The Mexican
state of Guerrero is located in the southern coastal region of the Mexican
Republic. Guerrero covers an area of 63,597
square kilometers, occupying 3.2% of the national territory.
The state is bordered to the north by the states of Michoacán,
Mexico and Morelos; to the east, by Puebla and Oaxaca; and to the south, by the
Pacific Ocean. Politically, Guerrero is divided into eighty-one municipios.
Dominated by the
Sierra Madre Mountains of southern Mexico, Guerrero is extremely mountainous,
except for a narrow coastal strip of flatlands. Environmentally, the state is
divided into the following regions:
The capital of Guerrero is Chilpancingo de los Bravos. In
2010, Guerrero had a population of 3,388,768 inhabitants, representing 3.0 of
the total population of the Republic of Mexico.
Historical Notes
In pre-Hispanic times, Guerrero
was inhabited by a large number of indigenous tribes. Archaeological sites in
the state show a human presence since at least 2000 B.C. and ceramic pieces
indicate that the inhabitants of the area had contact with both the Olmecs and
Toltecs by the Eighth Century. By the 11th century, the Cuitlatecos began to
dominate the Costa Grande region. By the 14th century, much of the coastal area
and Tierra Caliente had come under the control of the Cuitlatecos, with their
capital at Mezcaltepec. Other cultures that passed through the area included the
Tolimecas, Chubias, Coixas and Pantecas.
Fifteenth
Century Inhabitants
By the 15th century, the territory
that now comprises the modern State of Guerrero was inhabited by several
indigenous groups, none of whom had major cities or population centers. The most
important groups were located in the following zones:
·
Tierra Caliente: Purhépecha,
Cuitlatecos, Ocuiltecas and Matlatzincas
·
La Montaña: Tlapanecos and
Mixtecs
·
Central Valleys: the Coixcas and
Tepoztecos
·
Sierra del Norte: Chontales,
Mazatecos and Tlahuicas (a Náhuatl language)
·
Costa Chica: Yopis, Mixtecos and
Amuzgos
·
Costa Grande: Tolimecas, Chubias,
Pantecas and Cuitlatecos
During the 15th century, both the
rising Aztec and Purhépecha empires started to intrude upon the Cuitlateco
domain, which eventually fell. The Purhépecha held some areas of the Costa
Grande, while the Aztecs began moving into other areas of Guerrero, eventually
subduing nearly all the peoples shown above.
The
Aztec Empire of 1519
From the
mid-Fifteenth Century to 1519, the Aztec Empire grew into the most powerful
Mesoamerican kingdoms of all time. By 1519, the island city of Tenochtitlán
(now Mexico City) 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. 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
Mexico, while the culture that dominated the Aztec Empire was the tribe known as
Mexica.
Subjects
of the Aztec Empire
By the early Sixteenth Century,
numerous native states existed in Guerrero as provinces and tributaries of the
powerful Aztec Empire. The authors Michael E. Smith and Frances F. Berdan, in
“Aztec Imperial Strategies” (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1996) divided
the Empire into 52 tributary and strategic provinces. The Aztec provinces that
lay in the present-day state of Guerrero were:
·
Chiauhtlan: Located along the
Morelos and Puebla borders in northeastern Guerrero, this province was dominated
by Náhuatl speakers.
·
Quiauhteopan: Located south of the
Mezcala River in Guerrero and in State of Pueblo, this province had several
languages spoken within it: Náhuatl, Mixtec, Tlapanec and Matlame.
·
Tlacozauhtitlan: In this part of
present-day Guerrero, Tlapanec, Matlame, Tuxteca and the Cohuixca variant of Náhuatl
were spoken.
·
Tepequacuilco: Located in
north-central Guerrero, this province was divided between Náhuatl-speakers (Cohuixca)
in the east and Chontal speakers in the west.
·
Zompanco: Located in the
mountainous area of east-central Guerrero, south of the Río Mezcala, this
area’s dominant language was the Cohuixca version of Náhuatl.
·
Tetellan: This province located
along the Río Balsas had inhabitants that spoke the Cuitlatec, Tepuzteco and
Chontal languages and was on the border of Purépecha territory.
·
Tlalpan: Located in the
mountainous eastern part of Guerrero, this province primarily had Tlapanec
language speakers.
·
Cihuatlan: This province located
along the Costa Grande of Guerrero features “muchos lenguas,” including
Tepuzteco, Cuitlatec, Panteca and Náhuatl.
·
Tecpantepec: This province –
stretched out along the Costa Grande on either side of the Cihuatlan province
and extending inland – featured the Cuitlatec language along the coast and
Tepuzteco in the inland area.
·
Ayotlan: This province was located
on the edge of Yope territory in what is now the Costa Chica of Guerrero and
featured several languages: Náhuatl, Tlapaneca, Yope, Zinteca and Quahuteca.
·
Ometepec: This province – now
located in southeastern Guerrero on the border with Oaxaca – contained
speakers of the Náhuatl, Ayacstla, Amuzgo and Tlapanec languages.
Yopitzinco
The arrival of the Spaniards and the
Afro-Mexicans gradually pushed the Amuzgos into the more inaccessible mountain
regions and away from the coast. They were devastated by several epidemics
during the Sixteenth Century and lost much of their land to intruders, although
they pressured authorities for
restitution, which was finally granted in the 1930s.
The Amuzgos still maintain much of their
language and dress and are known for their textiles hand-woven on back strap
looms with two-dimensional designs which can be complicated. Today,
most of the Amuzgos live in or near four municipios: Xochistlahuaca,
Tlacoachistlahuaca and Ometepec in Guerrero and San Pedro Amuzgos and Santa María
Ipalapa in Oaxaca.
Cuicatec
The
Cuicatecos (“People of Song”) inhabited a territory that now includes portions of present-day Guerrero,
Oaxaca and Michoacán. They were
neighbors of the Purépecha who occupied a large part of Michoacán.
It is believed that the Cuicatec speakers may have numbered about 60,000
people before the conquest. They
were defeated around 1456 by the Aztecs and then subdued later by the Spanish
conquistador, Martin Mezquita. They
resisted conversion to Catholicism during the colonial period and fled into the
mountains to avoid forced labor. Today,
many of the Cuicatec people still live in the mountains. The Cuicatec language
is an Oto-Manguean language which closely resembles the
Mixtec language.
Mazatecos
The Mazatecos
occupied territory in the northern parts of the States of Oaxaca and
Guerrero that also extended into the State of Veracruz. The Mazatecan languages
are part of the Oto-Manguean language family and belong to the family's Eastern
branch. In that branch, they belong to the Popolocan subgroup together with the
Popoloca, Ixcatec and Chocho languages. There are four primary dialects of
Mazateco speakers today:
The
Mixtecs
Dr. Ronald Spores, in “The Mixtecs in Ancient and
Colonial Times,” wrote that “when the Spaniards arrived in south-central
Mexico in the early Sixteenth Century, they entered a region of northwestern
Oaxaca known to its inhabitants as Ñu Ñudzahui
and to the Náhuatl-speaking Aztecs as Mixtlan, “Place of Clouds.”
Soon, the Spaniards would begin calling this region “La Mixteca.”
Dr.
Spore’s description of the Mixteca states that “the Mixteca of western
Oaxaca was an extensive and diversified region extending about 270 kilometers
from southern Puebla to the Pacific Ocean and about 180 to 200 kilometers from
eastern Guerrero to the western edge of the Valley of Oaxaca and the area known
as La Cañada.” In all, it is believed that the Mixtec Indians inhabited some
40,000 square kilometers ranging from Oaxaca through parts of Guerrero and
Puebla.
The Mixtec
enjoyed considerable influence and prestige in southern Mexico for several
centuries, having eclipsed their neighbors the Zapotecs of Oaxaca.
However, around 1458, the Mexicas began their conquest of Mixtec
territory and eventually they became subjects of the powerful Aztec Empire.
The Mixtec ethnic group is very diverse, speaking approximately 57
different languages that have evolved over time. Even now, the Mixteca region is
still divided into three primary areas:
·
The Mixteca Baja (Ñuiñe) in the north
and northwest of present-day Oaxaca
·
The Mixteca Alta (Ñu Dzahui Ñuhu) in
the mountainous central area
·
The Mixteca de la Costa (Ñundehui) in
the southwest and south.
The Mixtecs and their cousins, the Zapotecs
(discussed below), are discussed in greater detail in another article by this
author at the following link:
http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/oaxaca_cultures.html
The
Zapotecs
The Zapotec
Indians occupied large parts of central Oaxaca
and some parts of Guerrero. They emerged as a dominant tribe more than 2,000
years ago during the Pre-Columbian period. The Monte Albán complex associated
with the Zapotec culture dates back several hundred years before the Christian
era.
From about 500 B.C. until 800 A.D., the Zapotecs were a dominant group. However, by 800 A.D., Zapotec culture went into decline with the invasion of their neighbors, the Mixtecs. For the most part, the Zapotecs of Oaxaca were able to avoid complete surrender to the Aztecs. However, after a several short campaigns, the Spaniards defeated the Zapotecs between 1522 and 1527. Even today, the Zapotecs speak the fifth most common language group in Mexico. However, 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.
Spanish
Infiltration
Initial Spanish interest in the
Guerrero area revolved around the search for gold.
In 1521, Rodrigo de Castañeda
took possession of the mining area of Taxco, while Gonzalo de Sandoval took
control of the Chontal area, the northern mountains, the Iguala Valley and
Coixcatlalpan. In the spring of 1523, Sandoval conquered the coastal areas of
present-day Guerrero and Colima and brought the Aztec tributary states under his control.
Further conquests were made by
Juan Rodríquez de Villafuerte and Simon de Cuenca in 1523 when they occupied
Cihuatlán and most of the rest of the coastline. They destroyed the Indian
settlement of Zacatula and founded Villa de Concepción on its site. Villa de
Concepción – the eighth Spanish municipio established in Mexico and the first
on the Pacific Coast – initially contained 122 Spaniards and two brigantines.
The settlement included a shipyard which the Spaniards would use as a point of
departure to explore the Pacific Coast and seek a route to the Philippines.
However, the settlement was attacked and destroyed by natives later in the
century. Today, Zacatula is known as La Unión.
For the most part, the Spanish
takeover of the Costa Grande did not meet with serious resistance after the news
about the fall of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) had arrived. This area produced
cash crops such as cotton, cacao and coconuts. Under the Spaniards, these crops
were produced on the large encomiendas and haciendas, which exploited the local
indigenous population for labor.
The
Founding of Taxco (1529)
The city of Taxco, now located in
northern Guerrero – 164 kilometers (111 miles) southwest of Mexico City and 50
miles south of Cuernavaca (in Morelos) -- was founded in 1529 by Hernán Cortés
as one of the oldest colonial cities in Mexico.
At the time of the Spanish contact, Taxco, was an area of barren hills
and low mountains. Taxco is famous
for its beautiful colonial architecture and narrow cobbled streets.
The seaport of Acapulco, located 300 kilometers (186
miles) from Mexico City, is one of Guerrero’s most precious resources.
Thanks to its beautiful beaches and luxurious resorts, Acapulco, with its
year-around hot climate, is an important tourist center and the destination of
many Americans. The area of Acapulco
had a complex linguistic and political nature long before the arrival of the
Spaniards. Several semi-independent
states were associated in some way with the neighboring Cuitlatecan Kingdom of
Mexcaltépec.
In the autumn of 1521, the expedition of Rodrigo
Alvarez Chico discovered a large protected bay which he called Bahía
de Santa Lucía. This
natural port was later given the name Acapulco and was honored by the Spanish
crown as the “City of the Kings.”
Acapulco became the most important shipping port
along Mexico’s Pacific coastline. Expeditions sailed from Acapulco to Peru and
the Far East in search of new conquests. The
commercial route from Acapulco to Asia became a very profitable commercial
endeavor for centuries to come.
Zacatula
(Southwestern Guerrero)
The
coastal province of Zacatula (now in southwestern Guerrero), explains Professor
Gerhard, was the home of “a great many independent or autonomous states people
by farmers and fisherman, speaking a variety of languages:”
Chumbian, Tolimecan, Pantecan, and Cuitlatecan.
The Mexica had invaded this area during the reign of Ahuítzotl
(1486-1502) and established their control as far as Xuluchuca.
Political
Chronology (1821-1849)
When the
Mexican Republic became independent in 1821, the present-day area of Guerrero
belonged to the states of Michoacán, Mexico, Puebla, and Oaxaca.
However, on October 27, 1849, the state was established and named for the
revolutionary leader, Vicente Guerrero, with Chilpancingo de los Bravo as its
capital.
The state of Guerrero has always had a
significant population of indigenous people. In the 1895 census, some 92,444 persons were registered as speaking
indigenous languages. This figure
rose to 117,735 persons in 1900 and to 121,234 in 1910.
However, the ravages of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) – which took
the lives of one in eight Mexicans – caused a steep drop in the population of
Guerrero. Thus, in the 1930 census,
Guerrero’s population of indigenous speakers five years of age or more had
dropped to 79,585.
The
1921 Mexican Census
In the special
1921 Mexican census, we can get a view of the widespread mestizaje of
Guanajuato’s modern population. In
this census, residents of each state were asked to classify themselves in
several categories, including “indígena pura” (pure indigenous), “indígena
mezclada con blanca” (indigenous mixed with white) and “blanca” (white).
Out of a total
district population of 566,836 people, the three classifications of race were
tallied in Guerrero as follows:
·
248,526 individuals (or
43.8%) claimed to be of pure indigenous background.
·
306,361 individuals (or
54.0%) classified themselves as being of mixed origin.
·
Only 11,706 individuals
(or 2.1%) classified themselves as white.
In addition, 243
residents of Guerrero either ignored the question or gave another classification
(such as “other” or “foreigner”).
The
Náhuatl Language
Today, the Náhuatl
language continues to be the most common indigenous language spoken in the
Republic of Mexico. Speakers of this language are dispersed across large areas
of Mexico. In the state of Guerrero,
the Náhuatl speakers represents around 40% of the indigenous population of the
state and they are distributed through forty-five municipios in the mountainous
interior of Guerrero. Náhuatl was the primary language spoken in seventeen of
Guerrero’s municipios in 2000.
The Mixteco Languages
In 2000, the 103,147 Mixteco speakers in
Guerrero represented 23.6% of the indigenous-speaking language. But they
represented less than a quarter of Mexico’s total Mixteco-speaking population
of 444,498 in that census. Within Guerrero, the Mixtecos mainly occupy 262 communities and 10 colonies (colonias)
in 16 municipios in La Montaña and Costa Chica regions of the state.
The
Tlapaneco
Unlike
the Mixteco and Náhuatl languages, the languages of the Tlapanecos are
primarily confined to the State of Guerrero. The 90,443 Tlapaneco speakers
registered in Guerrero in 2000 represented 91% of all the Tlapanecos in the
entire Republic. Within the state itself, the Tlapaneco – or
Méphaa – occupy about 536 communities located in 13 municipios.
The
2010 Census
In the 2010
Mexican census, Guerrero boasted the sixth largest population of indigenous
speakers: 456,774 individuals in all. (Only Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, Puebla
and Yucatán had more indigenous speakers.)
By percentage,
Guerrero ranked number five among the Mexican states with indigenous speakers
representing 15.1% of the entire population. The Náhuatl language continued to
be the single largest language group, with 27.5% of the residents of Guerrero
speaking that language.
Mexicans
Considered Indigenous
The 2010 census
also included a question that asked people if they considered themselves
indigenous, whether or not an indigenous language was spoken. Within the State
of Guerrero, 22.6% of the persons 3 years of age and older were considered
indigenous, ranking the state as the eighth largest state with an indigenous
population.
Most
Spoken Languages
In the 2010
census, Náhuatl remained the most widely spoken language in Mexico with
1,544,968 persons five years of age and older speaking that tongue. Náhuatl
speakers, in fact, represented 23.08% of the indigenous speakers 5 and older in
the Mexican Republic.
The Mixtec
language group was the third most common language group (476,472 persons – or
7.12% of all indigenous speakers), and Zapotec was the fifth most common
language spoken.
Even the
Tlapaneco language – spoken very little outside of Guerrero – had 120,072
speakers, ranking it in 16th place among the Mexican languages (1.79%
of the total indigenous speaking population of Mexico).
Copyright
© 2014 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
Bibliography
Berdan,
Frances F. et al. “Aztec Imperial Strategies” (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton
Oaks, 1996).
Carrasco,
David (ed.). “The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures: The
Civilizations of Mexcio and Central America, Volume 2” (Oxford University
Press, 2001).
Carrasco Zúñiga,
Abad. “Los Tlapanecos,” (México: INI, 1992: Monografías de los Pueblos Indígenas
de México).
Centzuntli,
“Ocuiltecos (Tlahuicas)” [dated April 22, 2010] Online: http://centzuntli.blogspot.com/2010/04/ocuiltecos-tlahuicas.html
Departamento de la Estadística Nacional. “Annuario de 1930,” (Tacubaya, D.F.,
Mexico, 1932).
“Estado
de Guerrero – Coyuca de Benítez.” Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México
(in Spanish). Mexico: Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo y el Desarrollo
Municipal. 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
“Estado
de Guerrero – La Unión.” Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México (in
Spanish). Mexico: Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo y el Desarrollo
Municipal. 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
http://guerrero.gob.mx/articulos/los-pueblos-indigenas-de-guerrero-y-su-lengua-materna/
[Accessed
February 9, 2014].
"Estado
de Guerrero Historia" [State of Guerrero History]. Enciclopedia de los
Municipios de México (in Spanish). Mexico: Instituto Nacional para el
Federalismo y el Desarrollo Municipal. 2005. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
Gerhard, Peter. “A Guide to the Historical Geography
of New Spain” (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972).
Instituto Nacional de Estadística
Geografía e Informática (INEGI). XII Censo General
de Población y Vivienda 2000; Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010.
INEGI, “Censo
de Población y Vivienda (2010): Panorama Sociodemográfico de México” (March
2011).
López, Héctor F. “Diccionario Geográfico,
Histórico, Biográfico y Lingüístico del Estado de Guerrero” (México:
Pluma y Lápiz de México, 1942).
Ravicz, Robert y A.
Kimball Romney. “The
Amuzgo,” in “The Handbook of Middle American Indians: Vol. 7, Ethnology,
Part One,” pp. 417-433 (1969).
Scheffler, Lilian. “Los Indígenas Mexicanos:
Ubicación Geografica, Organización Social y Política, Economía, Religión y
Costumbres,” (México, D.F.: Panorama Editorial, 1992).
Spores, Ronald. “The Mixtec Kings
and Their People,” (University of Oklahoma Press, 1967).
Spores,
Ronald, “The Mixtecs in Ancient and Colonial Times,” (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1984).