Nahuas

The Nahuas are a group of native peoples of Mesoamerica, to which the Mexicas and other ancient Anahuac peoples who share the Nahuatl language belong. The term Mexican is their self-designation after the founding of Mexico, as well as Mexicanero (in the state of Durango). Their main link is their language, Nahuatl or Mexican (in southern Mesoamerica) or Nahuat (in some coastal regions), as well as great similarities in their religion and worldview.

The pre-Hispanic towns of Tlaxcala, Chalco, Cholula and Acolhuacán are Nahuas. The Mexicas stand out for the founding of Tenochtitlan, in 1325, and for their influence over other towns in the region, in what are currently the states of Guerrero, Hidalgo, the State of Mexico, Morelos, Michoacán and Puebla; as well as smaller portions of Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz and Tabasco.

These groups arrived in central Mexico, and therefore to lands that would later form part of the State of Mexico, after the Chichimecas, and constituted, as Clavijero notes, “... seven tribes of the same nation... the Xochimilcas, Chalcas, Tepanecas, Acolhuas, Tlahuicas, Tlaxcaltecas and Aztecas (Mexicas)". They built an impressive economic, administrative and warrior power throughout the Valley of Mexico that lasted until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, who imposed the indigenous peoples a new way of life and organization of society, based on mining, farming and trade, characteristic of the viceroyalty.

At the time of the Conquest of America by the Spanish crown, the Nahuas had spread throughout Central America:

• in Guatemala in the department of Escuintla.
• in El Salvador in the western and central areas of Cuzcatlán and in the departments of Santa Ana, Ahuachapán and Sonsonate.
• in Honduras on the north coast the towns of Chapagua and Papayeca, in the west Ocotepeque, valley of Naco in the department of Cortés and in the department of Olancho.
• in Nicaragua with important settlements on the side of the Pacific, at the north-west end (Tezoatega), in the Rivas isthmus on the banks of the Great Lake of Nicaragua or Cocibolca and the Ometepe Islands, Zapatera and the Solentiname Islands. In addition, there were Nahua communities in parts of the current department of Jinotega, the region of the Sébaco Valley and surrounding areas, and in the mouth of the San Juan River.
• in Costa Rica in the province of Guanacaste in the Bagaces region and the Sixaola basin, in the border region between Costa Rica and Panama.

In addition, they were named in different ways, depending on the region where they lived:

• in Mexico they were called, depending on the region, Aztecs (or mexicas), tlaxcaltecas, etc.
• in Guatemala and El Salvador, pipiles.
• in Nicaragua, nicaraos (niquiras or niquiranos).

History

Page of the Mendoza Codex, where the legend of the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlán is represented.

The amate paper codex, written expression of the Nahua peoples before and after the Spanish conquest.

The probable presence of the Nahuas in Mesoamerica is relatively recent and is around 500 AD. C. or even later. According to Mexica legends, dating back to events that occurred between the 11th and 13th centuries, the Nahuas, ancestors of the Mexica, were originally from a swampy land called Āztlan (= 'Land of herons'). This name is the basis of the modern historiography name āztēcatl (= '[inhabitant] of Aztlán') to refer inaccurately to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the Alcohuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tacuba. The Nahuas of the Triple Alliance were also descendants of the Aztlán peoples, but the name used by chroniclers was Aztepanecas.

On the other hand, archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests that between the 5th century and the 13th century, Nahua peoples established the language from western and central Mesoamerica, as far south as Veracruz, Chiapas, the Strait of Tehuantepec, part of Tabasco, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuzcatlán (El Salvador), Señorío de Nicaraocallí (current lake port of San Jorge) and Ometepe (Nicaragua).

In the historical period, partially documented in Mexica sources, and having entered Mesoamerica from the north, they may have been involved in the collapse of Teotihuacán (c. AD 800). Later the ruling class of the Toltec culture (10th to 12th centuries) would have been Nahua, or at least seems to have used the Nahuatl language. After the collapse of this state, the Mexica descendants of the Nahuas founded Mēxihco-Tenōchtitlān, finally conquered by the Spanish and the Tlaxcalans in the 16th century. After that date, Nahuatl continued to be the main language of the current territory of Mexico for a long time. Although it declined significantly during the 19th century, it is still used by about three million people today.

Their lifestyles slowly changed. They populated the territory of current Mexico where a momentous change occurred: the discovery of corn. In addition, the change in flora and fauna were decisive in developing nomadic life and in influencing both the settlements and the colonial populations.

Tamaulipas was populated fundamentally with two types of human groups: on the one hand, the northern region is occupied by nomadic groups; The border of such nations, as Alejandro Prieto calls them, was the Tropic of Cancer; and, on the other hand, those who developed to the south of this cultural dividing line were sedentary groups of the Mesoamerican type. It is said that these last natives arrived in the Mexican territory around the year 3875 before the Christian era, making this civilization one of the oldest in the world. Alejandro Prieto, an important historian from Tamaulipas, points out that a large nation called Nahua appeared in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico aboard rudimentary vessels from the north of the continent. They arrived at Pánuco, crossed the territory to the south and, in a place known as the Llanos de Apan and the banks of the Atoyac River, they settled.

There is some confusion about the origin of these Nahuas regarding the true name of the ancient kingdom from which they came, since historically it is named Chicomostoc, Amaquemecan or ancient Culhuacán, without anyone being able to ensure if these names refer to a single primitive nation del Norte or three different ones.

In Tabasco there were three Nahua provinces embedded in the Mayan region: Ahualulco or Ayahualulco in the Barra de Santa Ana bar on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico very close to the mouth of the of the Tonalá river; the Cimatán-Cucultiupa-Cunduacán axis in the center of the state; and Xicalango an important commercial port presumably located between the limits of Tabasco and Campeche.

When the Spanish arrived, Xicalango was a first-rate commercial port, which traded with various Mayan provinces such as Potonchán, Acalán and Mazatán. For its part, Cimatán offered fierce resistance to the Spanish conquerors, in fact, it was the last town in Tabasco to be subjected. The miscegenation between Nahuas and Mayas in Tabasco is palpable since many of the names of the Tabasco populations are of Nahua origin.

Language

In Mexico, the Nahua language or Mexican language is spoken in the states of Guerrero, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí, Michoacán, the State of Mexico, Morelos and Durango. As well as by the inhabitants of Milpa Alta, Azcapotzalco, Xochimilco and other urban areas of Mexico City; There are also speakers in El Salvador who call their language Nahuatl or Nawat; and is a strong influence from Nicaragua to California.

The main geographical language variants or dialects are:

• Classical Nahuatl is the variety of Mexico City and Mexico Valley and adjacent areas to the centuryXVI which contemplates populations of the State of Mexico, Morelos, Tlaxcala and Hidalgo.

• Tlaxcala Nahuatl, It is one of the most complete variants of Classical Nahuatl, modified as it runs from years to centuryXX.; it is spoken more often in the municipalities of the western region of the Malintzi Volcano, such as Tetlanohcan, Contla de Juan Cuamatzi, Chiautempan, Teolocholco and San Pablo del Monte.

• Central Nahuatl It is a historically related variant with the former and currently spoken in the state of Mexico (Texcococo, Santiago Tiangustengo, Chalco, Jalatlaco), in the Federal District (Tlalpan, Milpa Alta, Azcapotzalco, Xochimilco), Tlaxcala (Calpulalpan) and North of Morelos (Yecapixtla).

Number of speakers per Mexican state.

• Nahuatl de Guerrero, The Nahuatl of Guerrero is spoken in an extensive mountainous region of the State of Guerrero. The territory ranges from Chilpancingo in the West to Tlapa in the East, and from Iguala to the Sierra Madre Occidental del Sur.

• Náhuatl de Durango is a variety that is also known as mexican nahuatl and spoken in the state of Durango, in the towns of San Pedro de las Jícoras, San Juan de Buenaventura among others. It is also spoken in some scattered populations of Zacatecas, North of Jalisco.

• Tetelcingo Nahuatl spoken in Tetelcingo in the municipality of Cuautla de Morelos (Morelos).

• Nahuatl del istmo y sur de Puebla Is the variety spoken of areas of Veracruz like Cosoleacaque, Zaragoza (formerly called San Isidro Xumuapan), Ixhuatlan, Hueyapan de Ocampo, Oteapan, Hidalgotitlán, Zongolica, Mecayapa, Hueyapan; in Oaxaca it is spoken in Huauhtla, Huehuetlan, Capultitlan, Texcalcingo These variants show around 75% of the common Swadesh lists with the classic nahuatl, suggesting more than 1000 years of separation.

• Nahuatl de la Huasteca and north of Puebla is the most spoken variety of the language, and spoken in the state of Hidalgo, mainly in the municipalities of Huejutla, Jaltocán, Pisaflores and Tenango de Doria), in the northwest of Veracruz of the region of Ambasyuca, in the southeast of San Luis Potosí and in the municipality of Tamazunchale, and in the north of Querétaro, particularly in Jalpan. It is also the variety spoken in the most serranous part of the state of Puebla, in populations such as Zacatlán, Chignahuapan, Tlatlauquitepec, Teziutlán, Zacapoaxtla, Cuetzalan del Progreso and Huauchinango, with a non-tonal typology and their words are long with many fans.

• Nahuatl of the West is the variety spoken in the center-south of the state of Jalisco, in some nearby towns of the nevado of Colima, such as Mazamitla, Tonila, Zapotiltic, Zapootitlan, Tuxpan, Tecalitlán, Jilotlan and Pihuamo, also in indigenous communities of Apatzingán, Pómaro, Maruata, Patla, Coalcomán,

• Nahuat or pipil is one of the Nahua languages historically related to the inhabitants of Cuzcatlán, today El Salvador and part of Nicaragua. This language was spoken in Central America in populations of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Today it is dying with only a few hundred speakers in El Salvador.

• Pochuteco, it is a tongue closely related to nahuatl, which could be considered a descendant of proto-nahuatl.

Nahua Worldview

Symbol of Tlālticpac.

Quetzalcóatl, Borbonic Codex.

At the center of the universe is Tlāl-ticpac (= 'on the firm ground'), a portion of the Earth extended horizontally and vertically, constituting a large part of the visible material world. This is surrounded by an immensity of water Tēō-ātl (= 'divine water') that continues until it meets the heavens, the latter is the Ilhuic -ātl (= 'sky water').

Horizontal dimension

The universe is distributed in four quadrants or directions that start from the very navel of Tlaltícpac. Looking towards the west where the Sun sets, it is the house of the west and is symbolized by the color white; to the left is the south that is symbolized by blue; the front of the house of the sun (east direction) is symbolized by the red color that represents light, fertility and life; to the right of the path of the Sun is the black quadrant of the universe, the course of the region of the dead.

Vertical dimension

The heavens were superimposed spherical layers separated by crossbars as understood by the Nahuas themselves. On the first ones the different celestial stars moved and above these were the layers where the gods lived. There are variants in the names of the different heavens, according to the pictorial description of the Vatican codex A we have that the first heaven is where the Moon and the clouds move, Ilhuicātl Mētztli. The second heaven is the place of the stars, Citlalco, which were divided into two large groups, the 400 northern stars, Centzon Mimixcoâ, and the 400 southern stars, Centzon Huitznahuâ. The third sky, Ilhuicatl Tonatiuh, was the sky through which the Sun moved daily from the path of light to its home. The fourth heaven, Ilhuicatl huitztlan was the heaven of Venus, which was the planet best studied by the Nahuas and associated with Quetzalcóatl. The smoking stars or Citlalin Popoca as the comets were called belonged to the fifth heaven. The sixth and seventh heavens are those of night and day. The eighth is in dispute; the most accepted version is that it is the place of storms. The ninth, tenth and eleventh; white, yellow and red respectively, are the dwelling place of the gods, Teteocam (place where they live). Finally, the twelfth and thirteenth were the mansion of duality, Omeyocan, where Ometeótl lives, a metaphysical region that is the source of generation and life.

The 9 hells are flat and getting deeper. "The emaciated" (the dead) must pass through them, facing trials for four years in order to finally rest.

Philosophy of life

Nahuatlato man working his land in Morelos.

Nahua men from Zacatlán, Puebla.

Historically, the Nahua peoples had their own traditions that were different from other indigenous peoples who spoke a different language. The modern Nahuas have inherited some traditions, myths and beliefs inherited from the Aztec civilization that prevailed in Mesoamerica since a century before the arrival of the Spanish conquest. There are an important number of cultural and ancestral traits that diverge from the Western world and that prevail in the indigenous communities that speak the Nahuatl language, mainly in Mexico and El Salvador. Among the more unique organizational traditions and features are:

• Tequio is community work; it is an obligation for everyone to work and do work without charge to help the work of the community. This word comes from the Nahuatl tequiyotlwhich etymologically derives from tequitl "work, tribute" and -yotl suffix that forms abstract names (similar to '-ity' in Spanish). The tequium is divided and administered by people of greater respect within the community and it is they who also give sanctions to those who disobey.
• The party or mitohtliThey are days of community integration to rest and celebrate the joy of life, they are not carried out with reasons of only enjoyment, community integration makes society very strong, avoids envy and competitiveness among brothers.
• Soltry and widowhood are not well seen within the Nahua communities, duality is a very particular concept of Aztec philosophy, every man and every woman need a companion or a companion, when a couple dies they think that it is necessary to find another one, in work and conversations two people are needed. Women are equal to men in rights and obligations, ome is the concept of number two and is expressed in its ancestral deities such as Ometecuhtli and Ometecihuatl.

There must always be a conversational relationship between the parents and the children, the family concept is extensive and not nuclear, this means that there is an ancestral link with the grandparents and great-grandparents, the children of other couples are brothers to each other and not half brothers; but infidelity to the couple is punished and the man is forced to answer for the children that are not his partner's. Friendship is important, the human being is not individualized, suffering becomes lighter when experiences are shared.

Human beings do not disappear when they die; he only changes dimensions and is always among his loved ones, the living and the dead are together all the time and on special days such as the day of the dead (when the harvest is finished) the joy of sharing is shared in pantheons and houses. that one day they will be with their loved ones.

Education is important for communities, every child is obliged to attend school, because in school the hearts and minds of the community are formed, the child needs to live with other children and has to know the meaning of responsibility from a very early age, children must help with housework and talk with their grandparents so that they can pass on knowledge.

The Mexica or Aztecs are alleged to have been extremely intolerant of homosexuality, despite the fact that some of their public rituals had homoerotic overtones and there are no primary records as such. The mythical history of the Nahua people was divided into four "worlds", of which the previous one had been "an easy, weak life, of sodomy, perversion, the dance of flowers and worship of Xochiquétzal ", in which the "masculine virtues of warfare, administration and wisdom" had been forgotten. Author Richard Texler, in his book Sex and the Conquest, affirms that the Aztecs turned some of the conquered enemies into berdaches, following the metaphor that penetration is a show of power to subdue enemies.

According to some testimonies during the conquest, the Mexica law punished sodomy with the gallows, whose Nahuatl word corresponds to cuilontli, impalement for active homosexuals, extraction of the entrails through the anal orifice to the passive homosexual and death by garrote for lesbians. However, as such, the testimonies of the conquerors and those of the indigenous people, mostly post-colonization and converted to Catholicism, contradict and clash with each other.

For example, there is talk of "sodomy" and prostitution among the indigenous people in the current state of Veracruz, and the pre-Columbian Zapotec third gender, which was within Aztec territory, in addition to accusations by the conquistadors themselves of " abominable acts” in reference to indigenous sexuality contradict claims of intolerance of homosexuality and other forms of sexual diversity. It leaves us without a yes but neither a no on the problem.

Economy

Nahua woman from Acaxochitlán, Hidalgo, selling handicrafts.

The tianguis is and has always been the main space for the exchange of products, in this place all kinds of merchandise are sold and it is held once or twice a week to supply food.

The sale of wood is another of the main activities of the Nahua communities, as well as the cultivation of corn, squash, beans, chili, tomato, tomato, etc.

The elaboration of handicrafts is another item of the Nahua economy, artisans sell their merchandise from the finest and most elaborate to the simplest at affordable prices, which only have recovery costs for manufacturing. Some of these craft practices are pottery, the production of blown glass and the production of woolen textiles.

In the same way, the Nahuas also raise sheep, pigs and poultry.

Nahua music

Conchero touching the huehuetl, Amecameca, Mexico.

A musicological analysis of Mexica ritual cannot do without the original notion of integrity found in pre-Hispanic art. Music, dance, and poetry were considered as a whole within Aztec practice. It was included in sacrifices, penances, offerings, ingestion of hallucinogens (péyotl, nanácatl) and other types of herbs.

Among the Aztecs or Mexicas, music was taught along with dance in schools called cuicacalli ('house of song'). Musical instruments were kept in the mixcoacalli ('house of the fire god').

The most characteristic features of Aztec musical politics are civil privileges, such as tax exemption enjoyed by professional musicians, and the hierarchies they occupied in temples. However, the artists, even when they received honors and riches, were part of the domestic service of the lords.

The musicians received a distinctive mecátl or cord (from which the American word 'mecate' (from the Nahuatl mecatl, cord) comes from), which they carried on the head, the tips hanging over the chest.

They inherited the Toltec instrumental (thus, Teotihuacan) through a direct line, assimilating the legacy of contemporary cultures throughout Mesoamerica. It has also been said that their musical pieces were transmitted by oral tradition, and it has been proven that some instruments such as the Mexica teponaztli were used as an aid for memorization, something that also occurs to this day with various musical instruments. percussion among the Maya peoples. On the other hand, there is no doubt that this repertoire and other non-vocal pieces had a very varied use in ceremonies, wars, as well as parties and games, with a poetic, playful and loving sense.

News

At present it is possible that traditional Nahua instruments and the musical ideas that emerge from them and from the Nahuatl language are beginning to flourish. In several cities of the Mexican Republic there are musicians and musical groups with these instruments. This form of musical culture was associated, in the last quarter of the XX century, with influences from folk music, rock, fusion, ambient and world music, which contributed to erasing the originality and poetic force of the instrumental and the Mexican language. From this process, however, proposals emerged that try to preserve original elements, as occurs in the music of the groups La Tribu and Lluvia de Palos, as well as that of Antonio Zepeda, also author of the soundtrack for the film In Necuepaliztli In Aztlan (Return to Aztlán, 2011), the first fiction feature film entirely made in the Nahuatl language.

On the other hand, in 2014 the first opera in Nahuatl (actually a cuicatl, very far from the European tradition) premiered in Mexico City, with the title Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli, based on the homonymous text contained in the Mexican Songs. Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli introduces a new musical writing, which favors the symbolization of Nahuatl metrics, and the participation of Nahua percussions, especially teponaztli and huehuetl, which in this work constitute a percussion orchestra. The voices, interpreted in a non-Western-tonal system, are sung by five actors who embody six characters with traditional Nahua characters.

Wind Instruments

• Tlapitzalli: flutes or clay, carrion, bone, etc.
• Huilacapitztli: ocarinas, tortolitas and whistle-blowers.
• Atecocolli: sea snail used as a trumpet for its deep and serious sound.
• Toxacatl: thin rod that sucks.

Percussion Instruments

• Tetzilacatl: metallic craft that sounded like gong.
• Huehuetl: vertical drum of an artistically decorated hollow trunk, with its ribs and openings on the base, coated on the top with the skin of venado or ocelote. He was percut with his hands in the dances.
• Panhuehuetl: Big drum.
• Tlalpanhuehuetl: giant drum of 2.50 meters that from the top of the temples announced the war to a distance of 12 kilometers.
• Teponazhuehuetl: Teponaztli with adjacent sides to be touched on skin patch.
• Teponaztli: horizontal drum of a hollow log of hard wood, which were percuted with two hule-covered muffins at one end, for the change of night guard, religious ceremonies and war signs.
• Pre-Hispanic clay drums: with shape of pitcher and cup.
• Tambor de u: U-shaped clay body, with a patch in an opening.
• Ayotl: tortoise shell, percut to the bottom with a deer.
• Chicahuaztli: cane with slabs.
• Omichitzicahuaztli: bone scraper or deer with nuts.
• Ayacachtli: soybean of dry guaje or clay or metal pumpkin, full of pebbles or seeds, to accompany dances.