their
skin.
Some Zacatecos Indians grew roots, herbs, maize, beans, and some wild fruits.
Most of them hunted rabbits, deer, birds, frogs, snakes, worms, moles, rats, and
reptiles. Eventually, the Zacatecos and some of the other Chichimecas would
develop a fondness for the meat of the larger animals brought in by the
Spaniards. During their raids on Spanish settlements, they frequently stole
mules, horses, cattle, and other livestock, all of which became a part of their
diet.
Although most of the Chichimeca Indians were nomadic, some of the Zacatecos
Indians had dwellings of a more permanent character, inhabiting areas near the
wooded sierras. They inhabited homes constructed of adobe or sun-dried bricks
and stones. They slept on the floors of their one-room homes and a fireplace in
the middle of the floor, surrounded by rocks, was used for cooking food.
Mr. Powell writes that the Zacatecos were "brave and bellicose warriors
and excellent marksmen." They were greatly feared by the neighboring
tribes, in particular the Caxcanes, whom they attacked in later years after they
began cooperating with the Spaniards.
The Guachichiles
The Guachichile Indians were the most populous Chichimeca nation, occupying
perhaps 100,000 square kilometers, from Lake Chapala in Jalisco to modern
Saltillo in Coahuila. The Guachichiles inhabited all of eastern Zacatecas and
some parts of western San Luis Potos�, northeastern Jalisco and western
Guanajuato.
The Guachichile Indians were classified with the Aztecoidan division of the
Uto-Aztecan linguistic family. It was believed that they were closely related to
the Huichol Indians, who continue to live in Nayarit and the western fringes of
Zacatecas in the present day era.
The name "Guachichil" was given to them by the Mexica, and meant head
colored red. They had been given this label because "they were
distinguished by red feather headdresses, by painting themselves red (especially
the hair), or by wearing head coverings (bonetillas) made of hides and painted
red."
The archaeologist Paul Kirchhoff wrote that the following traits
characterized the Guachichile Indians: "painting of the body; coloration of
the hair; head gear; matrilocal residence; freedom of the married woman; special
forms of cruelty to enemies." In the development of tribal alliances, the
Guachichiles were considered the most advanced of the Chichimec tribes. They
were a major catalyst in provoking the other tribes to resist the Spanish
settlement and exploitation of Indian lands. "Their strategic position in
relation to Spanish mines and highways," wrote Mr. Powell, "made them
especially effective in raiding and in escape from Spanish reprisal."
The Spanish frontiersmen and contemporary writers referred to the
Guachichiles "as being the most ferocious, the most valiant, and the most
elusive" of all their indigenous adversaries. In addition, the Christian
missionaries found their language difficult to learn because of its "many
sharply variant dialects." As a result, the conversion of these natives to
Christianity did not come easy.
In the development of tribal alliances, the Guachichiles were considered the
most advanced of the Chichimec tribes. They were a major catalyst in provoking
the other tribes to resist the Spanish settlement and exploitation of Indian
lands. "Their strategic position in relation to Spanish mines and
highways," wrote Mr. Powell, "made them especially effective in
raiding and in escape from Spanish reprisal."
The Guamares
The nation of the Guamares, located in the Guanajuato Sierras, was centered
around P�njamo and San Miguel. They extended as far north as San Felipe, and
almost to Quer�taro in the east. They also extended as far west as
Aguascalientes and Lagos de Moreno.
The author, Gonzalo de las Casas, called the Guamares "the bravest, most
warlike, treacherous, and destructive of all the Chichimecas, and the most
astute (dispuesta)." One Guamar group called the "Chichimecas Blancos"
lived in the region between Jalostotitl�n and Aguascalientes. This branch of
the Guamares painted their heads white. However, much like the Guachichiles,
many of the Guamares colored their long hair red and painted the body with
various colors (in particular red).
The Caxcanes
If your ancestors are from northern Jalisco � both the Three-Fingers Border
region (with Zacatecas) or Los Altos � it is likely that you have many
ancestors who were among the Caxcanes Indians. The Caxcanes Indians were a tribe
of the Nahuatlan (Aztecoidan) division of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic stock.
Caxcanes Indians occupied portions of present day Aguascalientes, southern
Zacatecas and northern Jalisco. Their range - at certain times - extended south
toward Lake Chapala and beyond the R�o Grande de Santiago.
Dr. Phil C. Weigand of the Departmento de Antropolog�a of the Colegio de
Michoac�n in Mexico has theorized that the Caxcan Indians probably originated
in the Chalchihuites area of northwestern Zacatecas. After the collapse of the
Chalchihuites culture around 900 to 1000 A.D., Dr. Weigand believes that
"the Caxcanes began a prolonged period of southern expansion" into
parts of Jalisco.
Dr. Weigand has further noted that - at the time of the Spanish contact - the
Cazcan "were probably organized into small conquest states." He also
states that the "overriding theme of their history seems to have been a
steady expansion carried by warfare, to the south."
Dr. Weigand also observed that the Caxcanes "appear to have been
organized into highly competitive, expansion states. These states possessed
well-developed social hierarchies, monumental architecture, and military
brotherhoods." The Caxcanes are believed to have built their primary
pe�oles (fortifications) and religious centers at Juch�pila, Te�l,
Teocaltiche, Tlatenango, Nochistl�n, Jalpa and El Chique.�
The Caxcanes played a major role in both the Mixton Rebellion
(1540-41) and the Chichimeca War (1550-1590), first as the adversaries of
the Spaniards and later as their allies against the Zacatecos and Guachichiles.
The cocolistle epidemic of 1584 greatly reduced the number of Caxcanes. In the
decades to follow, the surviving Caxcanes assimilated into the more dominant
cultures that had settled in their territory. Today, Dr. Weigand writes,
"the Caxcanes no longer exist as an ethnic group" and that "their
last survivors" were noted in the late 1890s.
All of these Indian groups were involved in the Mixt�n Rebellion (1540-1541)
and the Chichimeca War (1550-1590). Mr. Powell's book Solders, Indians and
Silver is a very detailed description of this war, which stands as the
longest lasting war between the Spaniards and an Amerindian tribe. Although the
Apache and Yaqui Indians offered serious resistance to the Spaniards over a
period of time, these campaigns were not continuous as the forty-year struggle
against the Chichimecas were.
In the end, the Chichimecas acquiesced to Spanish rule. Most of the Chichimeca tribes were not militarily defeated, but were bribed and persuaded into settling down by the Spanish administrators. Within decades they were assimilated into the evolving mestizaje culture of Mexico. Today, the languages, the spiritual beliefs and the cultural practices of most of the Chichimeca Indians are lost to us. Their customs have disappeared into extinction. However, the blood of the Guachichiles, Zacatecos, Caxcanes and Guamares still flows through the heart of anyone whose ancestors came from Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Jalisco and Aguascalientes. Their cultural extinction was not followed by genetic extinction.
Copyright � 2008, by John Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
Sources:
Peter Masten Dunne, Pioneer Jesuits in Northern Mexico (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1944).
J. Lloyd Mecham, Francisco de Ibarra and Nueva Vizcaya (Durham, North
Carolina: Duke University Press, 1927).
Paul Kirchhoff, "The Hunting-Gathering People of North Mexico," in
Basil C. Hedrick et al. (ed.), The North Mexican Frontier: Readings in
Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1971), pp. 200-209
Donna S. Morales and John P. Schmal, Mexican-American Genealogical Research:
Following the Paper Trail to Mexico (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2002).
Philip Wayne Powell, Soldiers, Indians and Silver; North America's First
Frontier War (Tempe, Arizona: Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona
State University, 1975).
John R. Swanton, The Indian Tribes of North America, Smithsonian
Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145 (Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1952).
Eric Van Young, "The Indigenous Peoples of Western Mexico from the Spanish
Invasion to the Present," in Richard E.W. Adams and Murdo J. MacLeod (ed.),
The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Volume II:
Mesoamerica, Part 2 (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp.
136-186.
About the Author:
John Schmal was born and raised in Inglewood, California. He attended Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles and St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he studied Geography, History and Earth Sciences and received two BA degrees.
Mr. Schmal specializes in Mexican, German, California, Texas and U.S. Census genealogical research. With regards to Mexican research, John Schmal has spent nearly two decades studying and extracting records from the states of Zacatecas, Jalisco, Chihuahua, Sonora, Guanajuato and Michoac�n.
John also provides lectures on Indigenous Mexico to libraries and classes. He is the coauthor of Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico (Heritage Books, 2002). He has also coauthored six other books on Mexican-American themes, all of them published by Heritage Books in Maryland. He is an Associate Editor of www.somosprimos.com and a board member of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR).
Recently, John Schmal published The Journey to Latino Political
Representation, about the struggle for Hispanic representation in
California, Texas and the U.S. Congress. The preface to this book was written by
his friend, Edward Telles, a professor at UCLA and the author of an
award-winning book about race in Brazil.
The Caxcanes of Nochistl�n: Defenders of Their Homeland
By John P. Schmal
Throughout human history, many groups of people have witnessed the arrival of aliens from far away countries in their traditional homeland territories. Responses to such intrusions have varied from century to century, continent to continent and from one people to another. In most cases, the invader intruded upon the economy, the resources and the political administration of the indigenous peoples. And all too often, the invader dominates and enslaves the people. Other occupations are less dramatic.
Although this is an event that has taken place time and again to many peoples, I find the story of the Caxcanes in the Juchipila and Nochistl�n areas of southern Zacatecas to be particularly interesting. Although the Caxcanes have disappeared as a cultural and linguistic entity, millions of people whose origins are in southern Zacatecas and northern Jalisco carry on the genetic legacy of the Caxcanes.
The Caxcanes living in the vicinity of present-day Juchipila and Nochistlan in April of 1530 were visited by an army of intruders, led by Nu�o Beltran de Guzm�n. Guzm�n, commanding an army of 300 Spaniards and 6,000 indigenous soldiers, had left Mexico City four months earlier to escape a political war with the great Conquistador, Hern�n Cort�s. When Guzm�n�s forces entered the area, most of the Caxcanes faded into the surrounding hills of the Sierra de Nochistl�n. The Caxcanes, themselves, had been newcomers to the area three centuries earlier. In the Twelfth Century, the Caxcanes had driven out another indigenous group, the Tecuexes, using armed force.
On December 3, 1531, Guzm�n, a native of Guadalajara in Espana, had tasked his chief lieutenant, Captain Juan de O�ate, with creating a settlement at the place the native peoples called Nochistl�n. Guadalajara, named in honor of Guzm�n to honor his birthplace, was officially founded on January 5, 1532. The building of the city progressed but faced a major obstacle in that the local Indians refused to provide manual labor for the town�s construction. Lacking basic resources and located far from other Spanish settlements, the young city of Guadalajara struggled.
When Guzman visited the town in May 1533, the inhabitants of the town told Guzman that they lacked sufficient resources of water. In addition, they were very concerned about Indian attacks. The Spanish inhabitants seemed perplexed that they could not get the Caxcanes to labor for them but it�s possible that the Caxcanes had already heard about the abuses of the notorious encomendero system and did not want to subject themselves to a system that was so degrading. While the encomienda system was meant to establish a beneficial relationship between the Spanish encomendero and the community he was responsible for. However, in some areas, the system quickly degenerated into an abusive system rife with taxes and closely resembling slavery.
So the Caxcanes resisted and did not cooperate. And, in July 1533, Guzman ordered that Guadalajara be moved south. The historian Peter Gerhard has indicated that as many as 50,000 Indians lived in the area at the time of contact, including approximately 6,000 families in Nochistlan. Eventually, the conquest of the area proceeded as it did in other adjacent areas of what we now call Zacatecas and Jalisco.
Mixt�n Rebellion
Eventually the abuse of the encomienda system led to a violent uprising of
the Caxcanes and Tecuexes and other Indians throughout the region. Tenamaxtle,
originally from Nochistlan, was one of the leaders of this rebellion which
quickly spread south. With the help of his second-in-command, Caitlacotl,
Tenamaxtle led a coalition of 60,000 indigenous soldiers southward to threaten
Guadalajara.
The revolt gained the attention of the Viceroy Antonio Mendoza who called for
aid. Pedro de Alvarado had recently arrived in the coastal area to take part in
the search for gold in the northern regions, but decided to assist the Viceroy.
To Alvarado, the Great Conquistador, the Conqueror of Guatemala and the
Architect of La Noche Triste, this change of plans was a minor convenience. As
he had done so many times in the past, he expected to put the indigenous rebels
in their place.
Against the advice of Mendoza, Pedro de Alvarado made a reckless attack against Nochistlan on June 245h. The resistance of the Caxcanes surprised Alvarado and his men who were forced to retreat. In the chaos of the retreat, Alvarado was crushed under a horse. In great pain, he died of his injuries in Guadalajara on July 4, 1541.
Later, in the year, Viceroy Mendoza had put together enough forces to force the Caxcanes and Tecueces of Nochistlan and surrounding areas into submission. The reconquest was tragic. Many of the surviving Caxcanes around Apozol and Juchipila were enslaved and sent to Guadalajara. In addition to the hard labor imposed upon them, many of these Indians died in the epidemic of 1546-1548. However, some of those who survived returned to their homes after a decade.
On December 12, 1550 Bishop Maraver sent a letter to King of Spain requesting that the Crown permit the conversion of the Caxcanes. In an effort to carry out this effort, the Bishop indicated that the entry of Spanish soldiers in the area should be prohibited for at least 15 years so that the clergy could concentrate their efforts on the people of the region, without distraction by possible negative elements. This request was granted.
In the following decades, many indigenous groups in the area of Nochistlan and Juchipila remained hostile towards Spanish intruders and their indigenous allies from the south. Gradually, however, the area was settled by outsiders who made Nochistlan and Juchipila their homes.
The resistance of the Caxcanes and the Tecuexes in southern Zacatecas and northern Jalisco has been forgotten by some, but not by all. Some people from this area feel a sense of pride in the fact that the famous Guadalajara had to removed 150 kilometers to the south because of the resistance of their ancestors.
The Caxcanes no longer exist as a cultural entity. According to the Czech anthropologist, Ales Hrdlicka, the last speakers of their language died in the late 1890s. However, anyone whose ancestors from the border regions of southern Zacatecas and northern Jalisco is most likely descended from the Caxcanes.
The people of Nochistl�n also speak with pride of their resistance to the French. More than three centuries later, during the French occupation, Colonel J. Jes�s Mej�a led an attack on French forces on May 13, 1864. During this period, the people of Nochistlan still talk about the French general who was shot in the head.
Dedication
I dedicate this story to my two friends, Sonia and Cristina Perez. Together, the three of us spent a year tracing their Moyahua, Juchipila and Nochistlan roots back over 300 years. We estimate that about two-thirds of their ancestors are descended from the Caxcanes Indians. This research project was a rewarding experience for the three of us.
Sources:
Carvajal de Barrag�n, Paulina, "Costumbres y Tradiciones en Guadalajara," in Manuel Caldera Robles, ed., "Cap�tulos de Historia de la Ciudad de Guadalajara, Tomo II". (Guadalajara: Ayuntamiento de Guadalajara, 1989-1992).
Gerhard, Peter, "The North Frontier of New Spain" (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Torres, Francisco Mariano de, "Cr�nica de la Sancta Provincia de Xalisco" (Mexico, 1960).
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�JALISCO HISTORY AND RESEARCH�
Los Tapati�s de California: Returning to Their Jalisco Roots
The History of Jalisco
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Los Tapati�s de California: Returning to Their Jalisco Roots
By John P. Schmal
The Mexican state of Jalisco seems to inspire a sense of cultural identity
and pride that is not nearly as evident with other Mexican states. Even among
some second- and third-generation Americans, loyalty to and interest in Jalisco
is commonplace among Mexican Americans. To many people, Jalisco represents the
essence of Mexican culture, tradition and music. The Tapati�s are well-known
for their energetic and colorful dances, which are usually accompanied by the
mariachi music that made Guadalajara famous. The state itself has been
contributing large numbers of immigrants to the U.S. since the early Twentieth
Century and continues to send many Jaliscans to California, Texas, Illinois and
other American states.
One of the founding fathers of Los Angeles, Luis Quintero, was born in
Guadalajara and his descendants, numbering in the thousands, live throughout Los
Angeles and neighboring counties. In my own personal and professional dealings,
I have known at least a couple hundred people who either came from Jalisco or
whose ancestors came from the place.� In fact, my nieces and nephews have
ancestors from Tequila and Hostotipaquillo in the valleys of northern Jalisco,
not far from the Nayarit border.
Thousands of Jaliscans have been arriving in Los Angeles and throughout
California each year for the last half-century, and, today, the sons and
daughters of Jalisco work in California's banks, health care companies,
publishing companies, schools, libraries and factories. Many of them attend
elementary school or are making their way through college, while others stand on
street corners, looking for day laboring opportunities. Today, without a doubt,
the lifeblood of Jalisco flows through the heart of California.
I spend a few hours of each month as a volunteer Family History Consultant for
people who are seeking to find their roots in Mexico and have met with many
individuals who were interested in exploring their Jalisco roots. Many of them
also have ancestors from Michoac�n, Zacatecas, and Guanajuato, but for some
reason, they have a compelling urge to explore their Jalisco origins first and
foremost. (Michoac�n runs a close second, in large part because some people
have a sense of pride for their Pur�pecha/Tarascan roots in Jalisco�s
neighbor to the south).
Some of the most successful, rewarding and enjoyable research that I�ve done
is Jalisco research. Jalisco�s parish priests and the civil registrars
followed a rigorous system of record-keeping that was not nearly as meticulous
in some of the other Mexican states. As an added benefit, a significant number
of Jalisco's parish records after 1850 are indexed, offering great opportunities
for the family history researcher.
The most endearing characteristic of Jalisco records after 1800 is what I call The
Abuelos Factor. Unlike some Mexican states and most countries of the
world, a baptism record in the Jalisco parish books gives the family historian
six new names to research: the padres (parents), abuelos paternos (paternal
grandparents), and abuelos maternos (maternal grandparents) of the person being
baptized.
As an example, the following baptism � translated into English from Spanish
� was recorded on September 29, 1885 for Juana Luevano in the northern Jalisco
town of Villa Hidalgo (a hop, skip and jump from the border with Aguascalientes):
In the Parish of Paso de Sotos on the 29th of September of 1885, I, Father
Estevan Agredano... baptized solemnly and poured Holy Oil and Sacred Chrism on Juana,
who was born on the 27th day at seven in the morning in this place, legitimate
daughter of Tiburcio Luevano and Manuela Martinez.
Paternal�grandparents: Pablo Luevano and Manuela Serna. Maternal
grandparents: Timoteo Martinez and Fermina Rubalcaba. Godparents: Paulin
Diaz and Epifania Aguallo, whom I advised of their spiritual and parental
obligation. In witness thereof, I signed it.
For the most part, people researching in Michoac�n, Guanajuato and several
other Mexican states do not usually have the benefit of the Abuelos Factor. But
many post-1800 records in Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Chihuahua are influenced
by the Abuelos Factor which makes jumping from one generation to another an
easier process.
The most important repository of Jalisco records for most Americans to research
are available through the Family History Library in Salt Lake city. This
library probably has the largest genealogical resources for the state of Jalisco
in the world and its catalog can be accessed at the following link:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp
For the state of Jalisco alone, the Family History Library owns at least 20,000
rolls of microfilm, covering roughly 200 cities, municipios, and villas. Of the
165 towns and villages whose Catholic churches are represented in this
collection, 46 have registers going back to the 1600s while another 37 have
records stretching back to the 1700s. Each roll of microfilm in the FHL
collection can be ordered from any local Family History Center for $6.05. That
roll of film will stay "in-house" for one month and can be renewed at
the end of that period.
Most of Jalisco's 124 municipios are also represented in the FHL catalog.
Although Mexico enacted civil registration in 1859, most of the municipios of
Jalisco did not start keeping birth, marriage, and death records until 1867 or
later. This collection is constantly being updated for some cities. In addition,
the 1930 Mexican census is available for almost one hundred of the municipios.
Another invaluable resource for the Hispanic researcher is the International
Genealogical Index (IGI). In this database, many of the church records held by
the FHL have been indexed. Of Mexico's 30 million baptism and marriage entries
in the IGI, Jalisco accounts for about 3.5 million. In my own research, I have
found this powerful and dynamic database to be of enormous value for pre-1880
baptisms and marriages.
Guadalajara, the second largest city in Mexico, is the capital of Jalisco.
Founded in 1542, Guadalajara became the administrative capital of the province
of Nueva Galicia. As the second largest tourist destination in Mexico, the
Guadalajara Metropolitan Area enjoys the highest quality of life in Mexico. With
a present-day population of around 4 million people, it is not surprising that
many Mexican Americans search for their roots in the parish registers of
Guadalajara and its immediate vicinity.
The FHL owns an impressive 3,400 rolls of microfilm dealing with Guadalajara.
Fifteen Catholic churches, some with baptism and marriage registers stretching
back as far as 1635, are represented on 1,500 rolls of film. Padrones (local
census lists) from 1639 to 1875 comprise 48 rolls of film and can be a very
useful resource. Property and water rights records can be found on 269 rolls of
microfilm and date back to 1584. Notarial and probate records, dating back to at
least 1583, make up almost 1,300 rolls.
It is interesting to note that, as one goes back in time, the records of some
cities actually become more detailed. For example, a researcher exploring the
marriage records in Lagos de Moreno between 1650 and 1670 will find that they
are amazingly detailed, even for Indian couples who have no surnames.
In pre-Columbian times, many indigenous groups inhabited Jalisco, and, in fact,
the present-day territory of Jalisco was crisscrossed by a large number of small
autonomous states speaking a multitude of languages, some of which are long
forgotten. The area around Guadalajara was inhabited by Cocas and Tecuexes,
while the northern Altos region was dominated by the Caxcanes and Guachichiles.
The Otomies lived around Zapotitl�n, Juchitl�n, Autl�n in the south, but it
is possible that they were transplanted Indians who came to fill a demographic
void left by the original inhabitants after epidemics had reduced their numbers.
The Pur�pecha Indians (Tarascans), identified with the State of Michoac�n, inhabited some of the southern border regions. The Tepehu�n Indians, presently inhabiting Chihuahua, Durango and Nayarit, once lived in some of the northern mountains of Jalisco�s Three-Fingers Border Region with Zacatecas. The Huicholes, who now live in Nayarit, also inhabited some regions of northern Jalisco until shortly after the Spanish contact.
An integral part of genealogical research is historical perspective and understanding Jalisco�s indigenous past is a step towards understanding your own family history. Only three authors have dealt with the topic of Jalisco�s indigenous people at great length. The following two books may be of assistance to the determined researcher:
Peter Gerhard, The North Frontier of New Spain. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982.
Eric Van Young, "The Indigenous Peoples of Western Mexico from the Spanish Invasion to the Present: The Center-West as Cultural Region and Natural Environment," in Richard E. W. Adams and Murdo J. MacLeod, The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Volume II: Mesoamerica, Part 2. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 136-186.
In addition, Dr. Phil Weigand of the Centro de Estudios Arqueologicos, El Colegio de Michoacan, in Zamora, Michoac�n, has spent years studying the archaeology and history of the indigenous peoples of Jalisco and Zacatecas. Dr. Weigand has written many books and articles on the topic of indigenous Jalisco, both pre-Hispanic and later, and most of these works can be found in the California University library system. Although most of his works are in Spanish, a few are in English.
Many people have come to me talking about the etymology of their surname and how it came from a certain place in Spain at a certain time. Sometimes they give very intricate details about a surname�s history, without really knowing exactly how they connect to the surname, and sometimes their sources of this information are just quotes off the Internet, not from published academic sources.
This is all good information to know and may turn out to be useful (and hopefully accurate), but it is important for people to realize that there is only one way to actual trace your own family tree and that is to look for your ancestors one generation at a time, baptism by baptism, marriage by marriage, going back gradually through time. Like any genealogical research project, tracing your roots in Jalisco demands a certain amount of patience, perseverance, and determination, as well as an open mind. Once you get the hang of it, it is really quite simple and the rewards can be spectacular.
Jalisco is still a vibrant and proud state. People who come from there have difficulty shedding their cultural ties to their tapati� heritage and generally maintain a sense of identity about their Jaliscan origins. The State of Jalisco, with its rich cultural inheritance, has become, in many ways, part of California society as well. But no matter how American you are, it doesn�t hurt to know about your ancestors from Jalisco and the evolution that transformed them from Indian warriors and Spanish settlers into American citizens.
Copyright � 2008 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
Source: John P. Schmal and Donna S. Morales, Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico (Heritage Books, 2002).
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THE HISTORY OF JALISCO
By John P. Schmal
For more than a century, Mexican nationals have been crossing the southern border to begin new lives in the United States. A large percentage of those immigrants have come from the state of Jalisco. Jalisco, located in the west central part of the Mexican Republic, is the sixth largest of Mexico's thirty-one states. Within its 124 municipios, the state boasts a population that is approaching seven million.
Bordered by the Pacific Ocean on its west, the 31,210 square miles of Jalisco
make up 4.1% of the total area of Mexico and touches seven other Mexican states.
While Colima and Michoac�n lay to her south and east, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes
and Nayarit lay to the north. In addition, Jalisco has a common border with
Guanajuato and a small sliver of San Luis Potos� on her northeastern frontier.
Today, Jalisco is a land of peace. But from the early Sixteenth Century until
the Cristero Rebellion of the 1920s, Jalisco's beautiful landscape was ravaged
by warfare time and again. Over a period of four centuries, many battles were
fought on the soil of Jalisco. When one learns of the trials and tribulations
endured by the people of Jalisco, he or she can begin to appreciate and
understand the pride that Jaliscans feel for their native soil.
The name "Jalisco" is believed to be derived from the Nahuatl words xalli
(sand, gravel) and ixtli, which means "face," or by
extension, plane. Thus, the word Jalisco would literally mean "sandy
place." The first inhabitants of Jalisco were nomadic tribes traveling
through the area en route to the south. At one point, the Toltecs ruled over the
Kingdom of Xalisco. But, in 1112, the Indian subjects of this kingdom rose in
rebellion, leading to the disintegration of Xalisco. Among the indigenous tribes
inhabiting Jalisco at the time of the Spanish encounter were the Cazcanes (who
inhabited the northern regions near Teocaltiche and Lagos de Moreno) and the
Huicholes (who also inhabited the northwestern region near present-day Huej�car
and Colotl�n).
The Guachichile Indians, who inhabited a large part of Zacatecas, also had some
representation in the Los Altos area near Tepatitl�n and Arandas. The Cuyuteco
Indians, who spoke the Nahua language of the Aztecs, lived in the western sector
near the present-day towns of Cuyutl�n and Mixtl�n. Living close to what is
now Guadalajara were the Tecuexes and Cocas. However, the Tecuexes also extended
to the northeast through Los Altos all the way to Lagos de Moreno. The Guamares
lived in the far east, along what is now the border of Jalisco and Guanajuato.
The Otom�es, who inhabited the southern area near Zapotitl�n and border area
with Colima, were transplanted Christian Indians brought to the region as allies
of the Spaniards.
In 1522, shortly after the fall of Tenochtitl�n (Mexico City), Hern�n Cort�s
commissioned Crist�bal de Olid to journey into the unexplored territories of
the northwest to explore that area we now call Jalisco. Then, in December 1529,
the President of the First Audiencia in Nueva Espa�a (Mexico), Nu�o
Beltr�n de Guzm�n, left Mexico City with a force of 300 Spaniards and
6,000 Indian allies. Guzm�n, a lawyer by profession, had already gained a
reputation as a ruthless and cruel administrator when he served as Governor of
Panuco on the Gulf Coast. With little regard for Spanish laws forbidding the
enslavement of Indians, Guzm�n had enslaved and shipped tens of thousands of
Indians off to the Caribbean Islands to live out their lives as slaves.
Traveling through Michoac�n, Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Sinaloa, Guzm�n left a
trail of devastation and terror wherever he went. In 1531, Guzm�n ordered his
chief lieutenant, Juan de O�ate, to found La Villa de Guadalajara
- named after the city of his birth in Spain - on the plateau near Nochistl�n
in the present-day state of Zacatecas. The construction of Guadalajara began on
January 5, 1532. However, the small settlement came under repeated attacks
almost immediately from the local Cazcanes Indians and, on August 5, 1533, had
to be abandoned. The town of Guadalajara would be moved four times before
finding its final home on February 14, 1542 at its present site.
While Guzm�n ravaged through the western and central parts of Mexico, reports
of his brutal treatment of the Indians reached the authorities in Mexico City.
One man who took special notice of Guzm�n's genocidal transgressions was
Antonio de Mendoza, who in 1535 was appointed as the first of sixty-one viceroys
who would rule Nueva Espa�a. Egged on by both Bishop Bartolome de las Casas and
Archbishop Juan de Zumarraga, strong advocates for the Indians, Mendoza arrested
Guzm�n in 1536 and imprisoned him. He was returned to Spain where he died in
obscurity and disgrace.
The long-range implications of Guzm�n's reign of terror were realized in 1541
when the Mixt�n Rebellion pitted the indigenous people of Jalisco against
Spanish rule. Under the leadership of Tenamaxtli, the Indians fortified their
positions near Mixt�n, Nochistl�n, and other towns, while laying siege to
Guadalajara. Unable to cope with the intensity of this uprising, Crist�bal de
O�ate, the Acting Governor of the region, pleaded for aid from Viceroy Mendoza.
The famous conquistador, Pedro de Alvarado, coming to the aid of O�ate, led an
attack on Nochistl�n. However, the indigenous defenders counterattacked with
such ferocity that Alvarado's forces were routed. In this hasty retreat, a horse
fell upon Pedro de Alvarado. Mortally wounded by the crushing weight of the
horse, Alvarado, the conqueror of Guatemala, died in Guadalajara a week later on
June 24, 1541.
However, eventually Viceroy Mendoza, with a force of 300 horsemen, 300 infantry,
eight pieces of artillery and 20,000 Tlaxcalan and Aztec Indian allies,
succeeded in recapturing one town after another, against great resistance. By
December 8, 1541, most of the indigenous resistance had been ended. In 1548,
King Carlos V of Spain decreed the creation of the Audiencia of Nueva Galicia,
which included all of present-day Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Aguascalientes.
In 1550, the Chichimeca War started. The definitive source of information
relating to the Chichimeca Indians and the Chichimeca War is Philip Wayne
Powell's Soldiers, Indians, and Silver: North America's First Frontier War.
Although Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, and Guanajuato were the primary
battlegrounds in this fierce frontier war, some parts of Jalisco also came under
attack. In 1554, the worst disaster of all took place when Chichimeca Indians
attacked a Spanish caravan of sixty wagons with an armed escort in the Ojuelos
Pass. In addition to inflicting great loss of life, the Chichimecas carried off
more than 30,000 pesos worth of clothing, silver, and other valuables.
By the last decade of the century, the efforts of Viceroy Alonso Manrique de
Zu�iga to make peace with the Chichimecas met with success. Mr. Powell has
described in detail the efforts of Viceroy Mendoza to achieve peace. The end of
hostilities brought a period of extended prosperity for the economy of Jalisco.
During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century, the commercial importance of
Jalisco became a crucial ingredient to the success of Spain's prized colony.
Guadalajara, because of its strategic location within the Spanish colony, became
prosperous as it funneled imported goods - both legal and illegal - to other
parts of the colony. This period was also a period of consolidation in which
certain Indian groups were formally brought under Spanish control. In 1721, the
leader of the Coras, an indigenous group living in present-day Nayarit and
western Jalisco, negotiated a peace with the Spanish authorities.
On September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo set into motion the Mexican
struggle for independence when he issued El Grito de Dolores (The
Cry of Dolores) from his parish in Guanajuato. What started as a small rebellion
quickly snowballed into a full-scale revolution. Moving from one town to
another, Hidalgo's insurgents were able to take control of some cities without
firing a shot.
On November 4, 1810, the rebel forces defeated a Creole militia at Zacoalca,
killing over 250 Loyalists. This victory left the city of Guadalajara vulnerable
to rebel attack. On November 26, 1810, the forces of Hidalgo entered
Guadalajara. Once in the city, the rebels arrested many Spaniards and announced
the abolition of slavery. In the meantime, the recruitment efforts of Hidalgo
brought the rebel strength up to about 80,000 in January. However, on January
13, 1811, Hidalgo learned that the Royalist forces of General F�lix Mar�a
Calleja del Rey were approaching Guadalajara. Upon receiving this news, Hidalgo
assembled his forces and led them to the outskirts of the city. Here the rebel
forces took up positions on several hills and awaited the arrival of the enemy.
On January 17, 1811, at Calder�n Bridge on the Lerma River east of Guadalajara,
Hidalgo's forces joined battle with the Royalist forces of Gen. Calleja del Rey.
Hidalgo's men were on the verge of victory when - suddenly - Royalist artillery
fire struck one of the insurgents' ammunition wagons. A stupendous explosion
resulted, igniting the grass of the plains and panicking Hidalgo's men. Within
minutes, Hidalgo's forces were in a massive retreat. It was this battle that
broke the back of Hidalgo's revolt. Eventually, Hidalgo was captured and
executed (July, 1811).
As the revolution continued, Jalisco remained the site of confrontations between
royalist forces and insurgents. In 1812, insurgent activity became particularly
strong in the vicinity of Lake Chapala. However, after the capture and execution
of key leaders, the rebel movement lost momentum and some insurgent leaders
accepted amnesty in 1816. The uncertainty of the rebellion against Spain was
further magnified on the morning of May 31, 1817 when a massive earthquake
caused great damage to Guadalajara and the surrounding areas. Jalisco remained,
for the duration of the war, a stronghold of periodic insurgent activity.
Finally, in 1822, the Spanish authorities relinquished their claim on Mexico,
and Royalist forces embarked for Spain, leaving behind an independent Mexican
Republic.
On June 2, 1823, the Free State of Jalisco was established in confederation with
the other Mexican states. But independence did not bring stability to Jalisco.
The historian Dawn Fogle Deaton writes that in the sixty-year period from 1825
to 1885, Jalisco witnessed twenty-seven peasant (primarily indigenous)
rebellions. Seventeen of these uprisings occurred within one decade, 1855-64,
and the year 1857 witnessed ten separate revolts.
According to Ms. Deaton, the cause of these "waves of unrest, popular
protest, and open rebellion" arose "out of the political and social
struggles among classes and between classes." She further explained that
the "commercialization of the economy," especially in agriculture, had
led to fundamental changes in the lifestyles of the peasants and thus brought
about "the seeds of discontent."
The peasant rebellions were accompanied by revolts on the state level against
the federal government. On April 12, 1834, the Jalisco Legislature invited the
states of Quer�taro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potos�, Michoac�n, Nuevo Le�n,
Tamaulipas, Tampico and Durango to form a coalition to defend themselves against
the Federal rule of General Antonio L�pez de Santa Anna. During that summer, a
mob of about sixty to eighty men, through intimidation and threats, persuaded
the leaders of Guadalajara to resign. Through such manipulation, the Federal
Government kept Jalisco under heel.
During the 1850s, the ongoing and passionate battle between the Liberals and
Conservatives spilled into Jalisco. From 1855 to 1864, Ms. Deaton writes,
Jalisco's government witnessed eighteen transfers of power. One of the key
issues was the role of the Catholic Church and the separation of church and
state. The Liberals viewed the Church as their staunch opponent and as the
conservatives' political and economic supporter. In effect, Liberal advocates
sought to reduce influence of the Church.
Then, with the adoption of a Liberal-based constitution in January 1857, the
Conservative/Liberal conflict evolved into a full-scale civil war, referred to
as the War of the Reform. With the resignation of President Comonfort, Liberal
leader Benito Ju�rez had become Acting President of the Mexican Republic.
However, Conservative forces moved quickly to attack Ju�rez in Mexico City. As
a result, Ju�rez was forced to flee to Guadalajara.
Then, on March 20, 1858, faced with the imminent arrival of Conservative forces,
Benito Ju�rez and his Liberal forces were forced to flee Guadalajara. Soon he
would arrive in Veracruz, where he set up his government. Reaching its peak in
June and July of 1859, the War of the Reform paralyzed the economy of Jalisco. A
large segment of southern Jalisco, including Guadalajara, were devastated,
leading to a mass migration of middle class persons. Of the thirty most
important battles of the War of the Reform, twelve took place on Jalisco's
territory.
With the end of the War of the Reform and the return of Ju�rez to Mexico City
in 1861, Mexico faced a French invasion. The French, invited to Mexico by the
Conservatives, moved - against great resistance - to occupy most of the country.
During the French occupation, multiple confrontations between French and
Republican troops took place within the territory of Jalisco. On December 18,
1866, Mexican forces under General Eulogio Parra won a decisive battle against
the French forces near Acatl�n. Within months, the French would completely
evacuate their forces from Mexico.
A state of Jalisco's prominence was unable to avoid becoming a battleground
during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). In Manuel M. Di�guez, an ally of
President Venustiano Carranza and the Governor of Jalisco, enacted a reign of
terror. During his occupation of Guadalajara, Di�guez's forces persecuted the
clergy, confiscated holdings of the rich, and imprisoned or executed followers
of Victoriano Huerta. As the rebel forces of Pancho Villa approached
Guadalajara, many people from the Jalisco countryside joined forces with the
Villistas. Finally, on December 17, 1914, Villa entered Guadalajara, forcing
Di�guez to flee. Soon after, Villa called together the richest men of both
Jalisco and Guadalajara and announced a forced loan of one million pesos.
Passing out money to the poor, Villa became enormously popular, but his victory
was short-lived and soon he had to leave the city. By April, the
Constitutionalist forces of Di�guez once again controlled Guadalajara.
One of the major consequences of the Mexican Revolution was the Constitution of
1917. The articles of this constitution deprived the Catholic Church of its
traditional privileged position in Mexican society by secularizing all primary
education and requiring the registration of all clergymen with the government
(to regulate their "professional conduct"). Article 24, which forbade
public worship outside the confines of the church, had antagonized many Mexican
citizens.
In 1926, President Plutarco El�as Calles, in implementing the articles of the
Constitution, signed the so-called Intolerable Acts. The
implementation of these strongly anti-clerical laws antagonized many Catholics
and laid the foundation of the so-called "Cristero Religious War." Los
Altos and the "Three-Fingers" border region of northern Jalisco, long
regarded as a vanguard of Catholicism in Mexico, would become battlefields in
this next war, which started in 1926.
During the period from 1926 to 1932, the government of Jalisco changed hands ten
times. At one point, some 25,000 rebels had been mobilized to resist the
articles of the Constitution. The bloody conflict was formally ended in June
1929. However, outbreaks of violence continued into the 1930s. Over time, the
uneasy relationship between the Church and state relaxed considerably and, while
the oppressive laws originally signed into law by Calles remained on the books,
little effort was made to enforce them.
Today, Jalisco remains one of the most important states in Mexico, both
culturally and economically. With the third-largest economy in the Mexican
Republic, Jalisco exports more than $5 billion annually to 81 countries and
ranks first among the states in agribusiness, computers and the manufacturing of
jewelry. Some people say that Jalisco is both the heart and soul of Mexico. Many
of the things that are considered as typically Mexican, such as mariachi music,
charreadas (rodeos), the Mexican Hat Dance, tequila, and the broad-rimmed
sombrero hat, are in fact derived from Jalisco's rich cultural heritage. For the
last five centuries, Jalisco has been the site of many civil wars and many
battles. But, in spite of these ongoing conflicts, the spirit of the people of
Jalisco has endured and, in fact, flourished.
Copyright � 2008 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
Sources:
Michael P. Costeloe, The Central Republic in Mexico, 1835-1846
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
Dawn Fogle Deaton, "The Decade of Revolt: Peasant Rebellion in Jalisco,
Mexico, 1855-1864," in Robert H. Jackson (ed.), Liberals, the Church,
and Indian Peasants: Corporate Lands and the Challenge of Reform in
Nineteenth-Century Spanish America (Albuquerque: New Mexico Press, 1997).
Jos� Mar�a Muri�, Breve Historia de Jalisco (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura
Econ�mica, 1994).
Philip Wayne Powell, Soldiers, Indians and Silver: North America's First
Frontier War (Tempe, Arizona: Center for Latin American Studies, 1975).
Jim Tuck, The Holy War in Los Altos: Regional Analysis of Mexico's Cristero
Rebellion (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1982).
Indigenous Jalisco: Living in a New Era
By John P. Schmal
The Mexican state of Jalisco is located in the west central part of the Mexican Republic. This large state, occupying a total of 78,839 square kilometers, borders the states of Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, Nayarit and Durango (on its north), Guanajuato (on its east) and Michoac�n de Ocampo and Colima to the south. On its west, Jalisco borders the Pacific Ocean.
Jalisco is crossed by two large mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Neo-Volcanic Axis. With a wide range of topographies, Jalisco became the home to wide variety of indigenous peoples. Domingo L�zaro de Arregui, in his "Descripci�n de la Nueva Galicia" � published in 1621 � noted that 72 native langauges were spoken in the Spanish colonial province of Nueva Galicia, which included a large part of Jalisco, as well as Aguascalientes and Zacatecas.
The Spaniards first visited the indigenous peoples of Jalisco in the early 1520s and their journey for the rest of the Sixteenth Century led to displacement, assimilation and mestizaje which I have discussed in a separate article at:
http://houstonculture.org/mexico/jalisco_indig.html
By the early part of the Nineteenth Century, very few people living in Jalisco still spoke Indian languages. In fact, a large number of the original languages spoken in Jalisco had disappeared from the face of the earth. However, the descendants of the original Indians still lived in Jalisco and many of them still felt a spiritual, cultural and physical bond to their Indian ancestors.
On June 23, 1823, the Department of Guadalajara was proclaimed as the "El Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco" (The Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco). This new era, however, did not bring stability to Jalisco, nor did it bring economic reform to the descendants of Jalisco�s indigenous peoples. The historian Dawn Fogle Deaton has written that in the sixty-year period from 1825 to 1885, Jalisco witnessed twenty-seven peasant rebellions, most of them carried out by indigenous citizens.
According to Ms. Deaton, the cause of these "waves of unrest, popular
protest, and open rebellion" arose "out of the political and social
struggles among classes and between classes." She further explained that
the "commercialization of the economy," especially in agriculture, had
led to fundamental changes in the lifestyles of the peasants and thus brought
about "the seeds of discontent."
The bond that the people of Jalisco felt towards their indigenous ancestry
continued well into the Twentieth Century and is clearly manifested in the 1921
Mexican census. At the time of this census, which was tallied after the end of
the devastating Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), 199,728 Jalisco natives
identified themselves as being of "ind�gena pura" (pure indigenous)
descent, representing 16.8% of the entire state�s population. In contrast, a
mere 195 individuals were classified as speakers of indigenous languages
(primarily N�huatl and Huichol).
In a true testament to the mestizaje of Jalisco�s inhabitants, 903,830 Jaliscans classified themselves as "ind�gena mezclada con blanca" (Indigenous mixed with White), representing 75.8% of the total state population. The mestizos of Jalisco, in fact, represented 10.6% of the mestizo population of the entire Mexican Republic in the 1921 census.
In contrast, only 87,103 of Jalisco�s 1,191,957 inhabitants referred to themselves as "blanca." When the next census was counted in 1930, only 1,681 inhabitants of Jalisco spoke indigenous languages. Nearly all of these persons were Huicholes (1,676). The racial classifications of Jalisco�s population in 1921 is illustrated in the following table:
|
RACIAL CLASSIFICATIONS IN JALISCO AND THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC � 1921 CENSUS Copyright � 2007, by John P. Schmal |
||||
|
Racial Classification |
Jalisco (Number of Persons) |
As a Percentage of the Total State Population |
As a Percentage of the Population of the Mexican Republic |
Mexican Republic (Number of Persons) |
|
"Ind�gena Pura" |
199,728 |
16.8% |
4.8% |
4,179,449 |
|
"Ind�gena Mezclada con Blanca" |
903,830 |
75.8% |
10.6% |
8,504,561 |
|
"Blanca" |
87,103 |
7.3% |
6.2% |
1,404,718 |
|
Total Population |
1,191,957 |
100% |
8.3% |
14,334,780 |
|
Source: Departamento de la Estad�stica Nacional, Annuario de 1930: Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Tacubaya, D.F., 1932). |
||||
According to the 2000 census, the population of persons five years and more who spoke indigenous languages in Jalisco totalled 39,259 individuals. The most common of these languages were: Huichol (10,976 persons), N�huatl (6,714), Pur�pecha (3,074), Mixteco (1,471), Otom� (1,193), and Zapoteco (1,061). The majority of the indigenous languages spoken in the state were transplanted tongues from other parts of M�xico and the Huichol language represented the only truly indigenous language of these tongues.
The State of Jalisco contains 124 municipios, but only 11 of these entities contained indigenous populations that numbered more than one percent in 2000. I have illustrated the indigenous populations of these municipios in the following table:
|
JALISCO -- MUNICIPIOS WITH AT LEAST ONE PERCENT POPULATIONS OF INDIGENOUS SPEAKERS - 2000 CENSUS (All Statistics based on Persons Aged 5 Years or More) Copyright � 2007, by John P. Schmal |
||||
|
� No. |
� Municipio |
% Indigenous Population |
� Population |
Primary Language Group |
|
01 |
Mezquitic |
64.75 |
7,652 |
Huichol |
|
02 |
Bola�os |
48.35 |
2,125 |
Huichol |
|
03 |
Huejuquilla el Alto |
5.07 |
400 |
Huichol |
|
04 |
Villa Guerrero |
3.46 |
176 |
Huichol |
|
05 |
El Grullo |
3.02 |
598 |
N�huatl |
|
06 |
San Mart�n de Bola�os |
1.64 |
56 |
Various |
|
07 |
Tuxcacuesco |
1.33 |
48 |
Pur�pecha |
|
08 |
Puerto Vallarta |
1.24 |
1,967 |
N�huatl |
|
09 |
Cuautitl�n de Garc�a Barrag�n |
1.15 |
� |
N�huatl |
|
10 |
Tenamaxtl�n |
1.13 |
72 |
Various |
|
11 |
Chimaltitl�n |
1.02 |
34 |
Huichol |
The most important indigenous group still living in Jalisco are the Huichol people. In the entire Mexican Republic, there were 30,686 persons five years of age or more who spoke the Huichol language in the 2000 census. They were primarily distributed across portions of four adjacent states: Nayarit (16,932), Jalisco (10,976), Durango (1,435), and Zacatecas (330). The Huicholes have managed to preserve their identity, language, culture and religious customs, largely because of their isolation in the Sierra Madre Mountains in the northern reaches of Jalisco, where they occupy portions of all four states.
The three main Huichol communities belong to the northern Jalisco municipio of Mezquitic. The Huichol speakers numbered 7,652 in the 2000 census and represented 64.75% of the municipio�s population. Monolingual Huicholes numbered 2,621 individuals, representing 34.25% of the Huichol speakers and a clear indication of their resistance to assimilation into mainstream Mexican culture.
In 2000, Huichol speakers also represented 48.35% of the population of the Municipio of Bola�os. The Huicholes have been described and analyzed in a multitude of published works. The reader may be interested in checking this source for a brief, but detailed, description of this indigenous group:
http://68.166.190.115/wixarika/Assets/pdf/THEHUICHOl-Wixarika.pdf
The N�huatl language is spoken by many inhabitants of Jalisco. Because this language has been spoken for so long in so many parts of M�xico for so long, some N�huatl speakers are probably migrants from other states, while others are natives to the state. N�huatl speakers tend to inhabit municipios with larger populations, such as Guadalajara (where 1,494 N�huatl speakers lived in 2000), Zapopan (7,348 speakers) and Puerto Vallarta (779 speakers). They are largely bilingual and can communicate in Spanish.
Pur�pecha is the third most commonly spoken language in present-day Jalisco. The Pur�pecha � who are sometimes called Tarascans (a label that was given to them by the Spaniards in the Sixteenth Century) � ruled over a significant portion of Michoac�n during the pre-Hispanic era and have managed to preserve their language and many of their unique customs. Many of the Pur�pecha speakers live in the border regions adjacent to Michoac�n.
The Otom�, Mixtec and Zapotec languages are also believed to be largely migrant languages in Jalisco. Otom� is widely spoken through many central Mexican states, while the Mixtec and Zapotec languages have their origins in the southern state of Oaxaca. The Mixtecs and Zapotecs have migrated to many states of Mexico and are in great demand as agricultural laborers throughout the northern states.
The Cora people, like the Huichol, have survived in isolation, occupying mountains and valleys within the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain range. The vast majority of the Cora speakers (15,380) live in the State of Nayarit, Jalisco�s northwestern neighbor. However, in 2000, only 162 Cora speakers lived within Jalisco�s borders.
As Jalisco moves into the Twenty-First Century, the percentage of indigeous speakers in the state � as with many other Mexican states � will continue to drop as assimilation continues. The presence of migrant laborers from other parts of the country will ensure that Jalisco has a significant number of persons speaking Indian languages, but most of those languages are not truly indigenous to the state itself. Nevertheless, many sons and daughters of Jalisco recognize and feel great pride in the indigenous heritage that they have inherited from their distant ancestors.
Sources:
Departamento de la Estadistica Nacional, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, "Censos General de Habitantes: 30 de Noviembre de 1921, Estado de Jalisco," (Mexico, Distrito Federal: Talleres Graficos de la Naci�n, 1926)
Dawn Fogle Deaton, "The Decade of Revolt: Peasant Rebellion in Jalisco,
Mexico, 1855-1864," in Robert H. Jackson (ed.), "Liberals, the Church,
and Indian Peasants: Corporate Lands and the Challenge of Reform in
Nineteenth-Century Spanish America." (Albuquerque: New Mexico Press, 1997).
Population statistics from Instituto Nacional de Estad�stica Geograf�a e
Inform�tica (INEGI).
�
�
�
THE AZTEC EMPIRE
The Mexica: From Obscurity to Dominance
THE MEXICA: FROM OBSCURITY TO DOMINANCE
by John P. Schmal
The Aztec Empire of 1519 was the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time. The multi-ethnic, multi-lingual realm stretched for more than 80,000 square miles through many parts of what is now central and southern Mexico. This enormous empire reached from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf coast and from central Mexico to the present-day Republic of Guatemala. Fifteen million people, living in thirty-eight provinces and residing in 489 communities, paid tribute to the Emperor Moctezuma II in Tenochtitl�n, the capital city of the great empire.
The Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) Indians, the dominant ethnic group ruling over the Aztec Empire from their capital city at Tenochtitl�n in the Valley of Mexico, had very obscure and humble roots that made their rise to power even more remarkable. The Valley of Mexico, which became the heartland of the Aztec civilization, is a large internally-drained basin which is surrounded by volcanic mountains, some of which reach more than 3,000 meters in elevation.
My understanding of the Mexica Indians and the Aztec Empire has been greatly augmented by the works of the anthropologist Professor Michael E. Smith of the University of New York. Professor Smith has written several books about the central Mexican Indians, including The Aztecs and Aztec Imperial Strategies, which I have used as primary sources for this article.
The growth of the Mexica Indians from newcomers and outcasts in the Valley of Mexico to the guardians of an extensive empire is the stuff that legends are made of. Many people, however, are confused by the wide array of terms designating the various indigenous groups that lived in the Valley of Mexico. The popular term, Aztec, has been used as an all-inclusive term to describe both the people and the empire.
Professor Smith uses the term Aztec Empire to describe "the empire of the Triple Alliance, in which Tenochtitl�n played the dominant role." Quoting the author Charles Gibson, Professor Smith observes that the Aztecs "were the inhabitants of the Valley of Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Most of these were N�huatl speakers belonging to diverse polities and ethnic groups (e.g., Mexica of Tenochtitl�n, Acolhua of Texcoco, Chalca of Chalco)." In short, the reader should recognize that the Aztec Indians were not one ethnic group, but a collection of many ethnicities, all sharing a common cultural and historical background.
On the other hand, the Mexica, according to Professor Smith, are "the inhabitants of the cities of Tenochtitl�n and Tlatelolco who occupied adjacent islands and claimed the same heritage." And it is the Mexica who eventually became the dominant people within the Aztec Empire. Legend states that the Mexica Indians originally came to the Valley of Mexico from a region in the northwest, popularly known as Atzlan-Chicomoztoc. The name Aztec, in fact, is believed to have been derived from this ancestral homeland, Aztlan (The Place of Herons).
In A.D. 1111, the Mexica left their native Aztlan to settle in Chicomoztoc (Seven Caves). According to legend, they had offended their patron god Huitzilopochtli by cutting down a forbidden tree. As a result, the Mexica were condemned to leave Aztlan and forced to wander until they received a sign from their gods, directing them to settle down permanently.
The land of Atzlan was said to have been a marshy island situated in the middle of a lake. Some historians actually consider the names Chicomoztoc and Aztlan to be two terms for the same place, and believe that the island and the seven caves are simply two features of the same region. For nearly five centuries, popular imagination has speculated about the location of the legendary Aztlan. Some people refer to Aztlan as a concept, not an actual place that ever existed.
However, many historians believe that Aztlan did exist. The historian Paul Kirchhoff suggested that Aztlan lay along a tributary of the Lerna River, to the west of the Valley of Mexico. Other experts have suggested the Aztlan might be the island of Janitzio in the center of Lake P�tzcuaro, also to the west, with its physical correspondence to the description of Aztlan. Many people have speculated that the ancestral home of the Aztecs lay in California, New Mexico or in the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa.
The idea that Sinaloa, Sonora, California, and New Mexico might be the site of Aztlan is a very plausible explanation when historical linguistics are considered. "The north-to-south movement of the Aztlan groups is supported by research in historical linguistics," writes Professor Smith in The Aztecs, "The N�huatl language, classified in the Nahuan group of the Uto-Aztecan family of languages, is unrelated to most Mesoamerican native languages." As a matter of fact, "N�huatl was a relatively recent intrusion" into central Mexico.
On the other hand, if one observes the locations of the indigenous people who spoke the Uto-Aztecan languages, all of their lands lay to the northwest of the Valley of Mexico. The northern Uto-Aztecans occupied a large section of the American Southwest. Among them were the Hopi and Zuni Indians of New Mexico and the Gabrielino Indians of the Los Angeles Basin. The Central Uto-Aztecans - occupying large parts of Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Sonora in northwestern Mexico - included the Papago, Opata, Yaqui, Mayo, Concho, Huichol and Tepehu�n. It is reasonable to assume that where there is a linguistic relationship there is most likely also a genetic relationship. Thus, it is highly likely that the legendary Aztlan was located in northwestern Mexico or the Southwestern United States.
It is important to note, however, that the Aztlan migrations were not one simple movement of a single group of people. Instead, as Professor Smith has noted, "when all of the native histories are compared, no fewer than seventeen ethnic groups are listed among the original tribes migrating from Aztlan and Chicomoztoc." It is believed that the migrations southward probably took place over several generations. "Led by priests," continues Professor Smith, "the migrants� stopped periodically to build houses and temples, to gather and cultivate food, and to carry out rituals."
The first group of migrants probably included the Acolhua, Tepaneca, Culhua, Chalca, Xochimilca, all of whom settled in the Valley of Mexico. The second group, including the Tlahuica of Morelos, the Matlatzinca of Toluca Valley, the Tlaxcalans of Tlaxcala, the Huexotzinca of Puebla, and the Malinalca of Malinalco, migrated to the surrounding valleys. The last to arrive, around A.D. 1248, were the Mexica who found all the good land occupied and were forced to settle in more undesirable locations of the Valley.
As the late arrivals in the Valley of Mexico, the Mexica were forced by other groups in the valley to take refuge on two islands near the western shore of Lake Texcoco (one of the five lakes in the area). Their first home was an island in the middle of Lake Chapultepec (Place of the Grasshopper), which is now in Downtown Mexico City. The Mexica were welcomed to Chapultepec by the Tepanec leader of city-state of Azcapotzalco on the understanding that they would work as both mercenaries and laborers. However, around 1315, the Mexica were ejected from Chapultepec by the Tepanecs.
When the Mexicas first arrived in the Valley of Mexico, the whole region was occupied by some forty city-states (altepetl is the Nahua term). These city-states - which included the Tepanecs, Coatlinchans, Cholcos, Xochimilcos, Cholulas, Tlaxcalans and Huexotzincas - were engaged in a constant and continuing battle for ascendancy in the Valley. In describing this political situation, Professor Smith observed that "ethnically similar and/or geographically close city-states allied to form regional political confederations." By 1300, eight confederations of various sizes occupied the entire Valley of the Mexico and adjacent areas.
In A.D. 1325, the Mexica, once again on the run, wandered through the wilderness of swamps that surrounded the salty lakes of the Valley of Mexico. On a small island, the Mexica finally found their promised omen when they saw a cactus growing out of a rock with an eagle perched atop the cactus. The Mexica high priests thereupon proclaimed that they had reached their promised land. As it turns out, the site turned out to be a strategic location, with abundant food supplies and waterways for transportation.
The Mexica settled down to found their new home, Tenochtitl�n (Place of the Cactus Fruit). The Mexica became highly efficient in their ability to develop a system of dikes and canals to control the water levels and salinity of the lakes. Using canoes and boats, they were able to carry on commerce with other cities along the valley lakes. And, comments Professor Smith, "the limited access to the city provided protection against military attack."
Huitzilihuitl, who ruled the Mexica from 1391 to 1415, writes Professor Smith, "presided over one of the most important periods in Mexica history� The Mexica became highly skilled as soldiers and diplomats in their dealing with neighbors. One of Huitzilihuitl's major accomplishments was the establishment of successful marriage alliances with a number of powerful dynasties." Over time, the Mexica, as the latecomers and underdogs of the Valley region, sought to increase their political power and prestige through intermarriage.
"Marriage alliances," writes Professor Smith, "were an important component of diplomacy among Mesoamerican states. Lower ranking kings would endeavor to marry the daughters of more powerful and important kings. A marriage established at least an informal alliance between the polities and was a public acknowledgement of the dominant status of the more powerful king."
Sometime around 1428, the Mexica monarch, Itzcoatl, ruling from Tenochtitl�n, formed a triple alliance with the city-states of Texcoco and Tlacopan (now Tacuba) as a means of confronting the then-dominant Tepanecs of the city-state of Azcapotzalco. Soon after, the combined force of the Triple Alliance was able to defeat Azcapotzalco. Later that year, Culhuacan and Huitzilopochco were defeated by the Alliance. A string of victories continued in quick succession, with the defeat of Xochimilco in 1429-30, Ixtapalapan in 1430, and Mixquic in 1432. "The only area of the valley to resist conquest for any length of time," comments the anthropologist Mary G. Hodge, "was the southeastern portion occupied by the Chalca confederation. The hostilities with the Chalca city-states were resolved only through conquering this area piecemeal, between 1456 and 1465."
Professor Smith writes that "the three Triple Alliance states were originally conceived as equivalent powers, with the spoils of joint conquests to be divided evenly among them. However, Tenochtitl�n steadily grew in power at the expense of Texcoco and particularly Tlacopan." In time the conquests of the alliance began to take the shape of an empire, with the Triple Alliance levying tribute upon their subject towns. Professor Smith, quoting the words of the anthropologist Robert McCormick Adams, writes that "A defining activity of empires is that they are 'preoccupied with channeling resources from diverse subject polities and peoples to an ethnically defined ruling stratum."
With each conquest, the Aztec domain became more and more ethnically diverse, eventually controlling thirty-eight provinces. The Aztec tributary provinces, according to Professor Frances F. Berdan, were "scattered throughout central and southern Mexico, in highly diverse environmental and cultural settings." Professor Berdan points out that "these provinces provided the imperial powers with a regular and predictable flow of tribute goods."
Of utmost importance became the tribute that made its way back to Tenochtitl�n from the various city-states and provinces. Such tribute may have taken many forms, including textiles, warriors' costumes, foodstuffs, maize, beans, chiles, cacao, bee honey, salt and human beings (for sacrificial rituals).
Aztec society was highly structured, based on agriculture, and guided by a religion that pervaded every aspect of life. The Aztecs worshipped gods that represented natural forces that were vital to their agricultural economy. All of the Aztec cities were dominated by giant stone pyramids topped by temples where human sacrifices provided the gods with the human sustenance that the priests believed their supernatural deities required.
For hundreds of years, human sacrifice is believed to have played an important role of many of the indigenous tribes inhabiting the Valley of Mexico. However, the Mexica brought human sacrifice to levels that had never been practiced before. The Mexica Indians and their neighbors had developed a belief that it was necessary to constantly appease the gods through human sacrifice. By spilling the blood of human beings onto the ground, the high priests were, in a sense, paying their debt to the gods. If the blood would flow, then the sun would rise each morning, the crops would grow, the gods would provide favorable weather for good crops, and life would continue.
Over time, the Mexica, in particular, developed a feeling that the needs of their gods were insatiable. The period from 1446 to 1453 was a period of devastating natural disasters: locusts, drought, floods, early frosts, starvation, etc. The Mexica, during this period, resorted to massive human sacrifice in an attempt to remedy these problems. When abundant rain and a healthy crop followed in 1455, the Mexica believed that their efforts had been successful. In 1487, according to legend, Aztec priests sacrificed more than 80,000 prisoners of war at the dedication of the reconstructed temple of the sun god in Tenochtitl�n.
The Mexica's sacrificial rituals were elaborate in form, calculated by the high priests to appease specific gods at certain times. During the ceremony, a victim would ascend the steps of the pyramid. At the top, a Mexica priest would stretch the victim across a stone altar and cut out the victim's heart. The priest would hold the heart aloft to the god being honored and then fling it into a sacred fire while it was still beating.
The function of Aztec priests was one of the most important in Aztec society. It was the priests who determined which days would be lucky for engaging in activities such as war and religious ceremonies. They were guided in their decisions by a religious calendar of 260 days, that was combined with a solar calendar of 365 days. The meshing of the two calendars produced a 52-year cycle that played an integral role in Mexica society and religion.
The basic unit of Aztec society was the calpulli, which was the Aztec equivalent of a clan, or group of families who claimed descent from a common ancestor. Each calpulli regulated its own affairs, electing a council which would keep order, declare war, dispense justice. Calpulli ran the schools where young Mexica boys were taught about citizenship, warfare, history, crafts, and religion. Each calpulli also had a temple, an armory to hold weapons, and a storehouse for goods and tribute that were distributed among its members.
In the Tenochtitl�n of later years, during the ascendancy of the Aztec Empire, the function of the calpulli, took on a different form. As the city grew large and complex, the Mexica calpulli were no longer based on familial relationships. Instead, the capulli became like wards, or political divisions, of the city. Each calpulli cstill governed and provided education to its members, but the members of a calpulli were not necessarily related. It is believed that there were 15 calpulli in Tenochtitl�n when the city was founded in 1325. By the time that the Spaniards arrived in the early Sixteenth Century, there were as many as eighty calpulli throughout the city.
In Tenochtitl�n and the other Aztec city-states, the leaders of each calpulli were joined together in a tribal council which was given the responsibility of electing four chief officials, one of whom would be selected as the Tlatoani (Great Lord). After Tenochtitl�n became the center of Aztec civilization, its ruler became the supreme leader of the empire, to whom lesser rulers paid tribute. This ruler was considered to be a descendant of the Aztec gods and served as both military leader and high priest.
By the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, the Aztec Empire had become a formidable power, its southern reaches extending into the present-day Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. The Mexica had also moved the boundaries of the Aztec Empire to a large stretch of the Gulf Coast on the eastern side of the continent. But, as Professor Smith states, "rebellions were a common occurrence in the Aztec empire because of the indirect nature of imperial rule." The Aztecs had allowed local rulers to stay in place "as long as they cooperated with the Triple Alliance and paid their tribute." When a provincial monarch decided to withhold tribute payments from the Triple Alliance, the Aztec forces would respond by dispatching an army to threaten that king.
Professor Smith wrote that the Aztec Empire "followed two deliberate strategies in planning and implementing their conquests." The first strategy was "economically motivated." The Triple Alliance sought to "generate tribute payments and promote trade and marketing throughout the empire." Their second strategy dealt with their frontier regions, in which they established client states and outposts along imperial borders to help contain their enemies."
However, Professor Smith, in his essay on "The Strategic Provinces" commented on the existence of "major unconquered enemy states surrounded by imperial territory." The fact that these enclaves remained free of Aztec dominance is some indication that these "enemy states" may have been recognized as "serious and powerful adversaries." The most powerful enclave, Tlaxcalla, located to the east of the Valley of Mexico, was a "confederation of four republics." Tlaxcalla, writes Professor Smith, "was a Nahuatl-speaking area whose population shared a common cultural and ethnic heritage with the rest of the peoples of central Mexico."
Aztlan migrants had arrived in the Puebla-Tlaxcalla Valley between the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries and, Professor Smith explains, "populations grew and city-states developed in a fashion that paralleled the Valley of Mexico." Thus, by the beginning of the Fifteenth Century, writes Professor Smith, "three polities stood out as the most powerful and influential - Tlaxcalla itself, Huexotzinco, and Cholula."
Emperor Moctezuma I, who ruled the Aztecs from 1440 to 1469, conquered the states north and east of Tlaxcalla and, according to Professor Smith, began "a process of encirclement that continued under the following emperors and was largely complete by the time Moctezuma I took power in 1502." This encirclement cut the Tlaxcallans off from external trade. As a result elite goods (gold, feathers, and cacao) and utilitarian items (cotton and salt) became rare in the state.
In seeking to conquer Tlaxcalla, the Aztecs maintained an almost perpetual state of war with Tlaxcalla. The many wars between the two nations also provided a source of victims of human sacrifices. However, after the arrival of the Spaniards, the Tlaxcalan confederation offered a fertile ground of opposition and defiance against the Aztec Empire. In 1519, the Spaniards initiated an alliance with the Tlaxcallans that played a major role in the fall of Tenochtitl�n and continued for many centuries.
Metztitlan. A powerful Otom� conquest state located in the rugged mountainous region of what is now northern Hidalgo, Metztitlan remained an unconquered enclave within the Aztec Empire up until the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519. The independence of this small kingdom was easily maintained because of the nature of the terrain in the Metztitlan Valley, where, writes Professor Smith, "a small but well-placed force could hold off a larger and more powerful army." Emperors Ahu�tzotl and Moctezuma were able to complete the isolation of Metztitlan. Professor Smith believes that the state remained unconquered because "there were few resources of interest to the empire in this area, and the final emperors may have decided that Metztitlan was not worth the effort."
Yopitzinco. Located in the isolated mountain area along the Coast Chica region of Guerrero, just southeast of present-day Acapulco, Yopitzinco was occupied by the Yope Indians, who had a reputation as fierce warriors. The Pacific coastal regions to the north and south of Yopitzinco were conquered by Ahuitzotl and Moctezuma II but, it appears that Yope territory had little to offer the Aztec Empire.
Tututepec. As a "large and powerful Mixtec conquest state in the mountains of southwestern Oaxaca," write Professor Smith, "Tututepec controlled a long stretch of the Pacific coast and was in the process of expanding to the north and east in the decades prior to 1519."
The Tarascan Empire of present-day Michoac�n was not an enclave located within the Aztec Empire but stood on the periphery of the Mexica domain. The Tarascans (Purh�pechas) were a constant source of problems for the Mexica. Like the Aztecs, the Tarascans had engaged in militaristic expansion and conquered adjacent states. Located some 150 kilometers west of the Valley of Mexico in the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin, the Purh�pecha Kingdom controlled an area of at least 45,000 square miles (72,500 square kilometers), including parts of the present-day states of Guanajuato, Guerrero, Quer�taro, Colima, and Jalisco.
In A.D. 1478, when the Aztec armies met in battle with the Tarascans, it is believed that as many as 20,000 Triple Alliance warriors may have perished. Against a Tarascan force of about 50,000, the Aztec force of 32,200 warriors was nearly annihilated and the independence of present-day Michoac�n preserved for another half-century.
In 1502, Moctezuma II Xocoyotl (the Younger) ascended to the throne of Tenochtitl�n as the newly elected tlatoani. It was about this time when the Mexica of Tenochtitl�n began to suffer various disasters. While tribute peoples in several parts of the empire started to rebel against Aztecs, troubling omens took place which led the Mexica to believe that their days were numbered. Seventeen years after Moctezuma's rise to power, the Aztec Empire would be faced with its greatest challenge and a huge coalition of indigenous and alien forces which would bring an end to the Triple Alliance.
Copyright � 2008, by John P. Schmal. All rights under applicable law are hereby reserved. Reproduction of this article in whole or in part without the express permission of John P. Schmal is strictly prohibited.
Sources:
Frances F. Berdan, "The Tributary Provinces," in Frances F. Berdan et al., Aztec Imperial Strategies. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996, pp. 115-135.
Ron Hassig, Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.
Mary G. Hodge, "Political Organization of the Central Provinces," in Frances F. Berdan et al., Aztec Imperial Strategies. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996, pp. 17-45.
Michael E. Smith, "The Strategic Provinces," in Frances F. Berdan et al., Aztec Imperial Strategies. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996, pp. 137-150.
Michael E. Smith, The Aztecs. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 1996.
THE HISTORY OF THE TLAXCALANS
By John P. Schmal
The Mexican state of Tlaxcala, with a population of 911,696 people (0.97% of the national population), is one of the smallest and most densely populated states in the Mexican Republic. Located in the east central part of Mexico sixty miles from Mexico City, Tlaxcala is made up of 1,555 square miles (4,027 square kilometers), which represents 0.19% of the total surface area of Mexico. Tlaxcala is bordered on its south, east and northwest by the State of Puebla, on its north by Hidalgo, and on its east by Mexico. Its meaning originates from the N�huatl word meaning "Place of born bread." Tlaxcala, with its sixty municipios, became a state on February 5, 1857.
This highland state's elevation is over 6,562 feet. Within the state's border lies La Malinche, Mexico's fifth-highest mountain at 14,637 feet. Although it is Mexico's smallest state, Tlaxcala is rich with tradition, history, and colonial architecture. One of its main attractions is Cacaxtla, an important archaeological site believed to have been built at the zenith of the Olmec Xicalanca culture around AD 700.
The Olmec Xicalanca culture fell into decline after AD 900 and was replaced by the Teo-Chichimecas (also known as N�huatl Tlaxcalans). Sometime around A.D. 1350, the present-day inhabitants of the area, the Tlaxcalans, drove out the Chichimecas. Defeating the opposition, the Tlaxcalans moved into the Cholula region and set up an autonomous Tlaxcalan state. During the following decades, they made war with and subdued many of their neighbors. In time, the Tlaxcalan Nation would evolve into a "confederation of four republics," each with its own ruling lord, judges and other officials. The Tlaxcalans built defensive walls along the outskirts of their territory and collected taxes and tribute from their subject peoples.
In time, the Tlaxcalans came up against the powerful Mexica (pronounced "me-shee-ka") Indians who inhabited the Valley of Mexico to the west. As the Mexica spread out from their base of power in Tenochtitl�n, the Tlaxcalans became their traditional enemies. The Tlaxcalans and Mexica shared a common origin, both of them speaking the N�huatl language. As a matter of fact, both the Tlaxcalans and the Mexica belonged to the Aztec culture, looking back to the legendary Aztlan (Place of the Herons) as their ancestral homeland in the northwest.
An Independent Enclave
For more than two hundred years, the Tlaxcalan nation lived in the shadow of the Mexica and their rapidly expanding Aztec Empire. Starting in 1325, the Mexica had begun building an empire with their military force. They subdued neighboring city-states and compelled the people to surrender part of their production as tribute. By 1440, the Mexica had spread their influence as far south as Guatemala.
In 1519, the Aztec Empire was the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time. The Mexica capital of Tenochtitl�n had become a city of about 300,000 citizens. And the Aztec Empire itself ruled over about 80,000 square miles of territory extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, and southward to Oaxaca and Chiapas. This empire contained some 15 million people, living in thirty-eight provinces. In all, the Emperor received the tribute of 489 communities.
Although the Mexica put together an extensive and powerful empire, Tlaxcala never fell into their hands. When the Spanish conquistadors, under the command of Captain-General Hern�n Cort�s, reached the Tlaxcalan republic in 1519, Tlaxcala was an independent enclave deep in the heart of the Mexica Empire. At this time, the Tlaxcalan Confederation ruled over some 200 settlements, boasting a total population of about 150,000. Surrounded on all sides and economically blockaded, they had never yielded to the Mexica and had been subjected to almost continuous warfare and human sacrifice for many decades.
Some historians believe that Tenochtitl�n could have overwhelmed Tlaxcala without too much difficulty, and the reason it did not is probably that it wanted a nearby source of victims for the human sacrifices. The clashes between the Tlaxcalans and Mexica were called the "Flower Wars" (Xochiyaoyotl). The chief purpose of these "ceremonial battles" was to furnish captives to be used in their sacrificial rites. It is likely that both the Mexica and Tlaxcalan also saw war as a convenient way of testing and training young warriors for future wars. During this time, it was a common belief in Central Mexico that offering human sacrifice to their gods would ensure the continued movement of the sun and hence the other processes needed to maintain life.
Because of their economic isolation, the Tlaxcalans had no cotton with which to make their clothes. Neither did they have any salt. The salt lakes of Alchichica, not far from Tlaxcala, lay close by but they could not benefit from this. No feathers or precious stones made their way into Tlaxcala. This state of unrelenting warfare had become very hateful to the Tlaxcalans and by the time that Cort�s arrived in Tlaxcala, the confederation represented fertile grounds for an anti-Mexica alliance.
The Arrival of the Spaniards
On April 22, 1519, a fleet of eleven Spanish galleons, which had been sailing northward along the eastern Gulf Coast of Mexico, dropped anchor just off the wind-swept beach on the island of San Juan de Ul�a. Under the command of the Spanish-born Captain-General Hern�n Cort�s, these vessels bore 450 soldiers, 100 sailors, and 16 horses. The first indigenous peoples that Cort�s met with were the Totonac Indians who inhabited the coastal area near the city-state of Cempoala. Although this town of 14,000 was subject to the Aztec Empire, Cacique (Chief) Tlacochcalcatl and his people offered a warm welcome to Cort�s, expressing the hope that the Spaniards may help them to gain independence from their Mexica overlords.
The chief of the Totonacs complained that the Mexica tribute collectors had picked the country clean and that hundreds of young Totonac children were brought to the altars of Tenochtitl�n for sacrifice. The Cempoalans, impressed by the superior firepower of the Spaniards and the hope of overthrowing Aztec rule, helped Cort�s and his men establish a base on the shore. On June 28, 1519, Cort�s formally gave this town the name La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (The Rich Town of the True Cross). At this point, Cort�s decided to lead his troops westward into the interior of the continent to find and meet with the Mexica monarch, Moctezuma.
Cacique Tlacochcalcatl warned Cort�s that, on his journey inland, he would pass through the territory of the Tlaxcalans, who held a deep and uncompromising hatred toward the Mexica. It was his belief that the Tlaxcalans might be willing to ally themselves with the Spaniards. With the help of Totonac guides, Cort�s planned his march to Tenochtitl�n through territories that might represent fertile ground for more alliances. Finally, on August 16, 1519, Cort�s assembled a formidable expedition to move inland from Cempoala. His army now consisted of 400 Spanish soldiers, 15 horses, 1,300 Indian warriors, seven pieces of artillery, and a thousand tamanes (porters), who helped transport baggage and guns across the land. About 150 of the porters were Cuban Indian servants who were brought along from Cuba. The force brought along many dogs that had been well-trained to fight. The distance from Cempoala to Tenochtitl�n is 250 miles, as the crow flies.
On August 31, at a point ten miles into Tlaxcalan territory, Cort�s' army encountered a hostile force of at least 30,000 Tlaxcalans. Despite the tremendous size of the army, the Spaniards managed to fend them off. Unlike other Indians, the Tlaxcalans seemed to have no fear of the horses and killed two of the animals. That night, the Spaniards, exhausted from their battle, rested in the open, some twenty miles from the capital city of Tlaxcala. The Tlaxcalan council then decided on a night attack against the Spaniards and their allies, but they found to their surprise that Cort�s' troops were ready for them and reversed the ambush.
In the next battle, Cort�s claimed that he faced a Tlaxcalan army of well over 100,000 warriors. In this battle, some sixty Spaniards and several horses were wounded by the enemy. But, on the following day, Cort�s led a punitive expedition, burning some ten Tlaxcalan towns (with a total population of over 3,000). Many Indians were killed in this campaign. After a third day of battles, the Spaniards had lost 45 men who died in battle, died of wounds or succumbed to disease.
Watching the Spaniards prove themselves in battle, the Tlaxcalan King Xicotenga was very impressed and decided to allow Cort�s' army to pass through the confederation. As the Spaniards entered the Tlaxcalan capital on September 18, they were welcomed into the town as if they were heroes. For twenty days, Cort�s and his army stayed in Tlaxcala. As his men recovered from their wounds, Cort�s forged a relationship with Xicotenga and other Tlaxcalan leaders. Xicotenga agreed to provide necessary provisions and manpower to the Spaniards. This change from hostility to alliance was brought on by Cort�s' claims that he was opposed only to the Aztec empire and that there would be a place for Tlaxcala in a Spanish-dominated Mexico.
Xicotenga saw in Cort�s a powerful ally who could help the Tlaxcalans destroy the Mexica and undermine the power of the Aztec Empire. The alliance between the Spaniards and Tlaxcalans is one of the most important events in Mexican history. This alliance of the Europeans with the Totonac and Tlaxcalan Indians gave birth to a formidable coalition which would eventually lead to the downfall and destruction of the entire Aztec Empire. The allegiance of the Tlaxcalans with the Spaniards would become an enduring partnership, lasting several centuries.
Joining Forces
On November 1, 1519, Cort�s and his army of European mercenaries and indigenous warriors left the Tlaxcalan capital. As many as 6,000 Tlaxcalan warriors had been added to the ranks of Cort�s' force, but most of his Totonac allies had to return to their homes on the Gulf Coast. While Indian laborers carried the cannon and baggage in the center of the formation, Tlaxcalan warriors and Spanish horsemen marched along the flanks and with the rear guard.
As Cort�s traveled westward through mountain towns and villages, many of the Indians living along this path told him of their cruel treatment at the hands of the Mexica overlords. Through these meetings, Cort�s began to understand the depth of this hatred and fear. He also recognized that many of these people would be potential allies in a showdown with the Mexica.
From the mountain passes overlooking the great Valley of Mexico, the Spaniards and Tlaxcalans witnessed for the first time the great splendor of Tenochtitl�n as it spread out along the valley floor. Before long, the mountain pass, with the Valley in full view, descended to lower altitudes, eventually bringing Cort�s and his forces to an altitude of 7,400 feet above sea level on the valley floor. As they made their way through the valley towards Tenochtitl�n, the Spaniards arrived in one town, where the King of Texcoco welcomed them. The Texcocans provided their alien guests with gifts, food, and assistance. Soon after hearing about the Christian religion, many Texcocans, including the king, decided to convert to Catholicism. Before continuing on to the capital, the Spaniards performed several religious services, baptizing the king and other Texcocan nobles.
On November 8, 1519, the coalition army reached Xoloco, just outside of Tenochtitl�n, where they were greeted by hundreds of emissaries of Emperor Moctezuma, the ruler of Tenochtitl�n and the Emperor of the mighty Aztec Empire. As they were brought into the city, the Spaniards stared in awe at the architectural precision of the city. Filing across the southern causeway of the capital, Cort�s and his men were greeted with much ceremony by a retinue of lords and nobles headed by Moctezuma himself. The Tlaxcalans, marching alongside their European allies, were equally impressed by the splendor of their hereditary enemies.
Greeted by Moctezuma, the Spaniards and Tlaxcalans were offered housing and provisions by the Mexica. Moctezuma showed his Spanish guests around the city and entertained them with splendid banquets. By this time, Moctezuma and the other Mexica lords had already heard about the devastation that Cort�s and his allies had inflicted upon several of the Aztec villages on his journey westward. Moctezuma also recognized the potential danger of a Tlaxcalan-Spanish alliance.
After several days of negotiations and touring, Cort�s and his officers suddenly took Moctezuma as a hostage. Bringing the monarch to his barracks in the great city, Cort�s persuaded him to dispatch messengers to the surrounding communities to collect gold and silver. Moctezuma's imprisonment within his own capital continued for eight months.
On April 19, 1520, more Spanish ships appeared along the eastern coast. As Cort�s suspected, the Governor of Cuba - his personal enemy - had sent soldiers under Panfilo de Narvaez to arrest Cort�s for insubordination. Leaving his friend, Captain Pedro de Alvarado, in charge of his troops in Tenochtitl�n, Cort�s quickly departed from Tenochtitl�n with 266 Spanish soldiers to confront the newly arrived Spanish force on the Gulf Coast. Although Narvaez's troops numbered three times greater, Cort�s and his small army defeated Narvaez in a battle near Veracruz. After this battle, Cort�s - a master of manipulation - persuaded most of Narvaez's troops to join him, after promising them a share of the spoils when Tenochtitl�n was brought under Spanish control.
However, when Cort�s and his men returned to Tenochtitl�n, he found out that Pedro de Alvarado had provoked an open revolt by massacring 600 Aztec nobles during the Feast of Huitzilopochtli. Fighting had broken out, and soon the Spaniards and their Tlaxcalan allies found themselves under siege within the palace of the great city. An attempt to get the Mexica monarch to calm his subjects failed when Moctezuma was killed by a hail of stones.
Moctezuma was succeeded as Emperor by Cuitlahuac, who immediately set out to organize a determined resistance to the Spanish forces. As the month of June approached its end, Cort�s realized that he would have to exit the city or face annihilation by a numerically superior force. On July 1, 1520, 1,250 Spaniards and 5,000 Tlaxcalans attempted to flee the city. This night - often referred to as La Noche Triste, the Night of Sadness - was a disaster for both the Spaniards and Tlaxcalan forces. As they fled the city, the Mexica forces fell upon them, killing 450 Spanish soldiers, 4,000 Tlaxcalans and 46 horses.
Plagued by hunger, disease, and the pursuing Aztecs, Cort�s' army fled eastward in an attempt to reach Tlaxcalan territory, where they would try to organize reinforcements. However, on July 8, the retreating army came upon a legion of nearly 200,000 Aztecs sent by Cuitlahuac. There, at the battle of Otumba, Cort�s' forces managed a smashing victory that dissuaded the Aztecs from pursuing the Spaniards and their allies any farther.
Four hundred and twenty Spaniards and a mere 17 horses limped into Tlaxcalan territory. All the survivors, including Cort�s, were wounded, and very few firearms or ammunition were left. As the battered army made its way into Tlaxcala, they were greeted by their Indian allies and given refuge. It goes without saying that the Spaniards would not have survived their ordeal without the help of their Tlaxcalan allies. The Tlaxcalan chiefs called on Cort�s during this dismal time and laid out their conditions for further assistance. The author Richard Lee Marks writes that the Tlaxcalans requested "perpetual exemption from tribute of any sort, a share of the spoils, and control of two provinces that bordered their land." Cort�s agreed to these conditions and, as Mr. Marks observed, "Spain substantially kept its promise" to the Tlaxcalans "and exempted them from tribute for the entire period of the Spanish rule in Mexico, nearly three hundred years."
The Spaniards, however, also received more important support from another, unexpected ally. "While the Spaniards rested and recuperated" in Tlaxcala, wrote Mr. Marks, "it occurred to Cort�s and his men to wonder why the great armies from Tenochtitl�n were not pursuing them." The Aztecs had not attacked or laid siege to Tlaxcala, giving the Spaniards and Tlaxcalans precious time to heal and recover from their catastrophic defeat. Later, Cort�s would learn that an epidemic of smallpox had devastated Tenochtitl�n.
Brought to the shores of Mexico by an African sailor, "the disease had spread with amazing rapidity through the coastal tribes and up into the highland." The disease spread quickly among the Indians, according to Mr. Marks, because they "were in the habit of bathing to alleviate almost any ailment that afflicted them. These baths were either communal or the same bathing water was used consecutively by many. But after someone with an open smallpox sore entered the bath, the disease was transmitted to everyone who followed." The Spaniards, however, never bathed. Although they occasionally washed off the dirt and blood when they had to, "they believed that bathing per se was weakening." And the Tlaxcalans, "always in a state of semi-siege," were not yet exposed to the smallpox.
"Reviewing their narrow escape," writes the author Michael C. Meyer, "many of the Spanish veterans wanted nothing more to do with the Aztecs. It required all of Cort�s' force of personality and subtle blandishments to prevent mass defections and rebellion among his men. Cort�s, who seems never to have wavered in his determination to retake Tenochtitl�n, began to lay plans for the return." In Tlaxcala, Cort�s gained great power over the council and began to form a huge new army to attack Tenochtitl�n once again. Reinforcements arrived from Vera Cruz to assist in the campaign, while more Tlaxcalans prepared to join Cort�s' army. The Captain-General's army left Tlaxcala in late December of 1520 on its march to the Aztec capital.
With an army of 600 Spanish soldiers and more than 110,000 Indian warriors, Cort�s intended to occupy the city of Texcoco and blockade Tenochtitl�n from there. In the Spring of 1521, the refreshed army systematically conquered most of the Aztec-inhabited towns around Tenochtitl�n, all the while receiving more reinforcements. The Spanish and Tlaxcalan force was bolstered by the addition of some 50,000 Texcocans. In addition, another 200 Spanish soldiers had arrived from the coast to help in the offensive.
In May 1521, Captain-General Hern�n Cort�s, with 900 Spaniards, 118 crossbows and harquebuses, fifteen bronze cannons and three heavy guns, thirteen brigantines, and as many as 150,000 Indian warriors, approached the entrance to Tenochtitl�n. The siege of Tenochtitl�n lasted from May 26 to August 13, 1521. The Mexica put up a fierce resistance until their people were reduced to eating worms and bark from trees. Towards the end of the siege, recognizing that the Mexica were nearly incapacitated by hunger and dehydration, the Captain-General ordered a full-scale assault on Tenochtitl�n.
On August 13, 1521, after a 75-day siege, Tenochtitl�n finally fell. In later years, Aztec historians would state that 240,000 Aztecs died in the siege. While many of the warriors died in battle, others, including most of the women and children, died from dehydration, starvation and disease. Of the 150,000 Amerindian allies fighting alongside the Spaniards, more than 30,000 are believed to have perished.
An Enduring Alliance
The anthropologist Eric R. Wolf stressed the great contribution of Cort�s' Indian allies in the capture of Tenochtitl�n. Wolf writes that "Spanish firepower and cavalry would have been impotent against the Mexica armies without" the support of the Tlaxcalans and the Texcocans. The allies "furnished the bulk of the infantry and manned the canoes that covered the advance of the brigantines across the lagoon of Tenochtitl�n." In addition, "they provided, transported, and prepared the food supplies needed to sustain an army in the field. They maintained lines of communication between the coast and highland, and they policed occupied and pacified areas."
Finally, writes Mr. Wolf, the Indian allies also "supplied the raw materials and muscular energy for the construction of the ships that decided the siege of the Mexican capital." In conclusion, he states that while "Spanish military equipment and tactics carried the day," the "Indian assistance determined the outcome of the war."
The author Charles Gibson, in his work Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century, has explored the intricacies of the Tlaxcalan alliance with the Spaniards in great detail. He notes that even after the surrender of the Mexica capital, the Tlaxcalans continued to offer support to the Spaniards. They accompanied Cort�s to P�nuco in 1522, and joined Pedro de Alvarado's expedition to Guatemala in 1524. In 1530, several thousand Tlaxcalans accompanied Nu�o de Guzm�n in his bloody campaign into northwestern Mexico.
During Nu�o de Guzm�n's reign of terror as the President of the First Audiencia of New Spain, the Tlaxcalans remained comparatively immune from the oppression and harassment, which reached its peak during in the early 1530s. Because they were directly subject to the Crown, royal officials preferred not to tamper with the privileges which the Crown had granted to the former republic as a reward for its loyalty in the war.
In 1524, twelve Franciscan friars arrived in Tlaxcala to carry on the spiritual conquest of the Tlaxcalans. They built convents and chapels and in 1525 founded Tlaxcala de Nuestra Se�ora de la Asunci�n on the site of the present-day capital city. The conversion of the Tlaxcalans to Christianity proceeded and reached its peak in the late 1520s. By 1535, the city of Tlaxcala had been granted a coat of arms and was made the seat of the first archbishopric of Nueva Espa�a (New Spain).
After the conquest of the Mexica, the Tlaxcalans were given special concessions, and to some extent, they were able to maintain their old form of government. The special relationship of the Tlaxcalans with the Spaniards continued well into the Sixteenth Century. They accompanied the Spaniards into battle in the Mixt�n Rebellion (1540-41) and the Chichimeca War (1550-1590) in Nueva Galicia.
Moving North
In the 1580s, several viceroys had recommended settlement of peaceful, agricultural Indian tribes in the north as part of the pacification of the nomadic groups (Chichimecas). Dr. Philip Wayne Powell, in his book Mexico's Miguel Caldera: The Taming of America's First Frontier (1548-1597), observed that many small groups of southern Christianized Indians - Cholulans, Mexica, Tarascans, Huejotzingas, Tlaxcalans and Otom�es - went "forth to the wilderness, serving as examples for the savages" during the four decades of the Chichimeca War. These sedentary, Christianized Indian allies of the Spaniards - including the Tlaxcalans - consisted of "thousands of individual Indians and families [who] had moved to the frontier in trade, as employees, as merchants, as organized military forces, or simply as adventurers, following the northward-pulling magnets of mining discoveries, town-founding, work and landholding opportunities, or for the attractions of warfare."
On February 6, 1585, the Spanish authorities in the mining town of San Mart�n had petitioned the King of Spain to send between 2,000 and 4,000 married Indians from Tlaxcala and other southern communities. Dr. Powell points out that the two objectives of this action were to "bolster resistance to Chichimeca warfare, and provide labor for the mines."
Dr. Powell, in Soldiers, Indians and Silver: North America's First Frontier War, tells us that by December 1590, Viceroy Luis de Velasco "had begun to negotiate with the Indian leaders of Tlaxcala, traditional friends and allies of Spanish conquest in the land, to send four hundred families northward to establish eight settlements (fifty families in each) with church and religious house."
"This defensive, or pacifying, type of colonization," wrote Dr. Powell, "was designed to teach the recently nomadic Chichimecas the ways of work, cultivation of the soil, provide a Christian example, and generally guide them into the ways of the sedentary life." However, the Tlaxcalans argued and received special privileges for themselves and their descendants in exchange for moving to the northern frontier.
On March 14, 1591, Viceroy Velasco took steps to safeguard their interests by various orders for protection (mandamientos de amparo) to make sure that their possessions would not be taken from their heirs at some future date. These special privileges (capitulaciones) included the following:
"The Tlaxcalan settlers in the Chichimeca country and their descendants shall be hidalgos [noble] in perpetuity, free from tributes, taxes (pecho and alcabala), and personal service for all time.
"They are not to be compelled to settle with Spaniards, but will be allowed to settle apart from them and have their own distinct districts [barrios]. No Spaniard can take or buy any solar [building house lot] within the Tlaxcalan districts.
"The Tlaxcalans are to be at all times settled apart from the Chichimecas, and this distinction is to apply to all of their lots, pastures, wooded lands, rivers, salt beds, mills, and fishing rights.
"The lands and estancias granted the individual Tlaxcalans and the community as a whole are never to be alienated because of nonoccupation.
"The markets in the new settlements shall be free, exempt from sales tax (alcabala), from excise taxes (sisa), and from any other form of taxation.
"The Tlaxcalan colonists and their descendants, besides being hidalgos and free from all tribute, shall henceforth enjoy all exemptions and privileges already granted, or to be granted in the future, to the province and city of Tlaxcala.
"The principales of Tlaxcala who go to the new settlements, and their descendants, shall be permitted to carry arms and ride saddled horses without penalty."
Eventually, 932 Tlaxcalan settlers headed north, occupying lands in Coahuila, San Luis Potos� and Zacatecas. One of the most important settlements was San Miguel Mexquitic (now in San Luis Potos�), which Dr. Powell referred to as "a center of the most bellicose of the Chichimecas nearest the Mexico-Zacatecas road." Dr. Powell concluded that the "the Tlaxcalan settlement in the Gran Chichimeca was a basic factor in cementing the frontier peace, for, in almost all respects, the enterprise fulfilled or exceeded the hopes of its planners. With one temporary exception, the Tlaxcalan presence did encourage Chichimeca imitation of their peaceful and more civilized ways. This program was so effective that the original six Tlaxcalan settlements were soon contributing offshoot colonies to other parts of the frontier, for the same purpose."
The Tlaxcalan colonists settled in several locations along the Rio Grande, including El Paso (where they had fled after the Pueblo Indian Rebellion of 1680 in New Mexico). Some settlers also located in the missions near San Juan Bautista, not far from the present-day port of entry in Eagle Pass, Texas. When Jos� de Escand�n established his new colony of Nueva Santander in the region of present-day Tamaulipas and Texas, he invited Tlaxcalans to accompany him too. As a result, descendants of these Tlaxcalan settlers still live along the Rio Grande, both in Texas and Tamaulipas.
The Tlaxcalans lived peacefully under the protection of the Spanish authorities and Franciscan padres and any Spaniards who tried to interfere with their way of life, land, or privileges were punished. Eventually intermarriage between the Tlaxcalans and the Chichimeca Indians took place, although "the Tlaxcalan identity never entirely disappeared, living on through succeeding centuries."
The modern-day state of Tlaxcala occupies a slightly larger area than the Indian principality of Tlaxcala (in the Sixteenth Century). Tlaxcala's economy contributes to 0.54% of Mexico's Gross National Product. The most important component of Tlaxcala's economy is manufacturing, which represents 28.24% of its economic output. Other elements of Tlaxcala's economy include: Finance and Insurance (16.51%), Trade (12.6%), Transports and Communications (8.61%), Agriculture and Livestock (7.8%), Construction (4.96%), and Mining (0.17%).
The manufacturing sector produces chemicals, petrochemicals, non-metallic minerals, auto parts, electrical items, rubbers, plastics, cellulose, machine tools, as well as textiles and garments. Tlaxcala's agricultural base is also an important sector. Tlaxcala produces corn, barley, potatoes and alfalfa and raises dairy cows and fighting bulls. Although a large part of Tlaxcala's industry is textile-based, the economy has diversified considerably in recent years. Her primary export products are textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
The colonial heritage of Tlaxcala and its spas have attracted tourists to the area. Boasting a strategic geographic location, 1,145 miles of roads and 191 miles of railroads traverse the state, linking Tlaxcala, the state capital, to Mexico City in the west and to Puebla on the south. Tlaxcala's railroads also link it to the seaport of Veracruz, an important outlet for Tlaxcalan exports.
The capital city of Tlaxcala has an estimated population of 73,184, which makes up about 7.62% of the state's population. It is the site of the oldest Christian church in the Americas, founded in 1521 by Hern�n Cort�s. The Tlaxcalans have played a very important and unique role in Mexican history. And tourists visiting the state become very aware of this role during their visit.
Copyright � 2008 by John P. Schmal.
Sources:
David Adams, The Tlaxcalan Colonies of Spanish Coahuila and Nuevo Le�n: An Aspect of the Settlement of Northern Mexico (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1971).
Ronald Barnett, "The Mighty Tlaxcalans of Mexico," Online: http://www.chapala.com/particles/21w.htm February 1997.
Nicholas Cheetham, New Spain: The Birth of Modern Mexico (London: Victor Golancz Ltd., 1974).
Diego Mu�oz Camargo, Historia de Tlaxcala (Alfredo Chavero, ed.: Mexico, 1892).
Diego Mu�oz Camargo, Fragmentos de la Historia de Tlaxcala (Mexico, 1871).
Nigel Davies, The Aztecs: A History (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma, 1980).
Charles Gibson, Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century (Yale: Yale University Press, 1952).
Oakah L. Jones, Los Paisanos: Spanish Settlers on the Northern Frontier of New Spain (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979).
Richard Lee Marks, Cort�s: The Great Adventurer and the Fate of Aztec Mexico (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994).
Matt S. Meier and Feliciano Rivera, The Chicanos: A History of Mexican Americans (New York: Hill and Wang, 1972).
Michael C. Meyer, The Course of Mexican History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).
Philip Wayne Powell, Mexico's Miguel Caldera: The Taming of America's First Frontier (1548-1597) (Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 1977).
Philip Wayne Powell, Soldiers, Indians and Silver: North America's First Frontier War (Tempe, Arizona: Center for Latin American Studies, 1975).
Marc Simmons, "Tlascalans in the Spanish Borderlands," New Mexico Historical Review 39 (April '64).
Eric R. Wolf, Sons of the Shaking Earth (Chicago: Un of Chicago Press, Phoenix Books, 1959).
THE DEFEAT OF THE AZTECS
by John P. Schmal
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The conquest of the Aztec Empire, taking place from 1519 to 1521, is a story that has intrigued millions of people over the years. At the climax of this campaign, Moctezuma, the highly respected leader of the mighty Aztec Empire, came face-to-face with Hern�n Cort�s, the leader of a small band of professional European soldiers from a faraway land (Spain). Against insurmountable odds, Cort�s triumphed over the great empire. As a master of observation, manipulation and strategy, he was able to gradually weave an army of indigenous resistance against the Aztecs, while professing his good intentions toward Moctezuma.
This story is a story of logistics and strategy. I do not go into any great detail about the intricate personal and political maneuvering that took place. Nor will I discuss at any length the personal relationships of the principal characters. In the bibliography, I have listed several works that have provided great insight into the workings of the great cultural collision between the Spaniards and the indigenous people of present-day M�xico.
The Aztec Empire of 1519
The Aztec Empire of 1519 was one of the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdoms of all time. By this time, the island city of Tenochtitl�n had become a city of about 300,000 citizens. And the Aztec Empire itself ruled over about 80,000 square miles of territory extending from the Gulf of M�xico to the Pacific Ocean, and southward to Oaxaca. This empire contained some 15 million people, living in thirty-eight provinces. In all, the Emperor received the tribute of 489 communities. The term, Aztec, is used to describe all the Nahua-speaking peoples in the Valley of M�xico, while the culture that dominated the Aztec Empire a tribe of the Mexica (pronounced "me-shee-ka"). The Mexica were also called Tenochca ("te-noch-ka").
On April 22, 1519, a fleet of eleven Spanish galleons, which had been sailing northward along the eastern Gulf Coast of M�xico, dropped anchor just off the wind-swept beach on the island of San Juan de Ul�a. Under the command of a Spanish adventurer named Hern�n Cort�s, these vessels bore 450 soldiers, 100 sailors, and 16 horses. These horses would be the first horses to walk upon the North American continent. The horse, which eventually became an important element of Indian life, was unknown to the North American Indians who engaged in warfare and hunting without the benefit of this mammal�s help.
Forging an Alliance with the Totonacs
As the Spaniards disembarked to set up camp on the dunes behind the beach, they received a friendly reception from the native Totonac Indians, who inhabited this area. Cort�s explained that he wanted to travel inland to meet with Moctezuma, "the Lord of Cuh�a." By this time, Indian runners reaching the Aztec capital, Tenochtitl�n, some 250 miles to the west in the heart of the continent, reported the arrival of the fair-skinned, bearded strangers and their fearsome "man-beasts" (cavalry).
On June 7, 1519, Cort�s led his forces northward to the coastal town Cempoala. As they approached the town, the Totonac Indians started bringing the Spaniards food and gifts. Cort�s had heard that the cacique (chief) of the Totonacs, Tlacochcalcatl, who reigned over this area, was an enemy of the Emperor Moctezuma. But the chief was very obese and not able to move around freely. For this reason, he could not come to greet the Spanish force in person.
The coastal city-state of Cempoala, presently under Aztec domination, was made up of some fifty towns. The town of Cempoala itself contained some 14,000 inhabitants. The townspeople gave the Spanish soldiers a very warm reception and Cacique Tlacochcalcatl met with Cort�s. The chief of the Totonacs, writes Dr. Marrin, complained that the Aztec "tribute collectors were picking the country clean� like hungry coyotes." And each year, the Totonacs were forced to send hundreds of children to the altars of Tenochtitl�n for sacrifice. For this tribute, the hatred of the Totonacs for the Mexica ran deep. For this reason, Tlacochcalcatl forged an alliance with Cort�s.
The Spaniards helped the Totonacs to expel Moctezuma�s tribute-collectors who apparently fled to a Mexica garrison at Tizapancingo, about twenty miles to the southwest. With a full force of Spaniards, 16 horses, and Totonacs, Cort�s seized control of the town. The seizure of this town had a profound effect on both the Spaniards and Totonacs. "The speed of this victory greatly impressed the Totonacs and naturally had the effect of extending their rebellion," writes Professor Hugo Thomas in Conquest: Montezuma, Cort�s, and the Fall of Old M�xico, "It also made Cort�s even more self-confident; for it suggested to him and to his captains that the Mexica, despite their fame, had no special military qualities, no secret weapons, and little discipline."
The Cempoalans helped Cort�s and his men establish a base on the shore. On June 28, 1519, Cort�s formally gave this town the name La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (The Rich Town of the True Cross). At this point, Cort�s decided to lead his troops westward into the interior of the continent to find and meet with Moctezuma. Cacique Tlacochcalcatl warned Cort�s that, on his journey inland, he would confront the people of Tlaxcala and Huexotzinco, two provinces that hated the Mexica equally. With the help of Totonac guides, Cort�s planned his march through territory that might represent fertile ground for more alliances.
On August 8, Cort�s assembled his army for the expedition inland. He had a force of 300 Spanish soldiers, 150 Cuban Indian servants, 800 Cempoalans and other Totonacs led by a chief named Mamexi. They also had 15 horses, reserved exclusively for the captains of the army. The Spanish army was thus beefed up with more than a thousand native warriors plus 200 porters. With a small party of soldiers and sailors left to hold the fort at Vera Cruz, Cort�s commenced the hazardous journey towards the Aztec capital.
Just as they approached the next town, Jalapa, word arrived from the coast that four Spanish ships under the command of Alonso Alvarez de Pineda had arrived at the coast. With a force of one hundred men, Cort�s quickly returned to the coast to meet the new arrivals. Although the ships did not arrive with good intent toward Cort�s, he had them arrested and then persuaded them to join his army. Cort�s then set off to join and reassemble his army.
The Journey Inland
Without a way to retreat, on August 16, 1519, the expedition started. In addition to the Spaniards, there were forty Cempoalan warrior chiefs and 200 Indians to drag the cannon and carry the supplies. The men were accustomed to the hot climate of the coast, but they suffered immensely from the cold of the mountains, the rain, and the hail. Although Cort�s asked for peace and friendship, and permission to cross their land on the way to M�xico, the Tlaxcalan Indians refused.
Finally, on August 16, 1519, as his expedition prepared to move inland from Cempoala, Hern�n Cort�s mustered an army of 400 Spanish soldiers, 15 horses, 1,300 Indian warriors, seven pieces of artillery, and a thousand tamanes (porters), who helped transport baggage and guns across the land. About 150 of the porters were Cuban Indian servants who were brought along from Cuba. The force brought along many dogs that had been well-trained to fight. The distance from Cempoala to Tenochtitl�n is 250 miles, as the crow flies. A fairly large force of 150 Spanish soldiers and sailors and two horses under the command Juan de Escalante stayed at the garrison at Villa Rica de Vera Cruz. Roughly 100 soldiers remained in Villa Rica under the command of Gonzalo Sandoval.
On the road ahead, the allied force faced many obstacles. Shortly after reaching Jalapa, a short distance inland from Cempoala, the altitude of the land rose sharply to 6,000 feet, transforming the climate from tropical to temperate. As they advanced inland, they moved through territory that was firmly in the control of the Mexica. On August 24, the Spanish force arrived in Zautla, where a Mexican garrison was stationed. The chief of the Zautla, Olintecle, met with Cort�s and warmly embraced him. Olintecle was a subject of the Mexica and may have been given orders by Moctezuma to give food and lodging to the Spanish force.
After staying in Zautla for about a week, Cort�s prepared to move on. He sent four Cempoalan chiefs ahead to Tlaxcala with instructions to inform them of his approach, hoping for a peaceful reception. The next stop for the Castilians was Iztaquimaxtitlan, a mountain town occupied by a Mexica garrison. Several families lived in this town and once again, on Moctezuma�s insistence, the strangers were well received and given gifts and lodging.
On their journey out of Iztaquimaxtitlan, the Spaniards came across a large gate, atop which lay a battlement a foot and a half high. This wall, some twenty paces wide and nine feet high, ran for several miles across the valley from one mountaintop to another. This barrier had represented a border which the people of Iztaquimaxtitlan had built to protect themselves from the fierce Tlaxcalan Indians nearby.
Confronting the Tlaxcalans
Finally, Cort�s army reached the Tlaxcalan Republic, which was independent enclave deep in the heart of the Mexica Empire that had managed to resist Aztec control. Surrounded on all sides and blockaded by the Aztecs, they had never yielded to them. By the time that Cortez arrived in the Western Hemisphere, the Tlaxcalan Indians had been subjected to continuous warfare and human sacrifice for many decades. Because of their economic isolation, the Tlaxcalans had no cotton with which to make their clothes. Neither did they have any salt. The salt lakes of Alchichica, not far from Tlaxcala, lay close by but they could not benefit from this. No feathers or precious stones made their way into Tlaxcala. They were unable to obtain salt (boiled out of sea water), cotton cloth, or bird feathers.
Tlaxcala was a small, densely populated province. In 1519, the population was about 150,000. Tlaxcala was actually "confederation of four republics," ruling over some 200 settlements. Some historians believe that Tenochtitl�n could have overwhelmed Tlaxcala without too much difficulty, and the reason it did not is probably that it wanted a nearby source of victims for the human sacrifices. Therefore the Aztecs maintained an almost perpetual state of war with Tlaxcala, but never actually conquered it. Also, the Aztecs seem to have regarded the frequent battles as a convenient way of testing and training the young Mexica warriors.
This state of perpetual war was very hateful to the Tlaxcalans and by the time that Cort�s arrived in Tlaxcala, the confederation represented fertile grounds for an anti-Mexica alliance. However, the Tlaxcalans, very suspicious of the strangers, were in no mood to accommodate the Spaniards and their Indian allies.
After a brief skirmish along the Tlaxcalan frontier, the Spaniards were guaranteed passage through the Tlaxcalan Republic. However, on August 31, at a point ten miles into Tlaxcalan territory, Cort�s� army encountered a hostile force of at least 30,000 Tlaxcalans. Despite the tremendous size of the army, the Spaniards managed to fend them off. Unlike other Indians, the Tlaxcalans seemed to have no fear of the horses and killed two of them. That night, the Spaniards, exhausted from their battle, rested in the open, some twenty miles from the capital city of Tlaxcala.
In the next battle, Cort�s claimed that he faced a Tlaxcalan army of 149,000 warriors. In this battle, some sixty Spaniards and several horses were wounded by the enemy. But, on the following day, Cort�s led a punitive expedition, burning some ten Tlaxcalan towns (with a total population of over 3,000). Many Indians were killed in this campaign. After a third day of battles, the Spaniards had lost 45 men who died in battle, died of wounds or succumbed to disease.
On September 5, the Spaniards and their Totonac allies were ambushed by an army of 50,000 Tlaxcalan warriors. The Tlaxcalan king, Xicotenga, and his council had hoped that this attack would rid them of the invaders. However, with their advanced technology and tactical advantages, the Spaniards were able to turn the tide against the Tlaxcalans and defeat them. Subsequent battles fought during September also ended in Spanish victory.
Alliance with the Tlaxcalans
Watching the Spaniards prove themselves in battle, King Xicotenga was very impressed and decided to allow Cort�s� army to pass through the confederation. As the Spaniards approached the Tlaxcalan capital on September 18, the Spanish soldiers were welcomed into the town as if they were heroes. For twenty days, Cort�s and his army stayed in Tlaxcala. As his men recovered from their wounds, Cort�s forged a relationship with Xicotenga and other Tlaxcalan leaders. He found that he was now over halfway from the Gulf of M�xico to Tenochtitl�n.
Almost immediately, Xicotenga saw in Cort�s a powerful ally who could help the Tlaxcalans destroy the Mexica. Cort�s, for his part, told Xicotenga that he was opposed only to the Aztec Empire and that there would be a place for Tlaxcala in Spanish-dominated M�xico.
Within a very short time, the Tlaxcalans would become the most loyal native allies of the Spaniards. Their allegiance with the Europeans would be an enduring partnership, lasting several centuries. The Tlaxcalans were able to provide the Cort�s with valuable information about the Mexica capital, Tenochtitl�n. Tlaxcalans who had visited the great city in the past were able to draw pictures of the city�s layout, as well as its bridges, causeways and canals. Soon the Spaniards would have a good idea of the layout of the capital and of the fighting style of the Aztec warriors.
On October 23, 1519, Cort�s and his army of European mercenaries and indigenous warriors left the Tlaxcalan capital. A thousand Tlaxcalan warriors had been added to the ranks of Cort�s force. While Indian laborers carried the cannon and baggage in the center of the formation, Tlaxcalan warriors and Spanish horsemen marched along the flanks and with the rear guard. Although Xicotenga had offered him many more warriors, Cort�s did not want a large force of Tlaxcalans that might frighten or enrage the Mexica.
As Cort�s traveled westward through mountain towns and villages, many of the Indians living along this path told him of their cruel treatment at the hands of the Aztec overlords. Through these meetings, Cort�s began to understand the depth of this hatred and fear. He also recognized that many of these people would be potential allies in a showdown with the Mexica.
Cholula
Cholula, twenty-five miles east of Tlaxcala, was a city of almost 60,000 houses and 430 temples and pyramids. If necessary, the Cholulans could muster together some 25,000 men for war out of a possible total population of 180,000. Xicotenga had warned Cort�s that the Cholulans were mere pawns of Moctezuma and the Aztec hierarchy and advised against marching through their territory. But Cort�s decided that to advance in this direction regardless of Xicotenga�s admonition.
As the army approached the Cholulan capital, they were greeted by the caciques and given a place to stay. Although the Spanish and indigenous accounts differ on what happened, all agree that a great massacre followed. Through his interpreter, Do�a Marina, Cort�s had apparently learned of a Cholulan conspiracy sponsored by Moctezuma to ambush and slaughter the Spaniards. Expecting an ambush, Cort�s launched a preemptive strike on the Cholulans after having called a meeting of the Cholulan nobles in the courtyard of the temple of Quetzalc�atl. After a confrontation with the Cholulans about their intentions towards the Spanish, Cort�s issued an order for the lords to be killed. Quickly and with little mercy, the assembly turned into a full-scale massacre of 3,000 Cholulan noblemen and warriors. In the meantime, Tlaxcalans and Totonacs sacked the town.
Quickly, the Cholulan army launched a counterattack against the Spanish forces. After two hours of battle, both sides agreed to end the fighting. The Cholulans then returned to their homes, while Cort�s� army marched to the east.
Resumption of the Advance
On November 1, 1519, Cort�s assembled his army for the resumption of the march to Tenochtitl�n. At this time, his Totonac allies from Cempoala had to return home. However, a thousand Tlaxcalans remained in the ranks of his army and they moved on to higher altitudes. On November 2, Cort�s forces moved through a mountain pass that lay 13,000 feet above sea level. From this path, the Spaniards could see the smoking volcano Popocatepetl (Smoking Mountain) and Ixtaccihuatl (Mountain of White Woman), which reach 17,887 feet and 17,000 feet, respectively.
From the mountain pass, the Spaniards witnessed for the first time the great splendor of Tenochtitl�n as it spread out on the valley floor. Before long, the mountain pass, with the great Valley of M�xico in full view, descended to lower altitudes, eventually bringing Cort�s and his forces to an altitude of 7,400 above sea level along the valley floor. As they made their way to Tenochtitl�n, the Spaniards met with another tribe of Mesoamericans. The King of Texcoco welcomed the Spaniards into his own and provided his guests with gifts, food, and assistance. Soon after hearing about the Christian religion, many Texcocans, including the king, decided to convert to Catholicism. Before continuing on to the capital, the Spaniards performed several religious services, baptizing the king and other Texcocan nobles.
The Meeting with Moctezuma
On the road to the capital, the army passed through hamlets where they were offered generous bribes from Moctezuma's emissaries to turn back. When Cort�s failed to accept the bribes, Moctezuma sent his nephew to welcome four hundred Spaniards and their entourage of 7,000 Tlaxcalan warriors to Tenochtitl�n. Finally, on November 8, 1519, the army reached Xoloco, just outside of Tenochtitl�n, where they were greeted by hundreds of emissaries of Moctezuma. As they were brought into the city, the Spaniards stared in awe at the architectural precision of the city. Filing across the southern causeway of the capital, Cort�s and his men were greeted with much ceremony by a retinue of lords and nobles headed by Moctezuma himself.
The Spaniards were housed in the ancient palace of Atzayacatl, the emperor's father. The wary Moctezuma made great efforts to play the perfect host, showing his unwanted guests around the city and entertaining them with splendid banquets. Some researchers believe that the Aztecs may have thought that the Spaniards were gods or godlike creatures. They also noticed heard about the devastation that took place when the Spaniards won a battle. In any event, they were at least curious to see these strangers who had marched so many miles and fought so many battles against various indigenous groups along the way. In War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica, the author Ross Hassig points out that "the Spaniards did not [initially] present themselves as a hostile force." In fact, the arrival of the Spaniards and their indigenous allies coincided with the harvest when Aztec soldiers were unavailable and unprepared for war.
After several days of negotiations and touring, Cort�s and his officers took Moctezuma as a hostage. Bringing the King to his barracks, Cort�s persuaded him to dispatch messengers to the surrounding communities to collect gold and silver, part of which was sent to the Spanish monarch in the name of Moctezuma and part of which was divided among Cort�s� troops. Moctezuma�s imprisonment continued for eight months.
Arrival of Narvaez
On April 19, 1520, more ships appeared off the coast of M�xico. The governor of Cuba had sent soldiers under Panfilo de Narvaez to arrest Captain-General Cort�s for insubordination. Leaving Captain Pedro de Alvarado in charge of his troops, Cort�s quickly departed from Tenochtitl�n with 266 Spanish soldiers to confront the newly-arrived Spanish force on the Gulf Coast. Although Narvaez�s troops outnumbered Cort�s by three to one, Cort�s and his small army defeated Narvaez in a battle near Veracruz. After this battle, most of Narvaez's troops joined Cort�s who promised them a share of the spoils when Tenochtitl�n was brought under Spanish control.
When Cort�s returned to Tenochtitl�n, he found out that Pedro de Alvarado had provoked an open revolt by massacring 600 Aztec nobles during the Feast of Huitzilopochtli. Fighting quickly broke out in full force the day after Cort�s returned, and the sheer numbers of the Aztec army overwhelmed the Captain-General's army, which numbered only 1,250 Spaniards and 8,000 Mexican warriors. His army was forced to retreat back into the barracks but set hundreds of homes on fire before doing so.
The Death of Moctezuma
As the Indians besieged the palace, Cort�s ordered Moctezuma to tell his subjects to disperse. Not only did they refuse but the shower of stones they directed against their captive emperor caused injuries that resulted in his death. The hail of stones began when a nobleman defiantly brandished a javelin at Moctezuma. Moctezuma was succeeded as emperor by Cuitlahuac. Moctezuma had been intimidated by Cort�s because he believed the Spaniards were representatives of the bearded, fair- skinned god Quetzalcoatl. Cuitlahuac never believed the legend and set out to organize a determined resistance to the Spanish forces. Though he only ruled four months before succumbing to smallpox, Cuitlahuac drove Cort�s's men out of Tenochtitl�n during the famous Noche Triste ("sad night") of July 1, 1520, depending on which historian you read.
Flight from Tenochtitl�n
Cort�s and his men were besieged in Tenochtitl�n, and on July 1, 1520, Cort�s attempted to break out of the city and cross the lake to the mainland by marching down one of the causeways. As the force left the palace at midnight, Cort�s had some 1,250 Spanish soldiers and at least 5,000 Tlaxcalan warriors. They had fifty hostages, including Aztec nobles and two of Moctezuma�s daughters.
While he was crossing the bridge leaving the city, the Aztecs fell upon the army and inflicted heavy damage. In the disorder, Spanish soldiers who had been too greedy and filled their pockets with gold were pushed into Lake Texcoco and drowned. The army managed to attain a place of relative safety on a hill past the nearby town of Tlacopan but not without losing about 450 Spanish and 2,000 Mexican soldiers from their ranks.
Plagued by hunger, disease, and the pursuing Aztecs, Cort�s� army fled to Tlaxcala to obtain reinforcements. On July 8, the army came upon a legion of nearly 200,000 Aztecs sent by Cuitlahuac, Moctezuma's brother and successor. There, at the battle of Otumba, the Spanish managed a smashing victory that dissuaded the Aztecs from pursuing the Spaniards and their allies any farther.
By the end of the battle, D�az wrote, 850 Spaniards, 4,000 Tlaxcalans were lost. Only twenty-four of the 95 horses survived the exodus. All the cannon and nearly all the muskets and crossbows had been lost. None of the Aztec prisoners survived. Even with the many reinforcements that Cort�s had brought from the coast, this left only 420 men and 17 horses. All the survivors, including Cort�s, were wounded, and very few firearms or ammunition were left. As the battered army approached Tlaxcala, they were greeted by their Indian allies and given refuge.
Reflections on a Narrow Escape
"Reviewing their narrow escape," writes Michael C. Meyer, "many of the Spanish veterans wanted nothing more to do with the Aztecs. It required all of Cort�s� force of personality and subtle blandishments to prevent mass defections and rebellion among his men. Cort�s, who seems never to have wavered in his determination to retake Tenochtitl�n, began to lay plans for the return."
It goes without saying that the Spaniards would not have survived their ordeal without the help of their Tlaxcalan allies. The Tlaxcalan chiefs called on Cort�s during this dismal time and laid out their conditions for further assistance. The Tlaxcalans requested "perpetual exemption from tribute of any sort, a share of the spoils, and control of two provinces that bordered their land." Cort�s agreed to these conditions and, as the author Richard Lee Marks wrote, "Spain substantially kept its promise" to the Tlaxcalans "and exempted them from tribute for the entire period of the Spanish rule in M�xico, nearly three hundred years."
Smallpox
The Spaniards, however, also received more important support from another, unexpected ally. "While the Spaniards rested and recuperated" in Tlaxcala, wrote Richard Lee Marks, "it occurred to Cort�s and his men to wonder why the great armies from Tenochtitl�n were not pursuing them." The Aztecs had not attacked or laid siege to Tlaxcala, giving the Spaniards and Tlaxcalans precious time to heal and recover from their catastrophic defeat. Later, Cort�s would learn that an epidemic of smallpox had devastated Tenochtitl�n.
While the Spaniards were in Tlaxcala, a great plague broke out here in Tenochtitl�n. It began to spread during the thirteenth month and lasted for seventy days, striking everywhere in the city and killing a vast number of our people. Sores erupted on our faces, our breasts, our bellies; we were covered with agonizing sores from head to foot.
At the same time in the Aztec capital, a smallpox epidemic began that killed Cuitlahuac and immobilized much of the population. To replace the king, the caciques of Tenochtitl�n chose Cuahtemoc, a nephew of Moctezuma and a brilliant military leader who fiercely believed that his Aztec army, with the help of Huitzilopochtli, could defeat the invaders.
The Aztecs, convinced that the Spaniards would never return to Tenochtitl�n, celebrated their fiestas again in the traditional manner, and Cuitlahuac was elected king to succeed his brother Moctezuma.
Brought to the shores of M�xico by an African sailor, "the disease had spread with amazing rapidity through the coastal tribes and up into the highland." The disease spread quickly among the Indians, according to Marks, because they "were in the habit of bathing to alleviate almost any ailment that afflicted them. These baths were either communal or the same bathing water was used consecutively by many. But after someone with an open smallpox sore entered the bath, the disease was transmitted to everyone who followed." The Spaniards, however, never bathed. Although they occasionally washed off the dirt and blood when they had to, "they believed that bathing per se was weakening." And the Tlaxcalans, "always in a state of semi-siege," were not yet exposed to the smallpox.
The illness was so dreadful that no one could walk or move. The sick were so utterly helpless that they could only lie on their beds like corpses, unable to move their limbs or even their heads. They could not lie face down or roll from one side to the other. If they did move their bodies, they screamed with pain.
A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not getup to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds.
Some people came down with a milder form of the disease; they suffered less than the others and made a good recovery. But they could not escape entirely. Their looks were ravaged, for wherever a sore broke out, it gouged an ugly pockmark in the skin. And a few of the survivors were left completely blind.
The illness was so dreadful that no one could walk or move. The sick were so utterly helpless that they could only lie on their beds like corpses, unable to move their limbs or even their heads. They could not lie face down or roll from one side to the other. If they did move their bodies, they screamed with pain. A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not getup to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds.
The Captain-General's army left Tlaxcala on December 26, 1520 on its march to the Aztec capital. Cort�s� army had been completely rebuilt. With his army of 600 Spanish soldiers and between 110,000 and 150,000 Mexican warriors, Cort�s intended to occupy the city of Texcoco and blockade Tenochtitl�n from there. With the city sufficiently weakened, his army would cross the lake on thirteen brigantines constructed for this purpose by the Spaniards.
Into the Valley of M�xico
In January 1521 Cort�s once again led his force into the Valley of M�xico. They staged a series of raids throughout the countryside and took the Aztec stronghold at Texcoco, from whence they could launch the newly built fleet. The occupation of Texcoco was done without conflict, and from there the army destroyed the town of Iztapalapan and massacred its residents, which sent shockwaves throughout the surrounding area. Having witnesses the military and technological advantages of the Spanish forces, many caciques who had avoided the Spaniards now decided to join their forces with Cort�s� army.
In March 1521, Cort�s began with a reconnaissance in force to gain control of communities in the Valley of M�xico adjacent to Tenochtitl�n. He got as far as the neighboring settlement of Tacuba before Cuauhtemoc drove the Spaniards and Tlaxcalans back in a determined land and naval counterattack. Then the tide turned again when reinforcements arrived from Hispaniola. While he was preparing a fleet of small brigantines to control the lake during his assault, Cort�s was reinforced by fresh troops from Spain.
At the time of the assault on Tenochtitl�n, Cort�s had gained an additional 200 Spanish soldiers and 50,000 Tlaxcalans. He had over 900 Spaniards, including 18 musketeers and crossbowmen. The cavalry had been beefed up with some ninety horses and their riders. The artillery included fifteen small bronze guns and heavy iron cannon-wall smashers. Within the ranks of this huge army were at least 50,000 Tlaxcalans, and thousands of other supporters. Seventy thousand Indian laborers carried supplies, built roads and carried on our auxiliary chores.
In April 1521 he had 86 horsemen, 118 crossbowmen and harquebusiers, 700 sword and pike men, as well as 18 cannons. In addition he had as many as 75,000 Tlaxcalan allies. It was still a stiff task, for the Aztecs numbered at least 250,000 men, and this time he could not rely on their native superstition to win the fight for him.
The stage was now set for the final assault. The brigantines were launched April 28, 1521, and land operations began a few days later. Cuauhtemoc, realizing that his horseless troops were no match for the Spaniards in open country, decided that it would be better to wage urban warfare against the enemy. Turning Tenochtitl�n into an Aztec Stalingrad, he defeated the initial Spanish assault on the city and drove the enemy back to their siege lines outside the gates.
The Assault on Tenochtitl�n
To triumphant shouts of 'Castile' and 'Santiago', and to a cacophony of native instruments Cort�s launched his brigantines on the lake and began his assault on Tenochtitl�n. With his headquarters located at Tlacopan, Cort�s had divided his forces into three sections: his deputy, Pedro de Alvarado, took 30 horses, 18 crossbowmen, 150 infantry and 25,000 Tlaxcalans and advanced down the causeway that ran from Tacuba in the northwest; Crist�bal de Olid, with 33 horse, 18 crossbowmen, 150 infantry and 25,000 Tlaxcalans advanced on the causeway from Coyoacan in the southwest; and Gonzalo de Sandoval, with 24 cavalry, 4 harquebusiers, 13 crossbowmen, 150 infantry and 30,000 Indian allies, advanced on the causeway from Iztapalapan in the southeast.
Cort�s himself commanded the brigantines in which the rest of the Spanish forces - crossbowmen and harquebusiers - were placed. It was a carefully planned exercise, showing a thorough appreciation of Aztec strengths and weaknesses. Cort�s even left one causeway free, so that the Aztecs would have an escape route and would not fight to the death. In the event, few took this route; most preferred to die with their city.
In preparation for the attack, the Captain-General destroyed the aqueducts that supplied water to the capital with only ineffectual Aztec resistance. Two of the three divisions of the army attempted to attack the city across the causeway but met strong Aztec forces and were forced back. The third division, under Cort�s, boarded the brigantines and patrolled the water, completely overwhelming the Aztecs' canoes and temporarily gaining control of Lake Texcoco.
The fighting raged back and forth as the Spaniards and their allies (now joined by 50,000 Texcocoans and later 150,000 of the Aztecs themselves) attempted to break the Aztec defense from both land and sea. They did so a few times but were steadily pushed back by the now starving inhabitants of Tenochtitl�n. Cort�s was increasingly distressed at his army's inability to break the Aztec spirit.
After nearly three months of such fighting, the Captain-General ordered a full-scale assault on Tenochtitl�n. All three divisions crossed the causeway backed up by the brigantines and a fleet of Mexican canoes. Each division marched down one of the principal boulevards that all converged in Tlatelolco Square. They steadily pushed the Aztecs backwards; and when the Aztec king sounded the retreat, the captains pushed on towards their fleeing prey. When Cuahtemoc's horn sounded again, the Aztecs turned around and fell on the Spaniards, capturing sixty-two of them and sacrificing them in front of the Spaniards in an attempt to destroy their morale. Cort�s ordered the retreat.
Five days passed, and famine and disease had devastated the Aztecs. Cort�s knew this and appealed to Cuahtemoc to surrender, but the king felt that dying for one's country would be better than being enslaved by the Spaniards. He answered in the form of an attack on the entrenched army. The Aztecs charged from the walls of the city to meet their enemy, but were quickly forced into a retreat by the firing of artillery and musketry. Cort�s� army charged after the Aztecs, forcing them back, until the Spaniards and their allies controlled around three-quarters of the city. Everywhere they went they left a trail of destruction--burned or pulled-down homes and temples--regardless of whether or not there were wounded men, women, or children inside.
Still, the Aztec king refused to surrender. Cort�s proposed a banquet at which the two sides could meet to negotiate, but the king sent his nobles and didn't come himself. The next morning, Cuahtemoc agreed to meet the Captain-General at the marketplace; but when Cort�s and his entourage arrived, they found the Aztec soldiers waiting for them. An enormous battle ensued; and both sides took heavy losses, the total number of deaths in that individual battle numbering more than 40,000.
The Surrender
The next morning, August 13, 1521, Cort�s� army once again marched into the city. Another battle began, similar in scale to the one the day before, but Cort�s ordered a cease-fire as three canoes were sighted fleeing across the lake. Cuahtemoc, who was riding in one of the canoes, was apprehended and brought to the Captain-General.
The Aztecs fought valiantly under leadership of the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtemoc, whose name translates as "falling eagle" or alternately "setting sun." Ravaged by diseases introduced by the Spaniards, deprived of fresh water and food supplies from the mainland, they withstood an 80-day siege, surrendering August 13, 1521, only after their captured leader grasped the dagger in Cort�s' belt and pleaded, "I have done all that I could."�
Cort�s consoled him and asked him to command his warriors to surrender. Cuahtemoc immediately climbed onto a high tower and shouted to them to cease fighting, for everything had fallen to the enemy. Of the 300,000 warriors who had defended the city, 60,000 were left. When they heard their king, they laid down their arms and the nobles came forward to comfort him.
The siege of Tenochtitl�n, according to the histories, paintings and chronicles, lasted exactly eighty days. Thirty thousand men from the kingdom of Texcoco were killed during this time, of the more than 200,000 who fought on the side of the Spaniards. Of the Aztecs, more than 240,000 were killed. Almost all of the nobility perished: there remained alive only a few lords and knights and the little children. Albert Marrin, the author of Aztecs and Spaniards: Cort�s and the Conquest of M�xico," writes that "what had taken centuries to build, would be destroyed in just thirty months."
Tenochtitl�n Becomes M�xico
The conquerors banished the Aztecs from their city and began to clear the city. The Aztec homes, now in shambles, were torn down and new homes for the conquistadors were built by reluctant Mexican laborers. Over the next four years, Hern�n Cort�s was appointed Governor, Captain-General, and Chief Justice of the province of New Spain. He passed this time presiding over the reconstruction of Tenochtitl�n, which he renamed M�xico (later M�xico City in the present-day country of M�xico), and bringing colonists from Spain to make their homes there.
The key to the Spanish conquest of M�xico was the dissension among the different peoples of the Aztecs' empire. The Mexica overlords had made no attempts to assimilate the other cultures to their own and thus provided the basis for a full scale revolt against them which Cort�s incited. While the Aztecs were really unable to unify their empire, the Spanish managed to succeed where their predecessors in the area had failed.
Copyright � 2008 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
Sources:
Davies, Nigel. The Aztecs: A History. Norman, Oklahoma: University of
Oklahoma, 1980.
Hassig, Ron. Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control.
Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.
Marks, Richard Lee. Cort�s: The Great Adventurer and the Fate of Aztec
M�xico. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
Meier, Matt S. and Feliciano Rivera. The Chicanos: A History of Mexican
Americans. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.
Meyer, Michael C. and Sherman, William L. The Course of Mexican History.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Prescott, William H. History of the Conquest of M�xico, Volume 1.
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Compnay, 1873.
Smith, Michael E. The Aztecs. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers,
Inc., 1996.
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SOUTHERN MEXICO
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CAMPECHE: ON THE EDGE OF THE MAYAN WORLD
By John P. Schmal
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Located in the southwestern portion of the Yucat�n Peninsula along the Gulf of Mexico, the State of Campeche was named after the ancient Mayan Kingdom of Ah Kin Pech (Canpech). Campeche is bounded on the north and northeast by the State of Yucat�n, on the east by the State of Quintana Roo, on the southeast by the nation of Belize, on the southwest by the State of Tabasco, and on the south by the Pet�n Department of Guatemala. Campeche also shares 404 kilometers (251 miles) of coastline with the Gulf of Mexico on its west and northwest.
With a total area of 56,798 square kilometers (21,924 square miles), Campeche is Mexico�s eighteenth largest state and occupies 2.9% of the national territory. With a population of 690,689 in the 2000 census, Campeche was ranked thirtieth among the Mexican states in terms of population. The territory of Campeche is politically divided into ten municipios. The capital city is Campeche, which had a population of 216,897 in 2000.
The Mayan World
For about two thousand years, the Mayan culture prospered through most of present-day Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, western Honduras and the five Mexican states of Yucat�n, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Campeche and Chiapas. In all, the territory occupied by the Mayan Indians was probably about 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles) in area and is sometimes referred to collectively as El Mundo Maya (The Mayan World).
The Mayas made a living through agriculture, hunting and fishing. They were also skilled weavers and temple builders who left a treasure trove of archaeological sites for later generations to admire. The Mayan Linguistic Group is one of the largest in the Americas and is divided into approximately 69 languages, including the Huastec, Yucatec, Western Maya, and Eastern Maya groups.
For thousands of years, the Yucatec Maya has been the dominant Mayan language throughout the Yucat�n Peninsula, including Campeche, Yucat�n, and Quintana Roo. The language was documented in the ancient hieroglyphs of the Pre-Columbian Mayan civilizations at several archaeological sites and may be as much as 5,000 years old. Even at the time of the 2000 census, 799,696 individuals in the entire Mexican Republic still spoke this language. (This number does not include the other major Mayan linguistic groups, such as the Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Huasteca, and the Chol, all of which thrive in several other Mexican states).
The Mayan ethnohistorian, Ralph L. Roys, has written that sixteen native Mayan states occupied most of the Yucat�n Peninsula in the early Sixteenth Century and that this population was "remarkably uniform in language, customs, and fundamental political ideas." Some of the sixteen "provinces" were "true political units," while others were "loose confederations of autonomous communities, as well as groups of independent and mutually hostile states whose ruling families had a common lineage."
Professor Roys and other historians have indicated that most of present-day Campeche was ruled over by four native states when the Spaniards first arrived in 1517: Acal�n-Tixcel, Chanput�n (Champot�n), Canpech (Ah Kin Pech), and Ah Canul. While Acal�n was primarily occupied by the Chontal Indians, the other three states were Yucatec Mayan nations.
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Acal�n-Tixchel
The Chontal Indians of Acal�n-Tixchel primarily occupied the territory that now includes the eastern part of the State of Tabasco and the southwest Campeche Municipio of Palizada. In all, this kingdom included at least 76 communities. It is believed that Chontalli was a N�huatl term meaning "foreigner." The Chontal of Tabasco speak one of the 69 Mayan languages and have a close relation to the Yucatec Maya and Chol on the east and the Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Kanjobal, and Chuj of Chiapas on the west.
The original inhabitants of the present-day Palizada Municipio were the Chontal Indians living in the Acal�n-Tixchel Province, literally "the place of canoes." However, at some point before the Spanish contact, N�huatl-speaking merchants had settled at Xicallanco and Chanput�n, driving out the Chontal. At the time of contact, an Aztec pochteca ruled over the important trading colony at Xicallanco and the surrounding area, while small Chontal communities were scattered along the lower Mamantel and Candelaria rivers. Living in the regions east of Acal�n-Tixchel were a Yucatec Mayan people who were known as the Cehache or Mazateca, inhabiting the border region between what is now Campeche and the Pet�n District of Guatemala.
Chanput�n (Champot�n)
Northeast of Acal�n-Tixchel, along the present-day central coastline of Campeche, was the Yucatec Mayan Province of Chanput�n (Champot�n), which ran from present-day Champot�n northward to Tichac (Sihochac) and extended some distance inland. Apparently named for its principal town (now known as Champot�n), Chanput�n represented the southwestern extension of the Yucatec Mayan cultural region. The Aztecs referred to the entire region of Champot�n and Campeche as the "Province of Cochistan."
Canpech (Ah Kin Pech)
Canpech probably earned its name from its principal town, the present-day city of Campeche (which was the Spanish pronunciation of the word). Cardinal Juan de Torquemada gives the Mayan name as Kinpech, which has also been reconstructed as Ah Kin Pech, but the colonial Maya manuscripts only refer to it as Canpech. Ah Kin Pech, in the Mayan language, means "the place of serpents and ticks."
Ah Canul
The Mayan Province of Ah Canul, with Calkin� as its primary town, extended about 145 kilometers (56 miles) along the western coastal plain from the Homt�n River (slightly north of Campeche) to Punta Kipt� on the northern coastline of Yucat�n State. Ralph L. Roys wrote that "the Province of Ah Canul was one of the largest native states in the northern and more thickly populated half of the Yucatan peninsula." From the west coast it extended inland "for an average distance of about 50 km."
Ah Canul included the present-day Campeche municipios of Tenabo, Hecelchak�n, and Calkin�. The Province also extended into western Yucat�n State, where it included the present-day cities of Kinchil, Um�n, and Hunucma within its boundaries.
First Contact with Spaniards
On March 22, 1517, a Spanish naval force, under the command of Francisco Hernandez de C�rdoba, sailing from Cuba, arrived off the shores of the Yucat�n Peninsula, eventually passing south along the coastline of Campeche. The expedition stopped at a village named L�zarus, near the present-day site of Campeche, which was then part of the Canpech Province. According to Bernal D�az del Castillo (a member of the expedition), crewmembers stopped briefly at this location to look for water and were approached by a group of fifty natives. Soon after, however, Mayan priests told the Spaniards to leave the area or face death, and they complied by departing.
The Spanish force moved south along the Campeche coastline and � ten days later, the Spaniards landed again near Champot�n, where a cacique named Moch-Cuouh ruled. Shortly after the arrival of the Spaniards, the Mayans attacked in force, killing more than fifty men. With their manpower reduced by half, the expedition was forced to return to Cuba. C�rdoba himself received multiple wounds from ten arrows and died shortly after his return to Cuba.
In April 1518, another expedition of four ships and 300 men under the command of Juan de Grijalva left Cuba for the Yucat�n. This expedition landed near Campeche at the river Lagartos, but was soon attacked by the Mayan inhabitants and left the region.
In 1525, Hern�n Cort�s, the conqueror of Tenochtitl�n, passed through a small portion of Campeche. During this time, Cort�s made an alliance with Paxbolonacha, the ruler of Acal�n. This accommodation initiated a gradual incorporation of the Chontal Mayan into the Spanish empire. Cort�s� account of his journey through Acal�n served as motivation for Francisco de Montejo to lead a second expedition to Acal�n and the Yucat�n area.
The Conquest of Campeche (1527-1541)
In December 1526, a wealthy nobleman from Salamanca, Spain, Francisco de Montejo was granted a royal contract (capitulaci�n) to raise an army and conquer the Yucat�n Peninsula. In 1527, Montejo landed with a crew of 500 Spanish soldiers at Cozumel (in present-day Quintana Roo) to commence with the conquest. Accompanied by his son � known as "El Mozo" (The Youthful) � and his nephew ("Sobrino"), Montejo crossed the Yucat�n from east to west, eventually reaching the Campeche coastline near Kin Pech.
The resistance of the Mayan provinces kept the Spanish forces in check for several years. In 1529, Montejo subdued the natives of Xicallanco, Copilco, and Hueyatastla in the south. After working to subdue the Chontal of Acal�n and the Zoque of the highlands of Tabasco, Montejo later moved to the coastal region of Campeche where he was able to establish friendly relations with the natives of Champot�n in 1530. By early 1531, Montejo controlled both Champot�n and Campeche. Campeche became Montejo�s primary base of operations as he sent his lieutenant Alonso de Avila to explore and conquer the Mayan provinces in the central and eastern sections of the peninsula.
While Avila made his way through the interior of the Yucat�n, Montejo was able to consolidate his control over the province of Ah Canul north of Campeche, while the younger Montejo moved through several Mayan provinces. As a result, researchers France Scholes and Ralph Roys observed that "by the end of 1532 a considerable part of northern Yucatan had apparently accepted Spanish suzerainty."
By the summer of 1534, however, Montejo the Younger�s position in the Yucat�n became precarious. With a depleted force, he departed his headquarters at Dzilam and retreated to join his father at Campeche. At the end of 1534, the older Montejo and his forces evacuated Campeche altogether, withdrawing to Tabasco. Campeche would not return to Spanish rule until 1541. A contributing factor to the failure of the Montejos to hold their positions was the loss of men who decided to go to Peru to find greater spoils in the conquest of the Inca Empire.
In 1537, Spanish forces under Alonso de Avila returned to Campeche and were able to establish a base at San Pedro de Champot�n in present-day Campeche. During this period, the young settlement, according to France Scholes and Ralph Roys, "maintained a very uncertain existence."
In 1540, Montejo the Younger arrived in Champot�n to resume the conquest of the Yucat�n Peninsula. By this time, Scholes and Roys explain, the indigenous inhabitants of the area had "became increasingly restive." At the end of 1540, Montejo moved the settlement at Champot�n to Campeche, which ultimately became the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Yucat�n Peninsula.
Forming alliances with some of the local chieftains during 1541, the Montejos were able to subdue native forces in the provinces of Canpech and Ah Canul, bringing the present-day municipios of Tenabo, Hecelchakan and Calkin� under control. Later in the year, Montejo founded the "Villa and Puerto de San Francisco de Campeche." From Campeche, Montejo moved on to the rest of the Yucat�n Peninsula, where he won several battles and broke the power of the Mayan resistance, founding the city of M�rida on January 6, 1542.
Once effective control had been established, the City of Campeche served a "strategic role as a trade and administrative center." The first Franciscan missionaries arrived in Campeche perhaps as early as 1537, followed three years later by the founding of the first mission in Campeche. In the new few years, the Franciscans also moved into Champot�n and Acal�n.
Consolidation
Even before pacifying the native peoples of Campeche, Francisco Montejo and his lieutenants began to distribute the inhabitants through encomiendas, which were royal grants of indigenous inhabitants that licensed a Spanish encomendero to receive their labor and tribute. Unfortunately, the encomiendas became subject to abuse and were frequently enforced through brutality and cruelty. The Indians of Campeche, Champot�n, and Acal�n-Tixchel were distributed in encomiendas to the Spanish residents of Salamanca in 1530-1531, and they were reassigned in 1537.
Disease also took its toll on the indigenous people of Campeche. At contact, the populations of Champot�n and Acal�n probably numbered about 110,000. But smallpox decimated several communities in 1519 or 1520. An assessment of Champot�n in 1549 suggested that there were about 2,000 Indian inhabitants left. A similar assessment of the Acal�n encomienda in 1553 suggested about 4,000 Indians living in that province.
Ah Canul, which is located in a dryer climate than the rest of Campeche, was less affected by plagues than most other areas of Campeche and the Yucat�n. It is estimated that the population at contact was 35,000 and that this dropped to 13,000 in 1548. After this, however, immigration from other areas helped rebuild the native population of Ah Canuel.
Political Events
After independence, Campeche was essentially a part of Yucat�n, which proclaimed its sovereignty in August 1822. But Yucat�n and Campeche were both re-incorporated into Mexico in February 1824. Yucat�n became a state within the Mexican Republic on October 3, 1824. On May 31, 1841, Yucat�n declared its independence from Mexico. The state was re-incorporated into Mexico in December 1843, but independence was restored in December 1846. In August 17, 1848, Yucat�n and Campeche were once again reincorporated into the Mexican Republic.
On August 7, 1857, Campeche was split off from Yucat�n and declared as a district of Yucat�n. On May 18, 1858, Campeche was created as the District of Campeche and the Isla de Carmen. Subsequently, upon approval of the Congress, Campeche was declared an "Estado Libre y Soberano de Campeche" (Free and Sovereign State of Campeche) of the Mexican Federation on April 29, 1863. From May 1864 to January 10, 1867, Campeche was reincorporated into Yucat�n before returning to permanent statehood.
Indigenous Campeche (1895-1910)
In the 1895 census, Campeche was reported to have 39,212 persons aged 5 years or more who spoke an indigenous language, representing 44.5% of the population. During the same census, Campeche�s Spanish-speaking population numbered 48,671. After this census, the number of indigenous speaking persons in Campeche dropped steadily, in 1900 to 35,977 indigenous speakers and in 1910 to 28,280. The majority of the indigenous speakers in 1910 communicated in the Mayan language (26,998 speakers). Fifty-one Yaquis were also tallied, possibly Porfiriato exiles from Sonora.
The Mayan Speakers in the 1910 Census
In Mexico�s 1910 census, 227,883 persons were classified as speakers of the Yucatec Mayan language, representing 11.62% of the 1,960,306 indigenous-speaking population in the entire country. Mayan speakers were represented in 14 Mexican states, but only four states had significant numbers of them.
Yucat�n contained the largest number of Mayan speakers. A total of 199,073 Mayan speakers lived in that state, representing 87.36% of all the Yucatec Mayan speakers in the country. Campeche had the second largest number of Mayan speakers with 26,998, which represented 11.85% of all Mayan speakers. Two other states had significant numbers of Maya speakers: Quintana Roo (1,120) and Chiapas (638).
The 1921 Census
In the unique 1921 Mexican census, residents of each state were asked to classify themselves in several categories, including "ind�gena pura" (pure indigenous), "ind�gena mezclada con blanca" (indigenous mixed with white) and "blanca" (white). Out of a total state population of 76,419, 33,176 persons (or 43.4%) claimed to be of pure indigenous background. Slightly fewer � 31,675, or 41.5% � classified themselves as being mixed, while a mere 10,825 (14.2%) claimed to be white. When compared to the other Mexican states, Campeche had the sixth largest "ind�gena pura" population.
Although a significant number of people in Campeche claimed to be of pure indigenous heritage, a much smaller number � 23,410 � were classified as speakers of indigenous languages five years of age and more, representing 35.9% of the state population. All but five of these persons were Mayan Indians, while four spoke the Amuzgo language.
Indigenous Campeche (1930-1980)
In the 1930 census, the number of indigenous speakers five years of age and over in the state of Campeche climbed to 31,324, representing 43.65% of the state�s population five years of age and over. The fact that 16,233 indigenous speakers were monolingual and unable to speak Spanish (representing 51.82% of the indigenous-speaking population) was indicative that some natives of Campeche successfully avoided assimilation into the central Hispanic culture.
Over the next four decades, Campeche�s indigenous-speaking population continued to grow, even though its percentage of the population dropped significantly from 43.65% in 1930 to 27.09% in 1970. The Mayan language was, by far, the most widely spoken indigenous language in Campeche at the time of the 1970 census. At least 55,346 persons out of the 57,031 indigenous speakers spoke Mayan, representing 97.05% of all indigenous speakers in Campeche. The Chol language, in second place, was spoken by only 411 individuals, followed by Otom� (320) and Tzeltal (206).
Native Peoples of Campeche in 2000
According to the 2000 census, 185,938 residents of Campeche were classified as "Ind�gena," representing 26.9% of Campeche�s total population (690,689). In contrast, the population of persons five years and more who spoke indigenous languages amounted to 93,765 individuals, who made up only 15.45% of Campeche�s population five years and older. These individuals spoke more than fifty Indian languages, some of which were transplants from Central America or other parts of the Mexican Republic. Although most of the indigenous speakers were bilingual, 5,308 persons were registered as monolingual.
According to the estimates of INEGI and CONAPO, Campeche had four municipios that contained an indigenous population greater than 50 percent. In three of those four municipios, persons speaking indigenous languages also represented at least half the population of the municipio. At the same time, only two municipios contained populations that were less than ten percent indigenous. And, while Campeche�s overall indigenous-speaking population represented 15.5% of the total state population five or more years of age, five municipios had indigenous-speaking populations that were less than ten percent.
Calkin�, the municipio in the northwest corner of Campeche along the border of Yucat�n, boasted the largest number of indigenous inhabitants in 2000. According to census statistics, 42,008 persons were classified as "Ind�gena," representing 89.6% of the population of the municipio. Calkin� also contained 26,558 inhabitants 5 years of age or older who spoke some indigenous language, representing 63.16% of the municipio�s population and 28.3% of Campeche�s entire indigenous-speaking population of 93,765. Almost all of these individuals (26,453) spoke the Maya language.
The Maya Indians
In the year 2000, speakers of Yucatec Maya continued to represent the dominant language in the entire Yucat�n Peninsula, with 547,098 (68.7%) in Yucat�n, 163,477 (20.5%) in Quintana Roo, and 75,874 (9.5%) in Campeche. The 75,874 individuals 5 years of age and over who spoke the Mayan language in Campeche represented only 9.53% of the 796,314 Mayans who resided in the entire Mexican Republic in 2000 but also represented 80.9% of all indigenous language speakers in the state.
The Mayan language family has a strong presence in seven Mexican states (Chiapas, Tabasco, Yucat�n, Quintana Roo, Campeche, San Luis Potos� and Veracruz) and is the second most common language group in all of Mexico.
The Mayan Language is the dominant indigenous language in all but three of Campeche�s municipios. In the 2000 census, four of the municipios had at least 10,000 Mayan speakers: Calkin� (26,453), Hopelch�n (14,961), Campeche (12,463), and Hecelchak�n (11,396). Adjacent to the Mayan-dominant Yucat�n state, Calkin� contained 34.9% of all the Mayan speakers in Campeche in 2000.
The Chenes Region of Campeche (Hopelchen, and part of Campeche) contains a highly traditional and conservative Mayan population, which due to its relative isolation, has a significant number of Mayan monolingual speakers. In 2000, the 2,626 monolingual speakers in Campeche Municipio represented 9.9% of the entire indigenous-speaking population. In Hopelchen, 1,045 monolingual speakers represented 7.0% of those who spoke Indian tongues.
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The Chol Indians
Some two thousand or more years ago, the Chol Indians inhabited the region which is now known as Guatemala and Honduras. Over time, they split into two main groups, the Chol migrating gradually to the region of present day Chiapas, and the Chortis staying in the region of Guatemala. The Choles of the present day call themselves "Winik" ("Man") and primarily occupy northern Chiapas, adjacent to the states of Tabasco and Campeche.
The Chol Indians of Campeche numbered 8,844 in the 2000 census and accounted for 9.4% of the indigenous-speaking population of the state. The small number of Chol living in Campeche, in fact, represented only 5.47% of the 161,766 Choles who lived in the entire Mexican Republic. According to Ethnologue.com, the Chol belong to the Chol-Chontal subfamily of the Mayan Linguistic Group. The Chontal of Tabasco are, in fact, a very closely related language as are the Chort� of Guatemala. The Chol are the dominant indigenous language in three southern Campeche municipios: Calakmul (4,253 speakers in 2000), Esc�rcega (1,804), and Candelaria (1,388).
The Kanjobal Indians
A total of 1,896 individuals five years of age or more in Campeche spoke the Kanjobal language in 2000, representing 2.0% of the population five years of age and older that spoke indigenous languages. The Kanjobal of Campeche represented 21.03% of the 9,015 Kanjobal-speakers living in the entire Mexican Republic in 2000. The Municipio of Champot�n in southeastern Campeche contained 1,567 of the 1,896 Kanjobal-speakers in Campeche, but even in this municipio, they still only represented the second largest linguistic group (after the Mayans).
The Kanjobal Language belongs to the Kanjobalan-Chujean subfamily of the Mayan Linguistic Family. This subfamily includes the Chuj, Jacalteco, Kanjobal, Motozintleco (Mocho, Tuzanteco), and Tojolabal languages. Most of the languages of this subfamily straddle the border between Chiapas and Guatemala. Ethnologue reported that in 1998, 48,500 persons in Guatemala spoke the Kanjobal language, which represented 82.8% of the worldwide population of 58,600 at that time. The presence of Kanjobal as a language of Campeche is not unusual considering that the non-native population numbered 26.4% in 2000. In all, 14,262 speakers of indigenous languages in Campeche were born in other states or countries.
The Tzeltal Indians
The 1,706 individuals who spoke the Tzeltal language in Campeche in 2000 represented only 0.6% of the 284,826 Tzeltal-speakers in the entire Mexican Republic. According to the 2000 census, 278,577 persons five years of age or more who spoke the Tzeltal language lived in the State of Chiapas, representing 97.8% of the total population in the Republic.
The Mame Indians
The Mame language is not a common language in Campeche, largely because it is primarily a language of Guatemala, where as many as 200,000 people probably speak the language. In the Mexican Republic, however, Mame was spoken by only 7,680 individuals aged 5 or over in 2000. Mames inhabit small portions of Campeche, Quintana Roo and Chiapas, mainly in the southeastern frontier zones adjacent to Guatemala and principally in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas. The majority of Mame speakers are immigrants from Guatemala who settled in refugee camps in recent decades.
Other Languages
Speakers of other indigenous languages in Campeche at the time of the 2000 census included the Tzotzil (552 speakers), N�huatl (468), Zapoteco (468), Kekchi (366), and the Jacalteco (53). The Kekchi and Jacalteco, like the Mame language, are languages indigenous to Guatemala.
The Jacalteco language appears to be another language that is primarily spoken by migrants and refugees from Guatemala. According to the 2000 census, only 53 persons aged 5 and over spoke the Jacalteco language in Campeche, most of them inhabiting Champot�n Municipio. The state of Chiapas, in contrast, had 453 persons of the same age range who spoke the language. But the language is most common in Guatemala, where approximately 20,000 people speak the language today.
The 2005 Conteo
The number of indigenous speakers five years of age and older actually decreased from 93,765 to 89,084 between the 2000 census and the 2005 census count. As such, the percentage of indigenous speakers dropped from 15.5% to 13.3%. It is expected that some immigration from Guatemala, Chiapas and the Yucat�n will probably continue to contribute new speakers of Indian languages to the State. However, the number of actual indigenous speakers, as a portion of the total population, will probably continue its decline.
In spite of this, Campeche itself is a wonderful representation of the ancient Mayan world. With archaeological sites at Calakmul, Edzn�, Balamk�, Bec�n, Chicann�, Dzbilnocac, Hochob, Xpuhil, Campeche can offer any tourist a glimpse into the life of the Mayan people when their culture was at its zenith. In this sense of the word, Campeche will always be indigenous and will always be Mayan.
� 2007, John P. Schmal. All rights reserved.
Primary Sources:
Inga Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 2003).
Peter Gerhard, The Southeast Frontier of New Spain (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993).
Raymond G. Gordon, Jr. (ed.), "Ethnologue: Linguistic Lineage for Maya, Yucat�n," (Dallas, Tex.: SIL International, 2005). Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=yua [Accessed February 27, 2006].
Ralph L. Roys, The Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1957).
France V. Scholes and Ralph L. Roys, The Maya Chontal Indians of Acal�n-Tixchel: A Contribution to the History and Ethnography of the Yucatan Peninsula (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968, 2nd edition).
About the Author
John Schmal is the coauthor of "The Indigenous Roots of a
Mexican-American Family" (available as item M2469 through Heritage Books at
http://heritagebooks.com).
Recently, he also published "The Journey to Latino Political
Representation" (available as item S4114).
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OAXACA: A LAND OF DIVERSITY
By John P. Schmal
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The Mexican state of Oaxaca, located along the Pacific Ocean
in the southeastern section of the country, consists of 95,364 square kilometers
and occupies 4.85% of the total surface area of the Mexican Republic. Located
where the Eastern Sierra Madre and the Southern Sierra Madre come together,
Oaxaca shares a common border with the states of Mexico, Veracruz and Puebla (on
the north), Chiapas (on the east), and Guerrero (on the west).
The name Oaxaca was originally derived from the N�huatl
word, Huayacac, which roughly translated means The Place of
the Seed in reference to a tree commonly found in Oaxaca. As the fifth
largest state of Mexico, Oaxaca is characterized by extreme geographic
fragmentation. With extensive mountain ranges throughout the state, Oaxaca has
an average altitude of 1,500 meters (5,085 feet) above sea level, even though
only about 9% of this is arable land. With such a large area and rough terrain,
Oaxaca is divided into 571 municipios (almost one-quarter of the national
total).�
Oaxaca's rugged topography has played a significant role in giving rise to its amazing cultural diversity. Because individual towns and tribal groups lived in isolation from each other for long periods of time, the subsequent seclusion allowed sixteen ethnolinguistic groups to maintain their individual languages, customs and ancestral traditions intact well into the colonial era and � to some extent � to the present day. For this reason, Oaxaca is � by and large � the most ethnically complex of Mexico�s thirty-one states. The Zapotec (347,000 people) and the Mixtec (241,000 people) are the two largest groups of Indians, but they make up only two parts of the big puzzle.
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Even today, it is believed that at least half of the population of Oaxaca still speaks an indigenous dialect. Sixteen different indigenous groups have been formally registered as indigenous communities, all perfectly well defined through dialect, customs, food habits, rituals, cosmogony, etc. However, the historian Mar�a de Los Angeles Romero Frizzi suggests that "the linguistic categorization is somewhat misleading" partly because "the majority of indigenous peoples in Oaxaca identify more closely with their village or their community than with their ethnolinguistic group."�
In addition, Ms. Romero writes, some of the language families - including Zapotec, Mixtec, and Mazateco - "encompass a variety of regional languages, making for a more diverse picture than the number sixteen would suggest." When the Spaniards arrived in the Valley of Oaxaca in 1521, the inhabitants had split into hundreds of independent village-states. By the time of the 1900 Mexican Federal Census, 471,439 individuals spoke indigenous languages, representing 49.70% of the state population and 17.24% of the national population.
Then in the unique 1921 census, 25,458 residents of Oaxaca claimed to be of "pure indigenous" descent, equal to 3.96% of the state population. Another 328,724 persons were listed as "indigenous mixed with white" (called mestizo or mezclada). And in the 1930 census, 56.4% of Oaxaca�s population spoke indigenous languages.
By the time of the 1990 census, 1,018,106 persons aged five or more speaking indigenous languages made up 39.12% of the total state population and 19.3% of the national total of Indian-language speakers. This, however, did not count another 190,715 children aged 0 to 4 years of age, living with indigenous speakers. And an additional 383,199 Oaxaca residents were classified as having an indigenous identity (but not speaking an Amerindian language). Once you had added up all these figures, you will find that 1,592,020 persons of indigenous identity lived in the state, representing 52.72% of the total state population and 18.27% of the total indigenous population of the Mexican Republic.
Even in the 2000 census, 1,120,312 indigenous speaking persons aged five and older represented 37.11% of the state population five and over. Out of this total, 477,788 persons were classified as monolingual, representing 11.02% of the state population five years of age and older and 19.56% of the indigenous-speaking language.
Oaxaca's two largest indigenous groups are the Zapotecs and the Mixtecs. The
roots of these two indigenous groups stretch very deeply into the early
Mesoamerican era of Oaxaca. Living in their mountain enclaves and fertile
valleys, many of the early occupants of Oaxaca harvested corn, beans, chocolate,
tomatoes, chili, squash, pumpkin and gourds and fished the rivers for a wide
range of fish. Their primary sources of meat were tepezuintle, turkey, deer,
jabali, armadillo and iguana.�
Without a doubt, the Oto-Manguean language family is the largest linguistic group in the state of Oaxaca, represented by at least 173 languages. The author Nicholas A. Hopkins, in his article "Otomanguean Linguistic Prehistory," states that glottochronological studies of the Oaxaca Indian groups indicate that the first diversification of this group of languages had begun by 4400 B.C. It is believed that nine branches of the Oto-Manguean family were already distinct by 1500 B.C., and that some of this linguistic differentiation actually took place in the Valley of Tehuac�n. Both the Zapotecs and the Mixtecs belong to this linguistic family.
The Zapotec Indians, a sedentary, agricultural city-dwelling people, are
believed to be among the earliest ethnic groups to gain prominence in the
region. As a matter of fact, the Zapotecs have always called themselves Be'ena'a,
which means The People. The implication of this terminology is
that the Zapotecs believe that they are "The True
People" or "The people of this place." Unlike many other
Mesoamerican Indians groups, the Zapotecs have no legend of migration and their
legends claim that their ancestors emerged from the earth or from caves, or that
they turned from trees or jaguars into people. Upon death, they believe, they
would return to their former status.�
It is this belief that gave rise to the term Be'ena Za'a (Cloud
People), which was applied to the Central Valley Zapotecs. In the pre-Hispanic
era, Aztec merchants and soldiers dealing with these people translated their
name phonetically into N�huatl: Tzapotecatl. When the Spaniards
arrived, they took this word and transformed it into Zapoteca. The Mixtecs, a
sister culture of the Zapotecs, also received their "Aztec" name due
to their identity as "Cloud People" (�usabi), but in
their case the N�huatl translation was literal, as Mixtecatl translates
directly as "Cloud Person." In their art, architecture, hieroglyphics,
mathematics, and calendar, the Zapotecs appeared to have shared cultural
affinities with the ancient Olmec and the Mayan Indians.�
The Zapotec Indians may have emerged as the dominant group in Oaxaca as early
as 100 B.C. Their most famous cultural center was Monte Alb�n,
which is considered one of the most majestic ceremonial centers of Mesoamerica.
Built in a mountain range overlooking picturesque valleys, Monte Alb�n is a
complex of pyramids and platforms surrounding an enormous esplanade. This center
was dedicated to the cult of the mysterious Zapotec gods and to the celebration
of the military victories of the Zapotec people. The pinnacle of Monte Alb�n's
development probably took place from 250 A.D. to 700 A.D., at which time Monte
Alb�n had become home to some 25,000 people and was the capital city of the
Zapotec nation.
However, sometime around A.D. 800, Monte Alb�n was suddenly abandoned. Some
archaeologists have suggested that this move took place because the local
resources of food and the fertility of the slopes had been severely depleted.
However, the Zapotec culture itself continued to flourish in the valleys of
Oaxaca and the Zapotecs moved their capital to Zaachila. From about 950 to the
arrival of the Spaniards in 1521, there was minimal life at Monte Alban, except
that the Mixtecs - who arrived in the Central Valleys between 1100 and 1350 -
reused old tombs at the site to bury their own dignitaries.�
At about the same time that the Mixtecs arrived in Oaxaca, the Zapotec
culture went into decline. Soon, the Mixtecs conquered Zapotecs and other
indigenous groups. The Mixtecs originally inhabited the southern portions of
what are now the states of Guerrero and Puebla. However, they started moving
south and eastward, eventually making their way to the Central Valley of Oaxaca.
In their newly adopted land, the Mixtecs became prolific expansionists and
builders, leaving behind numerous as yet unexplored sites throughout the
region.�
However, the Mixtecs' prominence in the Valley of Oaxaca was short-lived. By
the middle of the Fifteenth Century, a new power appeared on the horizon. The
Aztec Empire, centered in Tenochtitl�n (now Mexico City), was in
the process of building a great empire that stretched through much of what is
now southern Mexico. In the 1450s, the Aztec armies crossed the mountains into
the Valley of Oaxaca with the intention of extending their hegemony into this
hitherto unconquered region.
Soon, both the Zapotecs and Mixtecs would be struggling to keep the Aztecs from gaining control of their trade routes to Chiapas and Guatemala. After a series of long and arduous battles, the forces of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma Ilhuicamina triumphed over the Mixtecs in 1458. In spite of their subservience to the Aztec intruders, the Mixtecs were able to continue exercising regional authority in the Valley. In 1486 the Aztecs established a fort on the hill of Huaxy�cac (now called El Fort�n), overlooking the present city of Oaxaca. This location thus became the seat of an Aztec garrison that was charged with the enforcement of tribute collection from the restive subjects of this wealthy province.
�
The ascendancy of the Aztecs in Oaxaca would only last a
little more than three decades. In 1521, as the Zapotecs, Mixtecs and other
vassals of the Aztecs worked the fields and paid tribute to their distant
rulers, news arrived that strange invaders with beards and unusual weapons had
arrived from the eastern sea. As word spread throughout Mesoamerica, many
indigenous groups thought that the arrival of these strangers might be the
fulfillment of ancient prophesies predicting the downfall of the Aztecs.�
Then, in August 1521, came the news that the Aztec capital of
Tenochtitl�n had fallen to a combined force of Spanish and Indian soldiers
under the command of a white-skinned, red-haired man named Hern�n Cort�s. Word
of this conquest spread quickly, causing the inhabitants over a large area to
speculate on what was to come next.
In addition to the Zapotec and Mixtec Indians, fourteen other
indigenous groups have lived and flourished throughout the present-day state of
Oaxaca. While they never achieved the numbers and influence attained by the
Zapotecs and Mixtecs, they, nevertheless, represent an important factor in the
historical and cultural panorama of Oaxaca.� These indigenous groups are
described below:
Amuzgos. As a part of the Oto-Manguean language family, the Amuzgo Indians inhabit the border region of southeastern Guerrero and southwestern Oaxaca. Speaking three primary dialects, an estimated 28,000 Amuzgos were registered in the 1990 Mexican census. However, only twenty percent of this number were living in Oaxaca, with the majority residing in Guerrero.
�
The Amuzgos call themselves Tzjon non, which means People of the Textiles.� In 1457, the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma Illhuicamia partially conquered these people. However rebellions against Aztec rule took place in 1494 and 1504-7. Although the uprisings were suppressed, the Aztecs never totally subjugated the Amuzgos. Today, the Amuzgos of Oaxaca live in Putla and San Pedro Amuzgos. For the 2000 census, 4,819 individuals aged five or more claimed to speak the Amuzgo language, representing 0.43% of Oaxaca�s total indigenous figure. This makes the Amuzgo language the thirteenth most common linguistic group of all Oaxaca�s indigenous tongues.
�
Chatinos. The Chatino nation, boasting an area of
3,071 square miles (7,677 square kilometers) is located in southwestern Oaxaca.
The Chatinos belong to the Oto-Manguean language group and speak seven main
dialects. Historical researchers believe that they were one of the first
indigenous groups to inhabit the State of Oaxaca. In his book, Historia de
Oaxaca, the historian Jos� Antonio Gay speculates that they arrived in
a scarcely-populated area (now in the municipio of Juquila) from a "distant
land" long before the arrival of the Zapotecs and Mixtecs.
The Chatinos call themselves Kitse cha'tnio,
which means Work of the Words. The Chatinos were a
military-oriented group who made war against both the Zapotecs and the Mixtecs.
However, the Mixtecs eventually defeated them some years before the arrival of
the Spaniards.� In 2000, the Chatinos represented sixth most common
indigenous tribe of Oaxaca, represented by 40,004 persons aged five and over who
spoke the language (3.57% of the population).
Chinantecos. The Chinantecos, numbering more than
104,000 people, presently inhabit the Chinantla region of north central Oaxaca
near the border of Veracruz. As a division of the Oto-Manguean linguistic group,
the Chinantecos speak as many as 14 different dialects. The Chinantecos of San
Juan Lealao in northeast Oaxaca, who speak a divergent variety of the language,
call themselves Dsa jmii (Plains people) and refer to their
language as Fah jmii (Plains language).�
The Chinantecos presently inhabit an area in which
archaeologists have located temples that were apparently used as ceremonial
centers, and where prisoners were supposedly sacrificed during the most
important celebrations of the year. Historians believe that the Indians living
in this region were struggling to maintain their independence against sudden and
numerous attacks by the Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Mixes and Aztecs. The latter, led by
Moctezuma I, finally conquered the Chinantla region during the Fifteenth
Century, forcing its inhabitants to pay tribute and participate in the religious
practices in honor of the Aztec deities.� In the 1970 census, 52,313
persons five years of age and older living in Oaxaca spoke the Chinanteco
language, which is the fourth largest ethnic group (7.72%), behind the Zapotecs,
Mixtecs, and Mazatecos. However, between 1970 and 2000, the number of Chinanteco
speakers rose dramatically to 104,010, equivalent to 9.28% of Oaxaca�s total
indigenous population.
Chocho. Living in the northern zone of "Mixteca
Alta" (Upper Mixteca), near Oaxaca's border with Puebla, the Chocho people
(also known as Chochones and Chocholtecas) call themselves Runixa ngiigua,
which means Those Who Speak The Language. Inhabiting a region that
is rich in archaeological sites, this tribe belongs to the Oto-Manguean
family.�
The land of Chochones was conquered by the Mixtecs, followed,
in 1461, by an invasion of the Aztecs led by Moctezuma Ilhuicamina. The Aztec
conquest of the Mixtecs and Chochos was economic in nature. The subjects were
forced to pay tribute to the Aztecs but were allowed to maintain their
traditions and political autonomy.
Chontales. Chontal is the name of two very distinct
languages spoken in the states of Tabasco and Oaxaca. This group's physical
separation, enhanced by its different geographical and climactic conditions, has
propitiated its division into Coastal and Mountain groups. Chontal Tabasco is a
member of the Mayan language family and Chontal Oaxaca a member of the Hokan
language family, which is more widely represented in the Southwestern United
States and the border states of Baja California and Sonora. The Chontales of
Oaxaca refer to themselves Slijuala xanuc, which means Inhabitants
of the Mountains.
The origins of the Oaxacan Chontal population have not been conclusively determined, but some archaeologists believe that they originally came from Nicaragua. Warfare may have motivated them to move north, through what is now Honduras, Yucat�n and Tabasco. Eventually, they settled down in both Oaxaca and Tabasco. Founded in 1374, the Kingdom of the Chontals eventually came into conflict with the Zapotecs. After a series of ongoing confrontations, the Zapotecs finally defeated them. Under Spanish rule, the Chontales carried on a formidable resistance for some time. In the 2000 census, 4,610 Chontal de Oaxaca were tallied at 4,610, representing 0.41% of the state�s total indigenous speaking population. Today, the Chontal Oaxaca inhabit the southernmost region of Oaxaca and speak two major dialects.
�
Cuicateco. Cuicateco territory, located in northwestern Oaxaca,
occupies an approximate area of 3,243 square miles. Little is known about the
Cuicateco people, due to the destruction of maps, codex and other written
testimony by the Spanish about the Mixteca and Zapotec cultures, with which they
were intimately related. However, archaeological research conducted in some of
the ruins in the region they currently inhabit, have led some historians to
speculate that the Cuicateco are descended from Toltecan immigrants, who
dispersed with the fall of Tula in 1064.�
Because they inhabited the fertile lowlands of the Cuicatlan River, the
Cuicateco nation was a frequent target of other Indian groups. After fighting
off numerous invasions, they eventually came into the orbit of the Mixtec
nation. However, when the Aztecs arrived in 1456, the Cuicatecos formed an
alliance with them, seeking to free themselves of Mixtec oppression. By the time
of the Spanish arrival, their population numbered 60,000. However, in the 2000
census, only 12,128 persons five years of age or more claimed to speak the
Cuicateco language, representing more than one percent of Oaxaca�s total
indigenous population, living primarily in northwestern Oaxaca.
Huave. Although the origins of the Huave nation have not been
indisputably determined, some historians believe that this group came from a
distant land, possibly from Nicaragua or even as far away as Peru. It is
believed that the Huave arrived by sea, traveling along the coast as they sought
out a new home. Finally, they reached the Tehuantepec coast, inhabited by the
Mixe nation, who did not oppose their settlement.
Eventually, the Huave nation conquered a large expanse of Oaxacan territory,
known today as Jalapa del Marques. However, Aztec armies under the command of
Moctezuma I invaded and conquered both the Zapotec and Huave kingdoms, forcing
both to pay tribute. Then, the Zapotecs, taking advantage of their weakened
condition, invaded the territory of the Huaves and obliged them to flee the
Jalapa del Marques Valley for the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (now in southeastern
Oaxaca) where they still live today, occupying a small strip of coastline just
east of the city of Tehuantepec. Today, the 13,678 Huave speakers of Oaxaca �
who represent 1.2% of the total indigenous population of Oaxaca�s indigenous
people in the 2000 census � call themselves Mero ikooc, which
means The True Us. As small as their group is, they are actually
the eighth-most common language spoken.
Ixcatecos. The Ixcateco Indians inhabit only the town of Santa Maria
de Ixcatl�n in the municipio of the same name, in the north part of the state.
Living in one of the most arid, eroded and poorest regions of the country, the
Ixcatecos are the only remnants of the pre-Hispanic Ixcateco nation, which once
occupied another seven communities. These towns were probably abandoned because
of the lack of water and agricultural failure. Due to the inaccessibility of
their territory, the Ixcatecos remained an independent nation until the Aztec
Emperor Moctezuma II overwhelmed them early in the Sixteenth Century.�
Mazatecos. Occupying the northernmost region of the state, the
Mazatecos occupy two environmentally and culturally well-defined regions: the
upper Sierra Madre Oriental mountains and the Papaloapan Basin. The Mazatecos
call themselves Ha shuta enima, which means People of
Custom. Some historians, in their interpretation of the
Quauhtinchan Annals, believe that the Mazatecos descend from the
Nonoalca-Chichimecas, who migrated south from Tula early in the Twelfth Century.
In recent decades, the Mazatecos Indians have represented one of the largest linguistic groups in Oaxaca. With 93,376 individuals aged five and older speaking Mazatec in 1970, this linguistic group was used by 13.79% of indigenous speakers. These numbers increased significantly in the 2000 census, when 174,352 Mazateco speakers were tallied, representing 15.6% of the total indigenous speaking population of Oaxaca. A significant number of Mazatecos also occupy Veracruz and Puebla.
Mixes. Although they represent the fourth largest of Oaxaca's ethnic
groups, the Mixes are an isolated ethnic group that inhabits the northeastern
part of Oaxaca, close to the border with Veracruz. This region consists of 19
municipios and 108 communities. The Mixes call themselves Ayuuk,
which means The People. Some historians believe that the Mixes may
have migrated from present-day Peru in search of Zempoaltepetl, a pagan god, and
the Hill of Twenty Gods. Another theory claims that they came from the tropical
zone of the Gulf of Mexico.�
What is known is that the Mixes arrived in Oaxaca, on successive excursions,
from 1294 to 1533. They immediately came into conflict with both the Mixtecs and
Zapotecs, with whom they fought many battles. Later on, however, they allied
themselves with the Zapotecs against the Aztecs. And, with the arrival of the
Spaniards from Tenochtitl�n, their stubborn resistance continued. In the 2000
census, 105,443 persons aged five or more were classified as speakers of one or
more of the seven distinct dialects of the Mixe. The Mixe thus represented 9.4%
of the total indigenous speaking population, with approximately 38,000 of these
people classified as monolingual, making them the Mexican indigenous group with
the highest rate of monolingualism.
Mixtecs. Today, the Mixtec Indians, who were discussed earlier in
this article, inhabit a geographic region of more than 40,000 square kilometers
in northwestern Oaxaca and smaller portions of Puebla and Guerrero. The Mixtec
territory is divided into three subregions: the Upper Mixteca, Lower Mixteca and
the Coast Mixteca. The Upper Mixteca, covering 38 municipios, is the most
populated region. The Lower Mixteca covers another 31 municipios in northwestern
Oaxaca. In 1970, 168,725 persons aged five or more spoke the Mixtec language,
representing 24.9% of Oaxaxa�s indigenous population. The 2000 census tallied
241,383 Mixtec speakers, representing 21.6% of the states� indigenous-speaking
population.
Today, the Mixtecs call themselves �uu Savi, the People
of the rain. The Mixtecan language family, as one of the largest and
most diverse families in the Oto-Manguean group, includes three groups of
languages: Mixtec, Cuicatec, and Trique.�
Popoloco. The term Popoloca was applied by the Aztecs to all those
nations that did not speak a tongue based on N�huatl, more or less
understandable among them. Therefore, the term had the connotation of stranger
or foreigner and, at the same time, a derogatory denotation for
"barbaric", "stuttering" and "unintelligent". The
Spaniards continued using the term in the same manner. The Popoluca call
themselves Homshuk, which means God of Corn. Today,
the Popolca population is divided in three fractions speaking six primary
dialects, with no geographical continuity evident.�
Tacuates. The Tacuates, who speak a variant of the Mixtec language,
occupy two of Oaxaca's municipios. It is believed that their name evolved from
the N�huatl word, Tlacoatl, which was derived from tlal (Land)
and coal (serpent, snake). The implication is that the Tacuates
lived in the land of the serpents.
Trique. The Triques inhabit a 193-square-mile area in the southern Sierra Madre Mountains in the westernmost part of Oaxaca. Historians believe that the Triques, long ago, had fled from some distant land, seeking refuge from warring neighbors. Once in Oaxaca, they were defeated by both the Zapotecs and Mixtecs. Then, in the Fifteenth Century, the Aztec armies defeated them decisively and forced them to pay tribute. In the 2000 census, 15,203 inhabitants of Oaxaca aged five and over spoke the Trique language, making it the eighth month common tongue in the state.
Zapotecs. The Zapotecs, who were discussed in greater detail above,
are the largest indigenous group of Oaxaca and presently occupy 67 municipios of
Oaxaca. The Zapotec language is the most widely spoken language of Oaxaca. In
1970, there were 246,138 Zapotec speakers, representing 36.3% of Oaxaca�s
total indigenous-speaking population. While that population has increased
significantly to 347,020 in the 2000 census, the percentage of Zapotec speakers
actually dropped to 31%. Of the 173 living Oto-Manguean tongues, sixty-four are
Zapotecan.�
Zoque. The Zoque tribe, also called Aiyuuk, is closely
related to the Mayan-Chique family. The Zoque call themselves O'deput,
which means People of the Language. The main nucleus of the Zoques
is in Chiapas, where approximately 15,000 speak the language. The Oaxaca branch
of the tribe probably does not amount to more than 10,000 people. Many of their
customs, social organizations, religion beliefs, and way of life were identical
to those of the Mixe community, with whom they probably share a common origin in
Central America.
The Encounter (1521). When the Zapotec leaders heard that the
powerful Aztec Empire had been overcome by the strangers from the Gulf of
Mexico, they decided to send a delegation to seek an alliance with this new
powerful force. Intrigued by this offer, Hern�n Cort�s promptly sent
representatives to consider their offer.
On November 25, 1521, Francisco de Orozco arrived in the Central Valley to
take possession of this land in the name of Cort�s. A wide alluvial plain of
about 700 square kilometers, the Valley of Oaxaca had a native population of
about 350,000 at this time. Soon, both the Zapotec and Mixtec caciques of the
Oaxaca Valley submitted to Orozco. Thus, writes the historian William B. Taylor,
"Peaceful conquest spared the Valley of Oaxaca the loss of life and the
grave social and psychological dislocations experienced by the Aztecs in the
Valley of Mexico."
Francisco de Orozco did meet with some resistance in Antequera, but by the
end of 1521, his forces had subdued the indigenous resistance. Cort�s friends'
Pedro de Alvarado and Gonzalo de Sandoval also arrived in Oaxaca to search for
gold in the Sierras. Their reports led Cort�s to seek the title of Marqu�s del
Valle of Oaxaca in 1526, so that he might reserve some of the land's wealth for
his own well-being.
In the course of the next decade, dramatic changes took place in the Valley.
Starting in 1528, Dominican friars established permanent residence in Antequerea.
After the Bishopric of Oaxaca was formally established in 1535, Catholic priests
arrived in ever-increasing numbers. Armed with a fiery zeal to eradicate pagan
religions, the Catholic missionaries persevered in their work. Settlers arriving
from Spain brought with them domestic animals that had hitherto never been seen
in Oaxaca: horses, cows, goats, sheep, chickens, mules and oxen.�
However, while little resistance was encountered in the Mixteca Alta or the
Mazateca-Cuicateca of northern Oaxaca and in the three central valleys of Oaxaca,
Mr. Spores wrote that "principal pockets of opposition were Tututepec on
the Pacific coastal plain, the Zapotec Sierra, and Tehuantepec."�
The Mixes of the Sierra, adept in their native mountainous terrain, resisted
the Spanish intrusions onto their lands from the very start. Mr. Spores wrote
that the Mixes of the Sierra, "sometimes in alliance with Zapotecs and
Zoques, were a difficult foe. They fiercely resisted the Spaniards not only
during the initial encounter and conquest of 1522-23 but throughout most of the
first century of the colony's existence."�
In 1570, the Mixes rebelled and, as Mr. Spores writes, "rampaged through
the Sierra Zapoteca, burning and looting Zapotec communities and threatening to
annihilate the Spaniards in [the presidio of] Villa Alta." The Spaniards,
however, in alliance with 2,000 Mixtecs from Cuilapa and Aztecs living in Analco,
were able to contain the rebellion. Following this defeat, the Mixes
"elected to retreat to the remoteness of their mountain villages rather
than risk inevitable destruction. There they remained throughout the colonial
period, and it is there that they may be found today." Antonio Gay, in
fact, stated that the Spaniards "never emerged victorious over the
Mixes."
In the decades following the Spanish encounter, a series of devastating
epidemics wreaked havoc on the native population of all Mexico. Before the first
century had ended, some nineteen major epidemics had come and gone. The exposure
of the Oaxacan Indians to smallpox, chicken pox, diphtheria, influenza, scarlet
fever, measles, typhoid, mumps, influenza, and cocoliztli (a hemorrhagic
disease) took a huge toll. As a result, Ms. Romero has written that the native
population declined from 1.5 million in 1520 to 150,000 people in 1650.
It is interesting to note that while only 9 percent of Oaxaca's land is
arable, the Indians continued to dominate landholding in all areas of Oaxaca
throughout the entire colonial period. However, Mr. Spores noted that
occasionally Spanish merchants and officials attempted "to take advantage
of their politically and economically superior status." This, in turn,
"provoked conflict with the Indians." But such "Indian resistance
in Oaxaca was sporadic."
In summarizing Indigenous Oaxaca's "responses to abuse, exploitation,
dissatisfaction, and deprivation," Mr. Spores writes that
"overwhelmingly" the dominant response was "to resort to the
administrative-judicial system for rectification or to yield to colonial
control." Continuing, Mr. Spores concluded that "only rarely, and
under the most trying circumstances, did natives turn to violent confrontation,
massive passive resistance, or revitalistic movements as mechanisms for
redressing grievances or resolving conflict." Finally, on February 3, 1824,
the state of Oaxaca was founded within the newly-independent Mexican Republic,
after 303 years of Spanish rule.
No discussion of Indigenous Oaxaca can be complete without mentioning Benito
Ju�rez. Born on March 21, 1806 in the village of San Pablo Guelato in the
jurisdiction of Santa Tom�s Ixtlan, to Zapotec parents (Marcelino Ju�rez and
Br�gida Garc�a), Ju�rez became one of Mexico's greatest heroes.�
Trained as a lawyer, he was eventually elected Governor of Oaxaca and the
President of the Mexican Republic. Ju�rez ruled over Mexico during a time of
great dissension and polarization. As President, he initiated liberal reforms in
education and civil rights and made separation of church and state the law of
the land. When revolution drove him from Mexico City, he set up his government
elsewhere. When France invaded Mexico, Ju�rez displayed a tenacity of will that
inspired all of Mexico. Moving from one city to the next, he never surrendered
to the European occupiers. Like his contemporary Abraham Lincoln, he united a
nation that was at war with itself.
However, for the people of Oaxaca, Benito Ju�rez is both a legend and a
symbol. Ju�rez became the first and only full-blooded Indian man to take office
as Mexico's President. The people of Oaxaca will always look to Benito Ju�rez
as the man who proved that a person of indigenous roots is capable of achieving
greatness.
Copyright � 2008, by John P. Schmal.
Sources:
Adams, Richard E.W., Prehistoric Mesoamerica. Oklahoma City: Un
of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
Ethnologue.com, Languages of Mexico. From Ethnologue: Languages of
the World, 14th edition, Online: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Mexico��
July 28, 2001.
Frizzi, Mar�a de Los Angeles Romero, "The Indigenous Population of
Oaxaca From the Sixteenth Century to the Present," in Richard E.W. Adams
and Murdo J. MacLeod (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples
of the Americas, Volume II, Mesoamerica, Part 2. Cambridge, United
Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Gay, Jos� Antonio, Historia de Oaxaca. Distrito Federal, Mexico:
Porr�a, 1982.
Hopkins, Nicholas A., "Otomanguean Linguistic Prehistory," in J. Kathryn Josserand, Marcus Winter, and Nicholas Hopkins (eds.), Esays in Otomanguean Culture History � Vanderbuilt University Publications in Anthropology No. 31 (Nashville: Vanderbilt University, 1984), pp. 25-64.
Instituto Nacional de Estad�stica, Geograf�a e Inform�tica (INEGI). Tabulados
B�sicos. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. XII Censo General de Poblaci�n y Vivienda,
2000. (Mexico, 2001).
Taylor, William B., Landlord and Peasant in Colonial Oaxaca.
Stanford, California: Stanford Un Press, 1972.
Zwollo, Juan Antonio Ruiz, Oaxaca's Tourist Guide: Indigenous Villages.
1995-2000. Online: http://oaxaca-travel.com/guide/indigenous�� July
20, 2001
�
THE MIXTECS AND ZAPOTECS:
Two Enduring Cultures of Oaxaca
By John P. Schmal
The Mexican state of Oaxaca, located along the Pacific Ocean in the
southeastern section of the country, consists of 95,364 square kilometers and
occupies 4.85% of the total surface area of the Mexican Republic. Located where
the Eastern Sierra Madre and the Southern Sierra Madre come together, Oaxaca
shares a common border with the states of Mexico, Veracruz and Puebla (on the
north), Chiapas (on the east), and Guerrero (on the west).
As the fifth largest state of Mexico, Oaxaca is characterized by extreme
geographic fragmentation. With extensive mountain ranges throughout the state,
Oaxaca has an average altitude of 1,500 meters (5,085 feet) above sea level,
even though only about 9% of this is arable land. With such a large area and
rough terrain, Oaxaca is divided into 571 municipios (almost one-quarter of the
national total).�
Oaxaca's rugged topography has played a significant role in giving rise to its amazing cultural diversity. Because individual towns and tribal groups lived in isolation from each other for long periods of time, the subsequent seclusion allowed sixteen ethnolinguistic groups to maintain their individual languages, customs and ancestral traditions intact well into the colonial era and � to some extent � to the present day. Although Oaxaca�s ethnic groups are well-defined through dialect, customs, food habits, and rituals, the historian Mar�a de Los Angeles Romero Frizzi has suggested that the simplistic "linguistic categorization" of the ethnic groups is "somewhat misleading," primarily because "the majority of indigenous peoples in Oaxaca identify more closely with their village or their community than with their ethnolinguistic group."�
For this reason, Oaxaca is � by and large � the most ethnically complex of Mexico�s thirty-one states. The two largest linguistic groups in this large collection are the Zapotec and Mixtec Indians, whose roots stretch very deeply into the early Mesoamerican era of Oaxaca. Living in their mountain enclaves and fertile valleys, many of their pre-Hispanic ancestors harvested corn, beans, chocolate, tomatoes, chili, squash, pumpkin and gourds. Some of the early inhabitants also hunted turkey, deer, armadillo and iguana or fished in Oaxaca�s many ocean-bound streams and rivers.
It is no surprise that the Mixtecs and Zapotecs were neighbors as they both belong to the Oto-Manguean language family, which remains the largest linguistic group in the state of Oaxaca and in the Mexican Republic, represented by approximately 174 languages (according to Ethnologue.com). The author Nicholas A. Hopkins, in his article "Otomanguean Linguistic Prehistory," states that glottochronological studies of the Oaxacan Indian groups indicate that the first diversification of this group of languages had begun by 4400 B.C. It is believed that nine branches of the Oto-Manguean family were already distinct by 1500 B.C., and that some of this linguistic differentiation actually took place in the Valley of Tehuac�n. It is widely recognized that the Mixtecos and Zapotecos are actually kindred peoples, looking back to a common origin several thousand years ago.
These two groups are not only the largest indigenous groups within this part of Mexico; they also exhibit a wide range of diversity within their own ethnic populations. Ms. Romero has observed that some of Oaxaca�s language families � including the Zapotec and Mixtec tongues � "encompass a variety of regional languages, making for a more diverse picture than the number sixteen would suggest."
By the time the Spaniards arrived in the Valley of Oaxaca in 1521, the Zapotec and Mixtec inhabitants of this large mountainous region had split into hundreds of independent village-states. The Zapotec ethnic group is so diverse that there are actually 64 separate Zapotec languages that have evolved over the last few thousand years, each language diverging as the Zapotec communities became isolated from one another over time. The Mixtec ethnic group is also very diverse, speaking approximately 57 different languages. Almost four centuries after the conquest, at the time of the 1900 Mexican Federal Census, 471,439 inhabitants of Oaxaca were still speaking Indian languages, representing 49.70% of the state population and 17.24% of the national indigenous-speaking population.
Most archaeological evidence indicates that the Zapotecs were one of the
earliest ethnic groups to gain prominence in the region now called Oaxaca. The
Zapotec Indians have always called themselves Be'ena'a, which
means The People. The implication of this terminology is that the
Zapotecs believe that they are "The True People" or
"The people of this place." Unlike many other Mesoamerican Indians
groups, the Zapotecs have no legend of migration from another land. Instead,
their legends claim that their ancestors emerged from the earth or from caves,
or that they turned from trees or jaguars into people. It is, therefore, not
surprising that they would refer to themselves as the rightful original
inhabitants of their lands.
Some of the Zapotecs eventually became known as the Be'ena Za'a (Cloud People), a name primarily applied to the Central Valley Zapotecs. In the pre-Hispanic era, Aztec merchants and soldiers dealing with these people translated their name phonetically into N�huatl: Tzapotecatl. When the Spaniards arrived, they took this word and transformed it into Zapoteca. The Mixtecs, the sister culture of the Zapotecs, also received their "Aztec" name due to their identity as "Cloud People" (�usabi), but in their case the N�huatl translation was literal, as Mixtecatl translates directly as "Cloud Person."
The early Zapotecs were a sedentary, agricultural city-dwelling people who
worshipped a pantheon of gods. In their art, architecture, hieroglyphics,
mathematics, and calendar, the Zapotecs appeared to have shared some cultural
affinities with the ancient Olmec and the Mayan Indians.�The Zapotec
culture developed in the mountainous area at and near Monte Alb�n, roughly
parallel to the Olmec civilization, which was in decline as the Zapotecs were in
ascendance. The Zapotecs developed a calendar and a basic form of writing
through carvings. B
y 200
B.C. the Zapotecs were using the bar and dot system of numerals used by the
Maya.
Politically and militarily, the Zapotec Indians became dominant in the area around 200 B.C., extending their political and economic influence into the coastal regions and establishing valuable trading links with the Mayans to the south. Sometime between the third and eighth centuries A.D., the Zapotec culture peaked. However, soon after, the Mixtecs began to dominate the region, displacing the Zapotecs in many areas.
Located above the Valley of Oaxaca, six miles away from the capital city, the Zapotec ceremonial center, Monte Alb�n, was built in a mountain range overlooking great valleys and remains one of the most majestic of the sites of Pre-Historic Mexico. This architectural wonder is a complex of pyramids and platforms surrounding an enormous esplanade, where there is also an extraordinary astronomical observatory. Monte Alb�n was dedicated to the cult of mysterious gods and to the celebration of the military victories of the Zapotec people.
The pinnacle of Monte Alb�n's development probably took place from 250 A.D.
to 700 A.D., by which time Monte Alb�n had become home to some 25,000 people
and was the capital city of the Zapotec nation. For
reasons still not entirely clear, the site was gradually abandoned after A.D.
700.
Some archaeologists have suggested that the decline of Monte Alb�n may have taken place because local resources of wood had become depleted and that its once-fertile slopes had become barren. However, the Zapotec culture itself continued to flourish in the valleys of Oaxaca and the Zapotecs moved their capital to Zaachila. From about 950 to the arrival of the Spanish in 1521, there was minimal life at Monte Alb�n, except that Mixtecs arriving in the Central Valleys between 1100 and 1350 reused old tombs at the site to bury their own dignitaries.
The Mixtecs originally inhabited the southern portions of what are now the states of Guerrero and Puebla. However, they started moving south and eastward, eventually making their way to the Central Valley of Oaxaca. In their newly adopted land, the Mixtecs became prolific expansionists and builders, gradually encroaching onto the territories of the Zapotecs. But, the Mixtecs' prominence in the Valley of Oaxaca was short-lived.
By the middle of the Fifteenth Century, a new power appeared on the horizon.
The Aztec Empire, centered in Tenochtitl�n (now Mexico City), was
in the process of building a great empire that stretched through much of what is
now southern Mexico. In the 1450s, the Aztec armies crossed the mountains into
the Valley of Oaxaca with the intention of extending their hegemony into this
hitherto unconquered region.
Soon, both the Zapotecs and Mixtecs would be struggling to keep the Aztecs from gaining control of their trade routes to Chiapas and Guatemala. After a series of long and arduous battles, the forces of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma Ilhuicamina triumphed over the Mixtecs in 1458. In 1486, the Aztecs established a fort on the hill of Huaxy�cac (now called El Fort�n), overlooking the present city of Oaxaca. This location would become the seat of an Aztec garrison that enforced tribute collection from the Mixtecs and Zapotecs.
The ascendancy of the Aztecs in Oaxaca would last a little more than a few
decades. In 1521, as the Zapotecs, Mixtecs and other vassals of the Aztecs
worked the fields and paid tribute to their distant rulers, news arrived that
strange invaders with beards and unusual weapons had arrived from the eastern
sea. As word spread throughout Mesoamerica, many indigenous groups thought that
the arrival of these strangers might be the fulfillment of ancient prophesies
predicting the downfall of the Aztecs.�
Then, in August 1521, came the news that the Aztec capital of Tenochtitl�n
had fallen to a combined force of Spanish and Indian soldiers under the command
of a white-skinned, red-haired man named Hern�n Cort�s. Word of this conquest
spread quickly, causing the inhabitants over a large area to speculate on what
was to come next.
When the Zapotec leaders heard that the powerful Aztec Empire had been
overcome by the strangers from the Gulf of Mexico, they decided to send a
delegation to seek an alliance with this new powerful force. Intrigued by this
offer, Hern�n Cort�s promptly sent representatives to consider their offer.
When the powerful Aztecs were overcome, the Zapotecs sent delegations seeking alliances with the Spaniards. Cort�s promptly sent Pedro de Alvarado and Gonzalo de Sandoval to the Pacific and into the Sierra looking for gold. Pedro de Alvarado (1486-1541) explored the Oaxaca region in search of the source of the Aztec gold and find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean.� He didn't find a waterway but reported some good locations for ports.��
On November 25, 1521, Francisco de Orozco arrived in the Central Valley with
a force of 400 Aztecs to take possession in the name of Cort�s. A wide alluvial
plain of about 700 square kilometers, the Valley of Oaxaca had a native
population of about 350,000 at this time. Soon, both the Zapotec and Mixtec
caciques of the Oaxaca Valley submitted to Orozco. Thus, writes the historian
William B. Taylor, "Peaceful conquest spared the Valley of Oaxaca the loss
of life and the grave social and psychological dislocations experienced by the
Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico."
Francisco de Orozco did meet with some resistance in Antequera, but by the
end of 1521, his forces had subdued the indigenous resistance. Cort�s friends'
Pedro de Alvarado and Gonzalo de Sandoval also arrived in Oaxaca to search for
gold in the Sierras. Their reports led Cort�s to seek the title of Marqu�s del
Valle of Oaxaca in 1526, so that he might reserve some of the land's wealth for
his own well-being.
In the course of the next decade, dramatic changes took place in the Valley.
Starting in 1528, Dominican friars established permanent residence in Antequerea.
After the Bishopric of Oaxaca was formally established in 1535, Catholic priests
arrived in ever-increasing numbers. Armed with a fiery zeal to eradicate pagan
religions, the Catholic missionaries persevered in their work. Settlers arriving
from Spain brought with them domestic animals that had hitherto never been seen
in Oaxaca: horses, cows, goats, sheep, chickens, mules and oxen.�
In the decades following the Spanish encounter, a series of devastating
epidemics wreaked havoc on the native population of Oaxaca and other parts of
Mexico. Before the first century had ended, some nineteen major epidemics had
come and gone. The exposure of the Oaxacan Indians to smallpox, chicken pox,
diphtheria, influenza, scarlet fever, measles, typhoid, mumps, influenza, and
cocoliztli (a hemorrhagic disease) took a huge toll. As a result, Ms. Romero has
written that the native population declined from 1.5 million in 1520 to 150,000
people in 1650. But, over time, the population of Oaxaca rebounded. On February
3, 1824, the state of Oaxaca was founded within the newly independent Mexican
Republic, after 303 years of Spanish rule.
According to the 2000 census, the population of persons five years and more who spoke indigenous languages in Oaxaca amounted to 1,120,312 individuals, which represented 39.12% of the total population of the state. Today, the Mixtec Indians are one of the most important linguistic groups of southern Mexico, occupying an extensive territory of about 40,000 square kilometers (189 municipios) in western and northern Oaxaca and extending into Eastern Guerrero and Puebla. The Mixtec territory is divided into three subregions: the Upper Mixteca, Lower Mixteca and the Coastal Mixteca.
The Mixteca Alta or Highland Mixtec (Upper Mixteca) occupy approximately 38
municipios in the mountains west of the valley of Oaxaca. For most of Mixtec
history the Mixteca Alta was the dominant political force, with the capitals of
the Mixtec nation located in the central highlands. The valley of Oaxaca itself
was often a disputed border region, sometimes dominated by the Mixtec and
sometimes by the neighboring people to the east, the Zapotec.
The Lower Mixteca (Mixteca Baja) or Lowland Mixtec region takes in another 31 municipios to the north and west of these highlands in northwestern Oaxaca. The Mixteca de la Costa or Coastal Mixtec live in the southern plains and the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
In the 2000 census, the Mixteco Indians in Oaxaca numbered 241,383, or 55.19%
of the 437,373 Mixtecos in the entire Mexican Republic. If you count the various
subsidiary Mixtec languages, the total Mixtec-speaking population of the Mexican
Republic in 2000 included 444,498 individuals. Today, the Mixtecs are spread
throughout the entire nation, in large part because of their good reputation in
the agricultural industry. The chart below illustrates the population of Mixtec
speakers in both Oaxaca and the Mexican Republic. �
|
Name of Language |
Number of Persons Speaking Language 5 Years or Older in Oaxaca |
Percentage as a Portion of Mexican Republic Totals |
Number of Persons Speaking Language 5 Years or Older in Mexican Republic |
|
Mixteco |
241,383 |
55.13% |
437,873 |
|
Mixteco de La Mixteca Baja |
2,049 |
55.26% |
3,708 |
|
Mixteco de la Mixteca Alta |
578 |
20.29% |
2,848 |
|
Mixteco de la Costa |
15 |
45.45% |
33 |
|
Mixteco de la Zona Mazateca |
4 |
23.53% |
17 |
|
Mixteco de Puebla |
0 |
0.00% |
19 |
|
All Mixtecs |
244,029 |
54.90% |
444,498 |
|
Source: XII Censo General de Poblaci�n y Vivenda, 2000, Instituto de Estad�stica, Geograf�a e Inform�tica (INEGI). |
|||
The Zapotec ethnic group remains the largest indigenous group of Oaxaca and presently occupies 67 municipios of Oaxaca. Several major Zapotec linguistic groups are classified by region as follows:
The Zapotecos de Valles Centrales (Zapotecos of the Central Valleys) are spread through the districts of Tlacolula, Ejutla, Ocotl�n, Centro, Zaachila, Zimatl�n and Etla, an area that actually consists of three intermontaine areas. The Oaxaca Valleys are located in the central part of the state. This is a zone of wide plains suitable for agriculture. The region borders the Mixteca on the west, the Gorge on the northwest, the Ju�rez Mountain Range on the north, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on the east, and the Sierra Madre Range on the south.
The Zapoteco Sure�o (Zapotecos of the Southern Mountains) occupy the southern mountain region. The Zapoteco Istmo (the Zapotecos of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec) live in Tehuantepec and Juchit�n of southeastern Oaxaca. The term Zapotec comprises a great many language varieties, most of which are identified by the area or towns where they are spoken. In the 2000 census, 377,936 individuals five years of age or more spoke some kind of Zapoteco language in Oaxaca. This represented 83.45% of all the Zapotec speakers in the entire Mexican Republic, who numbered 421,796. Like their Mixtec brothers, the Zapotecs have migrated to many parts of the country. These populations are illustrated as follows:
�
|
Name of Language |
Number of Persons Speaking Language 5 Years or Older in Oaxaca in 2000 |
Percentage as a Portion of Mexican Republic Totals in 2000 |
Number of Persons Speaking Language 5 Years or Older in Mexico in 2000 |
|
Zapoteco |
347,020 |
82.27% |
421,796 |
|
Zapoteco Sure�o |
25,357 |
99.85% |
25,396 |
|
Zapoteco Vallista |
3,154 |
99.21% |
3,179 |
|
Zapoteco del Istmo |
562 |
87.27% |
644 |
|
Zapoteco del Ixtl�n |
1,829 |
98.97% |
1,848 |
|
Zapoteco del Rinc�n |
14 |
73.68% |
19 |
|
Zapoteco de Cuitztla |
0 |
0.00% |
4 |
|
Zapoteco de Vijano |
0 |
0.00% |
1 |
|
All Zapotecs |
337,936 |
83.45% |
452,887 |
|
Source: XII Censo General de Poblaci�n y Vivenda, 2000, Instituto de Estad�stica, Geograf�a e Inform�tica (INEGI). |
|||
Increasingly, large numbers of Zapotecs and Mixtecs are traveling to locations throughout the Mexican Republic and the United States to secure gainful employment. Zapotecs and Mixtecs, in fact, are favored laborers in the two Baja states. In the 2000 census, the two largest linguistic groups in Baja California Norte were the Mixtecos (11,962 speakers) and the Zapotecos (2,987 speakers). In the 2000 census, 41,014 persons in Baja California claimed Oaxaca as their birthplace.
Already, in the 1970s, Baja had become a major zone of attraction for Mixtec farm laborers, with Ensenada and Tijuana as the primary destinations. In the last two decades, Baja California growers almost exclusively recruited Oaxacans laborers for their agricultural labor needs.
Indigenous speakers from Oaxaca have also made their way to the United States in large numbers. It is believed that in the last 20 years, more than 100,000 Zapotecs and Mixtecs have immigrated to the United States. According to the researcher Sarah Poole, it has been estimated that by the year 2010, Mixtecs and Zapotecs will comprise 20% of the agricultural labor force in the United States, in particular California.
Wherever they go, Mixtec and Zapotec laborers are usually regarded as newcomers. But, these two peoples have endured a long cultural journey, stretching back several thousand years. The Mixtecs and Zapotecs, in fact, built successful civilizations long before the Aztecs came into prominence. They are, without a doubt, enduring cultures.
Copyright � 2008, by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
Sources:
Adams, Richard E.W., Prehistoric Mesoamerica. Oklahoma City: Un of
Oklahoma Press, 1991.
Clark Alfaro, V�ctor. Los Mixtecos en la Frontera (Baja California). Mexicali, Baja California: Universidad Aut�noma de Baja California, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, 1991.
Ethnologue.com, Languages of Mexico. From Ethnologue: Languages of the
World, 14th edition, Online: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Mexico��
July 28, 2001.
Frizzi, Mar�a de Los Angeles Romero, "The Indigenous Population of
Oaxaca From the Sixteenth Century to the Present," in Richard E.W. Adams
and Murdo J. MacLeod (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of
the Americas, Volume II, Mesoamerica, Part 2. Cambridge, United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Gardu�o, Everardo. Mixtecos en Baja California: El Caso de San Quint�n. Mexicali, B.C., M�xico: Universidad Aut�noma de Baja California, 1989.
Gay, Jos� Antonio. Historia de Oaxaca. Distrito Federal, Mexico:
Porr�a, 1982.
Hopkins, Nicholas A., "Otomanguean Linguistic Prehistory," in J. Kathryn Josserand, Marcus Winter, and Nicholas Hopkins (eds.), Esays in Otomanguean Culture History � Vanderbuilt University Publications in Anthropology No. 31. Nashville: Vanderbilt University, 1984, pp. 25-64.
Instituto Nacional de Estad�stica, Geograf�a e Inform�tica (INEGI). Tabulados
B�sicos. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. XII Censo General de Poblaci�n y Vivienda,
2000. Mexico, 2001.
Poole, Sarah. The Changing Face of Mexican Migrants in California: Oaxacan
Mixtecs and Zapotecs in Perspective. Center for Latin American Studies and Trans
Border Institute Border Brief. Online: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~latamweb/images/TBI_CLAS-Brief_OAX.pdf
Taylor, William B., Landlord and Peasant in Colonial Oaxaca. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1972.�
NORTHWEST MEXICO
Indigenous Baja: Living on the Edge of Existence
By John P. Schmal
The Baja California Peninsula is located in the northwestern portion of the Mexican Republic. This body of land extends approximately 775 miles (1,250 kilometers) from Tijuana in the north to Cabo San Lucas in the south and is separated from the rest of Mexico by the Gulf of California (also called the sea of Cort�s). Occupying the northern half of the peninsula, the state of Baja California shares its northern boundary with two American states, California and Arizona, and is also bordered on its northeast by the Mexican state of Sonora. On its western flank, the state also shares a long coastline with the Pacific Ocean.
Baja California occupies a total area of 69,921 square kilometers (26,990 square miles), which makes up 3.7% of Mexico�s national territory. On Baja California�s southern border is another Mexican state, Baja California Sur, which occupies a total area of 71,428 square kilometers (25,751 square miles), taking up 3.7% of the national territory.
The story of the indigenous peoples of the Baja Peninsula is a sad one. Living in an arid environment, their susceptibility to the ravages of war and disease was accentuated by their already marginal existence. The vast majority of the Baja Indians have disappeared and those that have survived in the north are represented by as few as a dozen individuals or as many as a few hundred. Ironically, most of the Mexican indigenous languages spoken in the two Bajas are actually tongues brought to the Peninsula by migrant workers from other states, in particular Oaxaca.
Early Contacts Between Spaniards and Indigenous Inhabitants
In 1532 � a decade after the destruction of the Aztec Empire � the Spanish conqueror Hern�n Cort�s sent an expedition commanded by his cousin, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, to explore the Baja California Peninsula and other locations along the Pacific coastline of northwest M�xico. A second expedition to the area left Santiago, Colima, on October 29, 1533. The voyage was a disastrous failure, but mutineers from this expedition explored the area now called La Paz.
In April 1535, Cort�s himself led a third expedition of three ships that landed near present-day La Paz on May 3, 1535, where he formally took possession of the land for the King of Spain. Cort�s founded a small colony in the area, but the local Indians remained very hostile towards the visitors. By November 1535, more than 70 of Cort�s� men had died from starvation or skirmishes with the indigenous population.
Early in 1536, Cort�s posted 30 Spaniards to man the small colony and sailed back for Mexico. A fourth expedition led by Francisco de Ulloa in June 1539 found that the small colony had been destroyed. Other expeditions followed, but they frequently encountered large groups of natives who strongly resisted their intrusions. For this reason, the colonization and settlement of the Baja Peninsula was a very slow process, complicated by the hostility of the indigenous groups and the great distance from sources of supply, as well as by inhospitable weather conditions.
Indigenous Groups at Contact
At the time of contact, Baja California Norte was primarily inhabited by several indigenous groups belonging to the Yuman language branch of the Hokan linguistic family. Most of these early inhabitants lived by hunting and fishing, but some of them also gathered acorns, seeds, prickly pears, apples, pine nuts and other small edible plants found in the harsh desert environment.
The northernmost aboriginal Baja Californians spoke several closely-related Yuman languages, most notably the Kiliwa, Paipai, Kumeyaay (Kumiai), and Cocop� (Cucap�) tongues. Using the controversial technique of glottochronology, it has been estimated that the initial separation of the Yuman family into different languages occurred perhaps 2,500 years ago. The Cocop� and Kumiai languages are believed to be very closely related to each other, separated by perhaps about one thousand years of independent development.
Pai Pai
The Pai Pai Indians � also known as Akwa'ala � occupied the northern Sierras in the interior of the northern Baja California Peninsula. Their original territory included the lower Colorado River Valley in the present day municipios of Ensenada and Mexicali, as well as adjacent areas in western Arizona, southern California, and northwestern Sonora.
Kumeyaay (Kumiai)
The Kumiai (Kumeyaay) Indians were hunters, gatherers and fishers who inhabited coastal, inland valley, and mountain regions along the present-day Baja California border region with the United States. The traditional Kumeyaay territory originally extended from around Escondido in California to the northern part of the present day municipio of Ensenada. Occupying the southern section of present-day San Diego County in California, the Kumeyaay inhabited the region near the San Diego Presidio when it was founded in 1769. The Kumeyaay in the vicinity of San Diego were also referred to as the Diegue�o by the Spaniards.
Cochim�
The Cochim� Indians inhabited a considerable part of the central Baja Peninsula, from north of Rosario to the vicinity of Loreto in east central Baja California. Like many of the other Baja tribes, the Cochim� Indians survived by fishing in the coastal areas and gathering fruits and seeds for sustenance in other areas.
Cucap�s (Cocop�)
The Cucap�s, living in the desert region along the Colorado River in the frontier zone of Baja California Norte and Sonora, fished and hunted deer, rabbit, moles, mountain lion and coyote. They also collected a wide variety of desert products, including cactus flowers, potatoes, and wild wheat.
Kiliwa
The Kiliwa Indians were hunters who inhabited northeastern Baja California. The Kiliwa lived along the eastern slope of the Sierra San Pedro M�rtir and ranged down the Gulf Coast. Their habitat also extended into the Colorado Desert.
Guaycura (Guaicura or Waicuri)
The Guaycuras lived in the middle part of the lower Baja peninsula, inhabiting the Magdalena Plains from Loreto down to and including the La Paz area.
Peric�
The Peric� occupied the southern tip of the peninsula around San Jos� del Cabo and several large Gulf islands, including Cerralvo, Esp�ritu Santo, San Jos�, and Santa Catalina.
The Colonization of Baja California Sur
In 1596, King Felipe II of Spain ordered the colonization of the Baja California Peninsula. Six years later, Sebasti�n Vizca�no made his famous voyage to Baja, exploring the present-day site of Cabo San Lucas, where he was confronted by a force of 800 native warriors. Vizca�no managed to build a fort at La Paz, but after a skirmish with local natives, the post had to be abandoned by the Spaniards.
In 1683, Admiral Isidro Atondo y Antill�n led a state-sponsored expedition to Baja and established a settlement at La Paz. However, according to Mr. Laylander, the settlement "was abandoned after a few months because of escalating conflicts with the native inhabitants." Another post was established at San Bruno, north of Loreto, but was also abandoned in 1685 "because of meager local resources and uncertain outside supplies."
In October 1697, Jesuit missionaries started arriving in the southern Baja peninsula with the intention of establishing missions. On October 19, 1697, Father Juan Mar�a de Salvatierra established the first permanent mission in Baja California Sur, dedicating it with the name of Our Lady of Loreto de Concho, near present-day Loreto, Baja California Sur. Between 1697 and 1767, Jesuit missionaries would establish sixteen missions throughout the length of the Baja Peninsula.
The Jesuit missions played an integral role in the Christianizing of the indigenous peoples. However, to accomplish their objectives, the missionaries resettled and congregated many of their converts in rancher�as that were located close to the missions. Although this practice was effective in enforcing religious instruction, tribute collection, and the organization of a work force, the concentration of the natives had a devastating effect on the aboriginal groups and made them more susceptible to smallpox, typhus, measles and other infectious diseases.
Don Laylander, in "The Linguistic Prehistory of Baja California," has written that "the linguistic map of Baja California underwent dramatic changes during the historic period, culminating in the extinction of many of its aboriginal languages. Before extinction, prehistoric lifeways were altered in a myriad of ways, through such factors as externally-introduced epidemic diseases, military conflicts, and the relocation of populations to mission settlements." The most serious epidemic was the typhus epidemic of 1742-1744, which probably killed 8,000 Indians. During the following decades, entire tribes disappeared, while small bands of Peric�, Guaycura, and Cochim� � struggled to survive in the south.
The Revolts of 1734-1744
The most serious rebellion in the southern part of the Baja Peninsula took place in 1734-1737. This uprising of the Peric� and Guaycuras engulfed several missions in the southern part of the peninsula, most of which had to be abandoned. In January 1735, indigenous forces ambushed the Manila Galleon that had stopped at San Jos� del Cabo for supplies. "The revolt and its subsequent suppression," according to Don Laylander, "hastened the disorganization and declines of the southern aboriginal groups. To suppress the revolt, the Jesuits were forced to call in outside military assistance." In 1742, King Felipe V authorized the use of royal funds to suppress the revolt. The arrival of a military force from Sinaloa helped to restore order and reestablish control of the southern Baja lands. The last scattered resistance to the Spaniards did not end until 1744.
The Expulsion of the Jesuits
In June 1767, King Carlos III of Spain expelled all the Jesuit missionaries from M�xico. Eventually, the Dominicans continued the missionary efforts of the Jesuits, especially in the territories of the Cochim�, Kiliwa, Paipai, and Kumeyaay. However, by this time, southern Baja�s indigenous populations had declined to the point of no return. Don Laylander explains that "in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the role of aboriginal peoples in the peninsula�s history has become increasingly marginal. In the central and southern portions of the peninsula, culturally distinct aboriginal populations had disappeared before 1900."
The Kiliwa were one of the few Baja groups that was able to hang on, albeit precariously. In 1840, the Kiliwa, who lived in Baja�s northeast corner, successfully rebelled against the Dominicans and fled into quiet isolation. This seclusion enabled the Kiliwa to survive into the Twentieth Century. In 1938, University of California Berkeley anthropologist, Peveril Meigs, searched the entire Baja Peninsula for surviving bands. At that time, he located and did studies on a small band of about fifty Kiliwa living in the east-facing canyons of northern Baja�s mountains.
Political Chronology
In January 1824, after the Mexican Republic was constituted, the central government organized and oversaw the Territory of Baja. Twenty four years later, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo � which ended the Mexican-American War � divided the territory of California, with the northern half, called Alta California, being ceded to the United States, while the southern half remained with Mexico as Baja California.
On April 26, 1850, two partidos (secondary administrative divisions) were created as Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur. On December 14, 1887, the status of both partidos was changed to distritos (districts), and on January 1, 1888, the northern part of the peninsula became known as the Northern District of Baja California. On December 30, 1930, the separate territories of Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur were created, effective February 7, 1931. The northern territory became a state on January 16, 1952, while the southern Baja State achieved statehood on October 24, 1974.
Indigenous Groups of the Twentieth Century
By the end of the Nineteenth Century, the aboriginal population of the entire Baja Peninsula had been severely depleted. Up until the 1910 census, the population statistics for Baja California Sur and Baja California Norte were tallied together as one jurisdiction. According to the 1895 Mexican census, some 2,150 individuals spoke indigenous languages in Baja California. However, this tally dropped to 1,111 at the time of the 1900 census.
The indigenous speaking population for the Baja territories dropped further in 1910 to 711, representing only 1.36% of the total population. Although most of the indigenous speakers spoke languages indigenous to other states, 96 Cochim� speakers were counted. Yaqui-speaking individuals (primarily from the state of Sonora) were tallied at 65, while Otom� speakers from central M�xico numbered 40.
The 2000 Census
According to the 2000 census, the population of persons five years of age and more in the northern state of Baja California who spoke indigenous languages amounted to 37,685 individuals. These individuals spoke at least forty-five languages from Mexico and United States but represented only 1.87% of the total state population 5 years of age and older (2,010,869).
Interestingly, the great majority of the indigenous-speakers in Baja California Norte in 2000 were actually transplants from other parts of the Mexican Republic. The largest language groups represented were the Mixteco (11,962 speakers), Zapoteco (2,987), N�huatl (2,165), and Pur�pecha (2,097), and Triqui (1,437), all languages that are indigenous to other parts of the Mexican Republic.
Transplanted Languages
As a matter of fact, 2000 census statistics indicate that 1,025,754 of the 2,487,367 residents of Baja California Norte were, in fact, natives of other entities, representing a total migrant population of 41.2%. In the 2000 census, 41,014 persons in Baja claimed Oaxaca as their birthplace, and it is likely that most of the 11,962 Mixtecos and 2,987 Zapotecos living in the state were probably natives of that state. Already, in the 1970s, Baja had become a major zone of attraction for Mixtec farm laborers, with Ensenada and Tijuana as their primary destination points. Baja California growers almost exclusively recruited Oaxacans laborers for their agricultural labor needs. An additional 89,083 residents of Baja claimed Michoac�n de Ocampo as their birthplace, possibly explaining the substantial number of Pur�pecha-speaking individuals living in the state (2,097).
Native Baja California Tribes in 2000
Unfortunately, the Indian groups indigenous specifically to Baja California never recovered from their initial declines of the Seventeenth Century and are few in number. The primary native speakers of indigenous languages in Baja California Norte in the 2000 census were the Pai-Pai (193 speakers); Kumiai (159); Cucap� (82); Cochim� (80), and Kiliwa (46 people). All of these tribes were of the Yuman Linguistic family whose ancestors had probably migrated to the Baja Peninsula thousands of years earlier.
The Pai Pai, living in the Santa Catarina community of the Ensenada municipio in the north, had become bilingual and concerns have been expressed that their language is nearly dead.
Estimates of the Kumiai population in Mexico at the end of the Twentieth Century put their numbers at 600. However, by 2000, the Mexican census recorded only 159 persons five years of age and older who actually spoke the Kumiai language in the state and all but 13 of these also spoke Spanish and were thus bilingual. Most of the Kumiai lived near Tecate.
The Cochim� culture � located primarily in the central and southern parts of Baja California � also declined dramatically by beginning of the Nineteenth Century. By 2000, only 80 Cochim� speakers were registered as inhabitants of the northern Baja state, most of them living in the municipios of Ensenada, Mexicali, and Tecate. In the 2000 census, only 46 persons were classified as speakers of the Kiliwa language. Readers who are interested in studying more detailed information about the nearly extinct indigenous languages of Baja California can learn more by accessing the Ethnologue website at the following link:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=MXIndigenous Speakers of Baja California Sur
In the 2000 census, the government classified 5,353 inhabitants 5 years of age or more as speakers of more than fifty Indian languages. However, these indigenous speakers represented a mere 0.22% of the total population of the same age group. The primary groups were the Mixteco (1,955), N�huatl (987), Zapoteco (606), and Amuzgo (126), Trique (113), and Pur�pecha (106), all imports from the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Michoac�n and Guerrero.
Oaxaca Migrants
In the same census, it was reported that 137,928 of the residents of Baja Sur (out of the total population of 424,041) were born in other political entities, indicating that migrants represented 32.5% of the total population of the state. Today, the Mixteco and Zapoteco Indians are the only significant indigenous languages spoken in Baja California Sur. It is likely that most of the 1,955 Mixtecos and 606 Zapotecos living in Baja were probably born in Oaxaca. In the 2000 census, 8,083 persons in Baja Sur claimed Oaxaca as their birthplace, while another 8,564 listed Michoac�n as their birthplace, the original home of the Pur�pecha language.
The use of Oaxacan migrant labor in Baja California Sur has been a well-established practice since the 1970s. For more than thirty years, many Baja California growers have recruited Oaxacans almost exclusively, with La Paz as a major destination for most Mixteco laborers.
Copyright � 2008 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
Sources:
Homer Aschmann, "The Central Desert of Baja California: Demography and Ecology," Ibero-Americana 42 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959).
Don Laylander, "The Linguistic Prehistory of Baja California," in Gary S. Breschini and Trudy Haversat, "Contributions to the Linguistic Prehistory of Central and Baja California," Archives of California Prehistory Number 44 (Salinas, California: Coyote Press, 1997).
William C. Massey, "Tribes and Languages of Baja California," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, V (Autumn 1949): 272-307.
William C. Massey, "Brief Report on Archaeological Investigations in Baja California," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, III (Winter 1947): 344-359.
Peveril Meigs, "The Kiliwa Indians of Lower California," Ibero-Americana, 15 (Berkeley, California: University of California, 1939).
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