Chuj People - Overview and Demographics

Overview and Demographics

The Chuj are a small grouping of Mayan people who live in Guatemala and Mexico. Following emigration to the United States in the 1980s, large numbers of the Chuj also live in Los Angeles.

Most of the Chuj live in Guatemala, in the highlands of the department of Huehuetenango. Their main centres of settlement in Huehuetenango are the towns of San Mateo Ixtatán and San Sebastián Coatán with some living in parts of the town of Nentón. Additionally, small numbers also live in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

Estimates of total numbers vary from 30,000 to over 60,000. The populations of San Mateo Ixtatán and San Sebastián Coatán, both of which are almost wholly Chuj, are about 16,000 and 9,000 respectively. There are nearly 4,000 Chuj-speakers in Nentón constituting about a third of the town. Because of the irregular immigrant status of the Chuj in the U.S, it is not known how many Chuj live in Los Angeles, but one estimate is that it equals the population of San Sebastián Coatán.

In Guatemala, the Chuj have a reputation for rebelliousness and antagonism to authority, the historic causes of which arise out of poverty and grievances over land distribution.