La Huasteca - Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Peoples

La Huasteca is home to six indigenous ethnic groups with over 250,000 speakers of various indigenous languages. About 70% speak Nahuatl; 20% speak Huastec; six percent speak Otomi and about three percent speak Pame, Tepehua and Totonac. The Nahuatl speakers of La Huasteca comprise over 27% of all Nahuatl speakers in Mexico. Indigenous communities continue to be mostly agricultural with the growing of corn being most important. Other important aspects include cattle, the processing of sugar cane and the growing of citrus as a cash crop although most of this is under the control of mestizos. While subject to municipal authorities, usually mestizo dominated, they have their own internal political and economic systems as well. The indigenous of the area face discrimination from the dominant mestizos, who call themselves “gente de razón” (people of reason) and the indigenous “compadritos” or “cuitoles” which is similar to calling them children. Catholic influence in the region has been limited since the colonial period, mostly restricted to major towns and flat areas and less in the more rugged terrain. This has allowed the indigenous of La Huasteca to maintain more of their traditions than those in other regions of Mexico.

Despite the fact that the large region is named after them, the Huastec people today only occupy a fraction of it in a strip from northwest Querétaro east towards the north of Veracruz. The largest Huastec communities are found in the mountain areas of Otontepec and Tantoyuca in Veracruz, Tancanhuitz, Tanlajas and Aquismón in San Luis Potosí. Huastecs are a Mayan people, whose language probably separated about 3,000 years ago. Their presence is here is most likely due to Mayan expansion north along the Veracruz coast until sometime between 1000 and 1500 CE, when they were forced back south, leaving the Huastec group in the far north isolated.

The name Huastec comes from Nahuatl; the Huastec call themselves Teenek. While the Huastec were the most northern Mesoamerican culture, their culture is distinct from those in the Mexican Plateau, which whom they had contact and from other Mayan groups. One reason for this was their contact with the Chichimecas to the north, and their isolation from other Mayan cultures. While the Huastecs managed to spread their influence over a large territory, they never built cities and ceremonial centers as large as in other parts of Mesoamerica. One reason for this was that the Chichimeca were a constant threat. In the Post Classic period, Huastec territory shrank due to incursions by Nahuas and Otomi in the south and west, culminating into Aztec conquest of much of the territory by the early 16th century. This loss of land would continue into the Spanish colonial period with mestizos coming to dominate the region, especially in the Veracruz and Tamaulipas coast areas.

Nahua communities and the Nahuatl language are now the most dominant indigenous influence in La Huasteca, especially in the south and west of the region. The Nahuas dominate the southern part of La Huasteca in over fifty municipalities in San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo and Veracruz, such as Jaltocan and Calnali in Hidalgo, Ixhuatlán de Madero and Benito Juárez in Veracruz. It is likely that many of the Nahuas in the south of La Huastecs are ethnic Huastecs whose language changed as the area was dominated by the Nahuas. There are two main dialects of Nahuatl spoken in the region. The Nahuas in the north of the region share a number of cultural traits with the Huastec and those in the south share traits with the Otomis and Tepehuas but all are considered to be part of the same Nahua subgroup. The Huasteca Nahuas in Hidalgo and San Luis Potosí have put effort into developing a shared identity in the face of land and political struggles.

The Otomis were the first to conquer the southern part of La Huastecas as they fled Nahua domination in their original home of the Toluca Valley.

It is thought that the Totonacs and Tepehuas in the region date back as far as the Huastecs. These people are found in the very far south of the region and both were conquered by the incoming Otomi as well as the Nahuas in the Mesoamerican period.