THE HISTORY
OF ZACATECAS
By John P. Schmal
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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. Sources:
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INDIGENOUS ZACATECAS: FROM
CONTACT TO THE PRESENT DAY By John P. Schmal In 2010, Zacatecas had
a population of 1,579,209 people, ranking it No. 25 among the Mexican
states in terms of population. The
capital of the State is Zacatecas, which had a population of 129,011
in 2010, representing 8.2% of the state’s total population.
Guadalupe is the second largest city in terms of population, followed
by Fresnillo and Jerez de García-Salinas. The
Zacatecas Economy The Zacatecas economy
primarily depends upon cattle-raising, agriculture, mining,
communications, food processing, tourism, and transportation. From
1546 to the present day, Zacatecas has depended upon silver mining for
its livelihood. Today, the more than 15 mining districts in Zacatecas
yield silver, lead, zinc, gold, phosphorite, wollastonite, fluorite
and barium. In fact, thanks of
Zacatecas, Mexico is the
largest producer of silver in the world today, contributing 17
percent of the world’s total output. In fact, Fresnillo Plc. (Public
limited company), which owns silver mines throughout Mexico, is the
largest producer of silver in the world and its Saucito mine, located
8 km southwest of its Fresnillo mine, is the largest silver producing
mine in the world. The Fresnillo mine is number six in world
production. As of 2016, mining
contributes 29.8% to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Zacatecas.
But of Zacatecas’ 628,000 workers, more than one-quarter (173,368
– or 25.3%) are employed by the agriculture, forestry, fishing and
hunting industries. Although much of Zacatecas is desert, the primary
economic driver of the state is agriculture. Zacatecas farmers are
Mexico’s foremost producers of beans, chili peppers and cactus
leaves and also grow significant guava, grape and peach crops. Pre-Columbian
Zacatecas First occupied between
about 200 and 300 A.D., La Quemada's population probably peaked after
500 A.D., and was abandoned completely by 900 A.D. Some historians
believe that La Quemada may have been the legendary Chicomostoc,
the place where the Aztecs stayed nine years during their extended
journey from Aztlán to
Tenochtitlán (the site of present day Mexico City). 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. Located
in the municipio of Villanueva, La Quemada’s massive ruins remain
one of Zacatecas’ most important archeological sites and is located
about 56 km south of the City of Zacatecas on Federal Highway 54
Zacatecas–Guadalajara, in Mexico. 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 when
the Spaniards arrived. Although both Chalchihuites and Le Quemada
represented outposts of Mesoamerican settlement, climatic changes
eventually led to their abandonment. Early
Spanish Exploration After the conquest of
southern Mexico in 1521, Hernán Cortés 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 did their part to Christianize the native peoples. Nuño
de Guzmán In December 1529, Nuño
de Guzmán, 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, “Guzmán 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, Guzmán
traveled through Michoacán, Jalisco, and southern Zacatecas. The
historian Peter Gerhard writes that “Guzmán'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.” Taking formal
possession of the conquered areas, Guzmán named his conquered
territory “Greater Spain.”
However, twelve years later, the Spaniard administration
renamed the region as Nueva
Galicia (New Galicia). This
new territory initially took in most of the present-day states of
Zacatecas, Durango, Coahuila, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosi, and
Nayarit. Reports of Guzmán'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. The
First Guadalajara One of the earliest
encounters that the Zacatecas Indians had with the Europeans took
place in 1530 when Juan de Oñate, a lieutenant of the conquistador Nuño
de Guzmán, began construction of a small town near the site of
present-day Nochistlán in southern Zacatecas. Oñate called this
small village La
Villa de Espíritu Santo de Guadalajara in honor of the
Spanish city where Guzmán 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,
Guzmán, 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. La
Gran Chichimeca When the Spaniards
started exploring Zacatecas in the 1520s and 1530s, they encountered
several nomadic tribes occupying the area which they referred to as La Gran Chichimeca. 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, Tepehuanes and Guachichiles,
and they had never been conquered by the Aztecs. According to Eugene B.
Sego’s Ph.D. dissertation, the Gran Chichimeca could be “roughly
perceived by visualizing an imaginary line running west from the
present-day site of Querétaro through Lake Chapala and Guadalajara,
thence north to Durango, northeast to Saltillo, and then south along
the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range, to the point of
beginning.” Its southern
boundary lay only seventy miles north of Mexico City. All
of the Chichimeca Indians shared a primitive hunting-collecting
culture, based on the gathering of mesquite and tunas (the fruit of
the nopal). However, many
of them also lived off of acorns, roots and seeds. Many Chichimec
tribes utilized the juice of the agave as a substitute for water when
the latter was in short supply. The Chichimecas also hunted a large
number of small animals, including frogs, lizards, snakes and worms. 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 “Hernán
Cortés, 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.” Mixtón
Rebellion (1540-1541) 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-Finger border region between Jalisco and Zacatecas led the way
in fomenting the insurrection. In the hills near Teul and Nochistlán,
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 led a direct attack against the Juchipila Indians near
Nochistlán. 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 Mixtón Rebellion. Antonio de Mendoza, who
had become the first Viceroy of Nueva España 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 Mixtón 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.” The
Discovery of Silver (1546) 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, 8,148 feet above sea level. 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 Martín (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.” Native
Tribes of Zacatecas The various Chichimeca
Indians living in the region of present-day Zacatecas 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. 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 Zacatecos married young, with most girls being
married by the age of fifteen. Monogamy was their general practice.
Most of the Zacatecas Indians smeared their bodies with black clay.
This paint helped shield them from the sun's rays but also kept vermin
off their skin. In contrast, their fellow tribal group, the
Guachichiles painted themselves with red clays. Guachichiles.
Of all the Chichimec tribes, the Guachichile Indians occupied the
largest territory, – an estimated 100,000 square kilometers – from
Saltillo, Coahuila in the north to Lake Chapala in eastern Jalisco on
the southern end. Their territory extended through parts of eastern
Zacatecas, western San Luis Potosí, parts of eastern Jalisco,
Aguascalientes and western Guanajuato. Their territory extended
westward close to the city of Zacatecas and eastward into sections of
San Luis Potosí. 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 Mixtón
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. Tepehuánes.
The Tepehuán Indians occupied the southwestern part of Zacatecas.
According to Buelna (1891), they received their name from the Náhuatl
term tepetl, "mountain," and huan, "at the junction
of.” The Tepehuanes were
located mainly in Durango, on the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre
Occidental, but extended into the reaches of what is now western
Zacatecas. Unlike the Zacatecas and Guachichiles, the Tepehuanes did
not become involved in operations against the Spaniards in the
Chichimec War. The
historian Charlotte M. Gradie has discussed in great deal the
Tepehuanes and their famous revolt that began in 1616 and ravaged much
of Durango for three years. 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 Guachichile 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 warrior 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. The
Turning of the Tide (1585) 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 Zuñiga,
the Marqués 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 Marqués
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. Peace
by Persuasion 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. Peace
by Purchase 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. Assimilation
and Mestizaje 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.
In the meantime, Catholic missionaries had begun 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, Otomí and Tarascan Indians who had also settled in
Zacatecas, the Chichimeca Indians were very rapidly assimilated into
the more dominant cultures. 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.” The
1921 Census According to the 1921
Mexican census, the state of Zacatecas contained 379,329 persons in a
republic that boasted a total population of 14,334,780.
In all, 32,422 Zacatecas residents (or 8.55%) claimed to be of
pure indigenous background, while another 326,615 claimed to be of
mixed indigenous and Caucasian background. The 1921 Zacatecas census
classifications are summarized in the following table:
The Huicholes and
Tepehuanes who have traditionally occupied portions of far western
Zacatecas have survived to this day, but most of them now live in the
neighboring states of Durango, Chihuahua, Nayarit and Jalisco. In the
1930 census, only 27 persons in Zacatecas 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. With the
exception of the Huichol and Tepehuanes speakers, all indigenous
languages spoken in Zacatecas during the twentieth centuries were
transplanted languages from states south of Zacatecas (i.e., Oaxaca,
Chiapas and Michoacán). Indigenous
Languages Spoken in Zacatecas (2000) In the 2000 census, a
mere 1,837 persons in Zacatecas spoke indigenous languages, with the
main languages spoken being the Tepehuán (358 persons), Huichol (330
persons), Náhuatl (330), Otomí (119), Mazahua (101), and Purépecha
(80). The majority of these speakers of Indian languages were
transplants from other states. Most of the original
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 alone, but had to be bribed into peace, is a testimony to
their tenacity and strength. Indigenous Languages Spoken in Zacatecas
(2010) In
the 2010 census, 5,157 indigenous speakers 3 years and older resided
in Zacatecas, but almost one-third of these indigenous speakers did
not specify which language they spoke, as noted in the following
table:
The Huichol and
Tepehuano languages are spoken by persons who mostly live in Durango
and Nayarit, but many of these groups have moved to the larger urban
areas of Zacatecas and Jalisco to obtain gainful employment. Copyright © 2017 by
John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved. Sources: Bakewell, P.J. Silver
Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico: Zacatecas, 1546-1700.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971. Departamento de la
Estadística Nacional. Annuario de 1930. (Tacubaya, Distrito Federal, 1932). Dunne, Peter Masten. Pioneer
Jesuits in Northern Mexico. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1944. Franz, Allen R.
“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. Hedrick, Basil C. et
al. The
North Mexican Frontier: Readings in Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and
Ethnography. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,
1971. Instituto Nacional de
Estadística y Geografía (INEGI). Superficie
de la República Mexicana por Estados. 2015. INEGI. Población
de las Entidades de México según los Conteos Censos Oficiales y
Proyecciones de Población del INEGI (2010). Kirchoff, Paul. “The
Hunter-Gathering People of North Mexico,” in the North Mexican Frontier: Readings
in Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography. Carbondale:
Southern Illinois University Press, 1971. Olague, Jesus et al. Breve
Historia de Zacatecas. Mexico City, 1996. Powell, Philip Wayne. Soldiers,
Indians and Silver: North America's First Frontier War. Tempe,
Arizona: Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona State University,
1973. Secretaríat de Economía,
ProMéxico Trade and Investment: Zacatecas. Online: http://mim.promexico.gob.mx/work/models/mim/Documentos/PDF/mim/FE_ZACATECAS_vfi.pdf Sego, Eugene B. Six
Tlaxcalan Colonies on New Spain’s Northern Frontier: A Comparison of
Success and Failure. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Dissertation
Services, Indiana University, Ph.D. Thesis: 1990, p. 4. The Silver Institute,
“Silver Production.” Online: http://www.silverinstitute.org/site/supply-demand/silver-production/
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THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF
ZACATECAS 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.
Sources: 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 Michoacán. 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 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. 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. Philip
Wayne Powell, Soldiers, Indians and Silver: North America’s First
Frontier War (Tempe, Arizona: Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona
State University, 1975).
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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 Náhuatl 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, Michoacán, Colima, Nayarit, and
Aguascalientes, as well as parts of Zacatecas and Guanajuato, amounting
to about one-tenth of Mexico's national territory. Across this broad range of territory, a wide array of indigenous groups lived before 1522 (the year of contact with Spanish explorers). Domingo Lázaro de Arregui, in his Descripción 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: These indigenous auxiliaries - serving as scouts and soldiers - were usually Mexica (from Tenochtitlán), Tarascan (from Michoacán), Otomí Indians (from Querétaro), 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 Náhuatl 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 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 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 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
Jalostotitlán 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). Dr. Phil C. Weigand of the Departmento de Antropología of the Colegio de Michoacán 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 peñoles (fortifications) and religious centers at Juchípila, Teúl, Teocaltiche, Tlatenango, Nochistlán, 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 Mixtón 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. 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 Michoacán. 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 Caxcanes of Nochistlán: 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 Nochistlán 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 Nuño Beltran de Guzmán. Guzmán, 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, Hernán Cortés. When Guzmán’s forces entered the area, most of the Caxcanes faded into the surrounding hills of the Sierra de Nochistlán. 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, Guzmán, a native of Guadalajara in Espana, had tasked his chief lieutenant, Captain Juan de Oñate, with creating a settlement at the place the native peoples called Nochistlán. Guadalajara, named in honor of Guzmán 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. Mixtón 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 Nochistlán also speak with pride of their resistance to the French. More than three centuries later, during the French occupation, Colonel J. Jesús Mejía 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 Barragán, Paulina, "Costumbres y Tradiciones en Guadalajara," in Manuel Caldera Robles, ed., "Capítulos 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, "Crónica de la Sancta Provincia de Xalisco" (Mexico, 1960).
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