Being made up of different ethnic groups with different degrees in their cultural and social level, the peoples that together make up the Chichimeca culture They have one characteristic in common: their love of freedom and their determination to defend fiercely and aggressively.
Chichimeca culture
The Chichimeca was the generic term with which numerous nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples were known who inhabited the region known as Gran Chichimeca, between the year 1000 a. Until the year 1800 AD, the Guamares, the Guaxabanes, the Copuces, the Cacos, the Sánzas, the Caxcanes, the Pames, the Tecuexes, the Zacatecos and the Guachichiles were part of the Chichimeca culture, among other peoples.
These peoples occupied the region located in the north and northeast of the country in the current states of Durango, Coahuila, Jalisco, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato and Querétaro.
The exact origin of the Chichimeca culture is unknown, although there are indications that relate it to the Pame people. The Chichimecas were a warrior people who fiercely defended their territory from the invasion of the Spanish. During the validity of the viceroyalty, different tactics were tried to achieve the pacification of the Greater Chichimeca region, from violent means, through the intervention of religious orders to the forced introduction of migrant indigenous peoples to the Chichimeca territory.
The Great Chichimeca Culture
The Spanish conquistadors of the XNUMXth century used the term La Gran Chichimeca to refer to the area known as the Mexican Central Table that lies between the Sierra Madres Occidental and Oriental, and borders to the south with the Neovolcanic Axis, an area that is currently occupied by modern Mexican states of Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Nayarit, Guanajuato and Zacatecas. The term comes from the Aztec that referred to the nomadic tribes of the area as "chichimeca".
Specialists in the area, such as archaeologists, anthropologists and cultural geographers, began studies between 1920 and 1930 to mark the limits of what is considered Mesoamerica, to the southwest of the area that is recognized as the Great Chichimeca. Based on new evidence obtained through the study of linguistic groups, iconography, different articles and making new examinations of the architecture of Mesoamerica, the initial limits have been moved.
Since the information obtained is so confusing, many researchers do not agree with the established limits, even so, the evident influence of the Chichimeca culture in the general traditions of all Mesoamerica has motivated most researchers to include La Gran Chichimeca in the Mesoamerican general area.
History of the Chichimeca culture
In the history of the Chichimeca culture, which goes from the year one thousand before Christ to the year one thousand eight hundred after Christ, three stages are known: the first stage is known as the Venadito Period and goes from the year one thousand before Christ until the year two hundred before Christ was characterized by the predominance of small groups that were dedicated to hunting small animals, collecting fruits, seeds and roots.
The next stage that began approximately in the year two hundred before Christ until the year one thousand two hundred before Christ, is known as the Orchard Period, in this period, together with the hunters, groups coexisted that settled near the rivers and began the cultivation of the land, among their crops was corn, they also made some type of ceramics, thanks to agriculture their population was growing.
The third stage is known as the Tunal Grande Period and runs from the year XNUMX to XNUMX after Christ, during this period the Chichimecas invaded the Valley of Mexico and subdued the city of Tollan Xicocotitlan. The invasion was commanded by the Chichimeca leader Xolotl, who is considered the founder of a Chichimeca Acolhua dynasty, being its first tlahtoani, ruler of the city. This gave rise to a new culture that can be placed between the Toltec and the Aztec.
The Spanish conquistadors found it difficult to subdue the bellicose members of the Chichimeca culture, who endangered the commercial and transportation routes to the mining centers of the north, known as the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro or Camino a Santa Fe. Mixtón went down in history as a particularly harsh conflict. Despite the military victory, the conflicts with the Chichimeca became a permanent potential danger that forced the Spanish and their indigenous allies to live on the defensive.
In the Chichimeca culture it is customary to prepare for war by praying and dancing. These rites included the use of peyote. Their main weapons were bows and arrows. A bow was about two-thirds the size of a person and reached roughly from head to knee. The arrow, in turn, was two-thirds the size of the bow. Arrowheads were usually made of obsidian. Axes, flint knives and spears were also used as weapons.
The Mixton War
The Mixtón war refers to a series of warlike encounters between the invading Spanish forces against various indigenous tribes belonging to the Chichimeca culture, in the territory that the Spanish called Nueva Galicia in the west of New Spain. Mistreatment, murders, torture and the imposition of the Christian religion were the causes for which indigenous people revolted against Spanish rule in the year 1540.
The uprising began in the Tepic area. The Indians killed the guards and the missionaries and began to build fortifications around their settlements. The leaders of the uprising were Petacal, leader of the Caxcanes, and Tenamaste, brother of the ruler of Nochistlán. With great speed the rebellion spread to Teocaltiche, Nochistlán and Juchipila. Indians serving on Spanish estates joined the rebellion. Repeated attempts to quell the uprising failed one after another.
The continuous defeats made the Spanish power fear that the uprisings would reach Michoacán and from there it would pass to the rest of Mexico, for this reason, in the year 1541, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza himself led his troops and with five hundred and forty soldiers Spaniards and about ten thousand indigenous Aztecs and Tlaxcalan allies, attacked the rebels. After many hard battles little by little the uprising was defeated. The Mixtón mountain fortress was not taken until well into the year 1542.
Thousands of indigenous people belonging to the Chichimeca culture were taken prisoner and sent in chains to work in the silver mines. Large numbers of Chichimeca women and children were kidnapped and sent to work as servants on Spanish estates. Despite the defeat, many regions remained in the hands of the indigenous for a long time.
The Chichimeca War
In the year 1546, large silver deposits were found in an area near Cerro de la Bufa in Zacatecas. Large numbers of people entered the center of the Great Chichimeca, settling near the mines of Nieves, San Martín, Chalchihuites, Mazapil, Avino, Sombrerete and Fresnillo. The Spanish entered the small indigenous towns and kidnapped their inhabitants to take them to work as slaves in the silver mines. The Spanish were confident that the Chichimecas would be easily defeated after the fall of Tenochtitlan.
The Chichimecas inhabited a desert territory that they totally dominated despite its inhospitable character. Within the Chichimeca culture, war conflicts were very common, so the different ethnic groups that made it up were prepared for defense and attack within their territory. So Spanish settlers hoping to quickly exploit the region's mineral riches found themselves in a bloody confrontation with the warlike and indomitable Indians.
“In their way of fighting with bow and arrows, naked and if they are dressed, they undress for that purpose, they always bring their cistern full of arrows, and four or five of them in the hand of the bow, to take advantage of them more quickly, They fight apart from each other and none of them gets behind the other… the most attacks they make are startled, being hidden and they come out suddenly…”
“Of another weapon, than bow and arrow, they do not use, and this by the way is very harmful due to the alacrity that it has, that a soldier has been seen to have the arquebus in the face, and give it, before he could disarm, an arrow with which they nailed him between both hands... with them it has not been possible to fight in open war, because then they flee to the mountains and hide in it”.
The different ethnic groups that were part of the Chichimeca culture frequently attacked the Spanish caravans that transported the trade along what was known as the Ruta de la Plata, which was actually made up of two routes, one that started from New Mexico passed through Nueva Andalucía and reached the Valley of Mexico and another that began in the city of San Luis de Potosí.
To try to stop the Chichimeca attacks, the Spanish built the fortifications that became known as "prison cities", which were settlements protected by large walls, deep moats and narrow and short streets that sought to avoid attacks and looting. Even so, the Chichimecas managed to destroy several of these settlements.
The situation did not change for a long time until the viceroyalty entrusted the mission of conquering the area to the mestizo Miguel Caldera, whose father was Spanish and his mother Guachichil, who completely changed the strategy to achieve peace in the area. The new strategy used by the viceroyalty consisted of offering food and other goods in exchange for a negotiated pacification and allowing the entry into the indigenous communities of the "spiritual conquest" carried out by the missionaries.
The evangelized indigenous people of the Tlaxcalan and Purépecha ethnic groups, who were called "Indians of peace" were in charge of acting as mediators between the Spaniards and the different ethnic groups belonging to the rebellious Chichimeca culture, thus achieving a negotiated peace in a time relatively short. Despite the peace bought, some groups such as the Wixarikas (Huicholes), did not accept the terms and fled to the mountains and from there they continued the attacks on the Spanish settlements. The final peace was achieved in 1791.
Etymology
The term Chichimeca could have several interpretations, some contradictory. In the Nahuatl language the word “pipí” means “dog”, so Chichimeca means “dog lineage”. Due to this interpretation, the derogatory treatment of "town of dogs" arises. However, linguistic specialists maintain that the "i" of pipí is short while that of Chichimeca is long, which would generate a phonetic distinction in Nahuatl.
Others maintain that "chichi" comes from the verb "to suck" so Chichimeca would mean "suckers" and this would have its explanation because some Chichimeca peoples used to suck the blood of the animals they hunted. Another interpretation is that it comes from "chichimècah" which means "wild people" or "indomitable", for others the word chichimeca simply means Red People. The most accepted interpretation is that of savage and culturally inferior
In any case, the Nahual identified the word Chichimeca with their own past as a primitive people, nomads, hunters and gatherers, as opposed to their more current status as an urban, civilized people, adopting the term "Toltec". Currently in Mexico the term Chichimeca can take on pejorative connotations such as savage, uncivilized, primitive.
Ethnohistoric descriptions
In a letter written in 1562 by the conquistador Hernán Cortés, he describes the Chichimecas as not being civilized like the Aztecs, whom he had defeated. Likewise, in his letter he commented that he considered that the Chichimecas could be enslaved to be used in mining. Of the same opinion was Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain, whose actions undertaken in order to enslave the Chichimecas caused the Mixtón rebellion.
The encomendero Gonzalo de las Casas, who at the end of the XNUMXth century received an encomienda near Durango and fought in the wars against the Chichimecas, described them as a people who did not wear clothing and only covered their genitals, painted their bodies and only ate what they hunted and the fruits and roots they gathered. As proof of his savagery, he recounted that the Chichimeca women after giving birth continued their work without taking any recovery time.
For his part, the Franciscan priest Alonso Ponce in the year 1590 tried to demonstrate the alleged savagery of the Chichimecas, alleging that they had no religion, since they did not even worship an idol like other peoples. However Bernardino de Sahagún in his work Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, maintains that the Chichimeca practice agriculture, live in sedentary communities and that in their religion they worship the moon.
The most generalized opinion about the Chichimeca culture in the most ancient times maintains that they were a savage people, very well trained for war and hunting but without a firmly established society or morality. This opinion spread more rapidly during the wars fought to try to subdue the indomitable Chichimeca people.
The Chichimeca Peoples
The Chichimeca culture is made up of different peoples who shared a general identity, mainly as people of war and a way of life based on gathering, although the Tecuexes, Pames, Guamares and Caxcanes ethnic groups practiced agriculture with relative success. which they were trained through the Toltecs, the Otomi and Tarascans; The Zacatecos and Guachichiles had a level of culture much lower than that of the other ethnic groups and their lifestyle was totally nomadic, so they did not practice cultivation.
The Caxcans
The caxcanes were a sedentary and semi-nomadic group that was part of the Chichimeca culture. When the Europeans arrived, the caxcanes occupied the territory that covers the current state of Aguascalientes, the south of the current state of Zacatecas, the city of Ameca and adjoining areas of the current state of Jalisco.
The caxcanes come from the area that modern Mexican anthropologists designate as Oasisamerica, which is the broad cultural area that spans from pre-Columbian Southwest North America, crossing Mexico from south to north. Other ethnic groups belonging to the linguistic family of the Uto-Aztecs come from these areas, such as the Aztecs, the Utos, the Huicholes, the Zacatecos, the Nahuas and the Matlatzincas.
According to the evidence, the peoples belonging to the linguistic family of the Uto-Aztecs began to emigrate around the year 3500 to 2800 BC to other areas due to the desertification of the Oasisamerica area. The Utoaztecs were divided into two groups: the Yutos and the Sonorans. In turn, the Sonorans were divided into four ethnolinguistic groups, one of them being the Aztecoids or Nahuatlacas, the Caxcans who settled in the current state of Sinaloa and adjoining regions.
In the twelfth century the caxcanes are displaced from the territories they occupied until then by the Tepecanos, which forces them, in turn, to invade and conquer the Teu Chan and Tuitán valleys, in turn displacing the sedentary ethnic group from their territory. of the tecuexes. The caxcanes fought against the Spanish during the Mixtón war with the motto “until your death or mine!”, and that is how it was because when they saw themselves harassed and dominated by the Spanish, all the warriors sacrificed themselves by throwing themselves into the void.
The social structure of the caxcanes was quite simple. It was made up of the leaders, the merchants, the warriors and the villagers. Only those who formed the nobility were superior to the rest. In some manors they also had a council made up of elders whose function was to advise the leader. The government was exercised by the tlatoani, who was sometimes elected by the people, others were imposed, and sometimes a new tlatoani overthrew the previous one.
When the Spaniards arrived, the nation of the caxcanes was made up of more than fifteen secondary lordships and four main lordships, of which the most important for its military power was the lordship of Apcolco. The caxcanes knew the smelting of copper, as the oven found in El Teul suggests. They were also skilled at making sculptures
Within the Chichimeca culture, the caxcanes are the ethnic group with the most complex religion. They worshiped their gods in temples and ceremonial centers built by them for that purpose. His main god was Theotl, who represented the Sun. The hill of Windows was his sacred mountain from which the water of life flowed and was the door to the kingdom of happiness.
The Guachichiles
The Guachichiles were a group of nomadic tribes belonging to the Chichimeca culture. They communicated with a now extinct language belonging to the Uto-Aztecan language family. They inhabited the territory that today occupies the modern state of Zacatecas, the state of San Luis Potosí and the state of Coahuila and part of the north of the current state of Jalisco. The Spaniards considered them the most battle-hardened people among all those they faced.
The social organization of the guachichiles was quite elementary. They were governed by the most powerful warrior, who was the one who would overthrow the acting cacique. If the challenger failed to defeat the ruler he withdrew with the families of his followers and formed another tribe or joined an existing tribe. When the conquerors arrived, they found hundreds of Guachichi tribes, four of them being the most powerful.
The ruler also held the position of supreme military chief. To attack they organized themselves in small groups and painted their heads and hair red. They used swords made of obsidian, darts, spears and arrows to attack their enemies with unusual ferocity. To carry out ambushes, he preferred a desert place with some hills or high rocks and they waited for midnight. At that hour they would launch the attack uttering terrible cries that perplexed their surprised victims under a rain of arrows.
The guachichiles occupied the largest territory of all the members of the Chichimeca culture. They occupied the entire high plateau of the current state of San Luis de Potosí and part of the current states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Zacatecas and Tamaulipas, extending their territory along the Lerma River to the south, in the states of Michoacán and Guanajuato, expanding to the mountains. from the current state of Comanja to the limits of the current city of Rioverde.
The guachichiles did not worship any god, therefore they did not make idols or build altars. Being a nomadic people who remained free, they did not bury their dead or maintain cemeteries. The ashes of their relatives were kept in a suede bag and hung from their waist. The corpses of those who did not belong to their family had the nerves removed from their backs, to fasten the flint to the arrow, some bones as a trophy and the rest was cremated and thrown to the wind.
The Guamares
The Guamares formed what is known as the Guamare Confederation, which was an alliance between different tribes that was formed in the current state of Guanajuato. They established a kind of representative democracy where the head of each tribe was elected by a parliament. This form of organization emerged as a way to protect itself from potential threats posed by the Aztec empire on the one hand and the Purépecha empire to the south.
Although they all belonged to the Chichimeca culture, not all the members of the Guamare confederation belonged to the Guamares ethnic group, some were Guachichiles and others Zapotecs. The Guamares had a fairly complex political organization compared to the surrounding towns. There were villages that functioned as city states that cooperate with each other. The war campaigns were decided by a parliament, where the chiefs of the different tribes discussed the tactics.
The Pames
The Pames are an indigenous people belonging to the Chichimeca culture that currently inhabit central Mexico, mainly in the state of San Luis Potosí. When the invaders arrived in the XNUMXth century, the territory of the Pames extended from the present state of Tamaulipas in the north to the state of Hidalgo and present-day Mexico City in the south all along the Sierra Madre.
Before being colonized, the Pames were a nomadic people who dedicated themselves to trade, even mastering the language of the other peoples. He also stood out for being very efficient hunters and fierce and fierce warriors. The Pames differed from other towns belonging to the Chichimeca culture in that in some villages they coexist with other towns such as the Nahuas, the Otomíes and the Purépechas.
Currently around twenty thousand pames live in the state of San Luis Potosí and around six hundred live in the north of the state of Querétaro. They engage in subsistence farming. The vast majority of the pames survive in poverty without agriculture or industry. The places of residence of many pames are improvised with cardboard, plastic, sticks and any other available material. Although some schools have been built in their territory, the progress of the Pame people is extremely slow.
The Jonaces
The Jonaces, also known as Chichimeca Jonaz, are a people belonging to the Chichimeca culture, which currently lives in the state of Guanajuato and the state of San Luis Potosí. In the state of Guanajuato, the Jonaces live in the community of La Misión, in the municipality of San Luis de la Paz. They refer to themselves as Uzzah. The general census carried out in the year two thousand showed a total population of 2641 jonaces, of these 1433 live in the state of Guanajuato and 1208 in the state of San Luis Potosí.
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Jonaces migrated from the east until they reached Sierra Gorda, northeast of the current state of Guanajuato. After the Spanish conquered the Aztec empire, the Jonaces fought against the Spanish invasion in the Chichimeca War together with the Pames, the Otomi and other peoples belonging to the Chichimeca culture in the current state of Sonora and in the state of Sinaloa. However, understanding the superiority of the enemy, they sought refuge in the depths of the mountains, thus managing to survive.
The Tecuexes
The Tecuexes were an indigenous people belonging to the Chichimeca culture that lived in the northeast and center of the current state of Jalisco, on the great plateau of the highlands of Jalisco. It is probable that the tecuexes come from some groups of Zacatecos. The tecuexes fixed their residence near the water courses in order to take advantage of the great advantages that this offered, however they built pyramids on the tops of the hills as fortifications or as ceremonial centers.
The tecuexes lived by fishing, hunting, gathering wild fruits and planting beans and corn. They were also skilled craftsmen, carpenters, and musicians. The largest city of the tecuexes was called Tonallan and had thousands of inhabitants. When the Spanish arrived, the Tecuexe kingdom was ruled by a woman named Cihualpilli Tzapotzinco.
The tecuexes were great warriors, they were known for their bravery, their fierceness and their cruelty towards their enemy. To go into battle, the warriors of the tecuexes ethnic group painted their faces with a black horizontal line at eye level.
The social organization of the tecuexes had three castes: the priestly caste, made up of shamans, priests, healers who had power over plants and rituals; the military caste on whom rested the power of the government; the popular caste in charge of daily activities such as agriculture, pottery and others.
The tecuexes used a blanket in the form of clothing, with an opening for the neck and joined in several parts. They used feathers on the bows attached with strings of many colors. The women of the Tecuexe ethnic group had the same privileges as the men. They were members and intervene in the popular councils, they knew how to handle weapons and were summoned to combat if necessary. They were dedicated in agricultural work, they were great artists in pottery and masters in the art of spinning and weaving cotton.
the zacatecos
The Zacatecos was an ethnic group that was part of the Chichimeca culture. They were a semi-nomadic people who occupied the current state of Zacatecas, the state of Aguascalientes and the northeast part of the current state of Durango. The Zacatecos were displaced from their territory by the Tepehuanes and had to migrate south to the current state of Zacatecas. There they encountered resistance from the Tecuexes tribes, the Caxcanes, the Huicholes Guachichiles, certain Chalchihuites tribes and the Nahuas.
The Zapotecs little by little were dominating the other ethnic groups and were displacing them until they took over the territory. The Spanish invaded the area in the year 1550 and in the year 1640 they completely conquered it, especially through religion. To face the Spanish invasion, the Zacatecos made an alliance with the Guachichiles and confederated in an Indian league that was ultimately defeated, at which point the Zacatecos abandoned the fight, the tribes dispersed, and many were enslaved to work in the mines.
The political organization of the Zacatecos was made up of several kingdoms, each kingdom had a main village that had several temporary villages under its command since they practiced the semi-nomadic lifestyle. These kingdoms were governed by a captain general who was assisted by various governors.
When the Spaniards arrived, they noticed that the Zacatecos were engaged in trade with neighboring towns. They negotiated through barter some products such as: mesquite, nopal, peyote, corn, ixtle products, grass, ceramics and weapons, among which bows stand out, which were made with flexible vegetable stems and animal tendons such as the white tailed deer.
The Zacatecos managed to form a large army with many militiamen and warriors, mainly very skilled archers and also those who used spears. In their resistance against the invaders, the Zacatecos at first dedicated themselves to attacking the Spanish caravans; As they became more audacious, they began to attack and loot Spanish towns and villages of indigenous people allied with the conquerors.
“Aboriginal warriors attacked from close range and with great speed, to the accompaniment of blood-curdling screams and an immediate hail of arrows. They moved a little apart from each other to better see the flight of the arrow and to better protect themselves and they tried to protect their bodies painted like beasts with the bow and four or five arrows grasped with the other hand.»
The Zacatecos only used loincloths made with herbs as all their attire. They wore shoes that covered them up to the ankles and usually wore a bandage on their foreheads. At the time of the battles they painted their bodies with different drawings. Both men and women wore their hair down to their waists. Women covered their busts, wore sandals and necklaces.
His diet was composed of cactus and mesquite. They also used to eat raw, dried prickly pears or prepared some liquor. They also ate the leaves, hearts, and flowers of cacti, often cooking them in ovens built underground. With the mesquite they made white bread and liquor. They also collected honey and dates, they also ate insects and the meat of snakes, birds, rabbits, fish, deer and rats.
The Zacatecos worshiped as gods the main celestial bodies (sun, moon, etc.), they had animal deities and also plants such as peyote. They observed certain religious rituals at burials, they practiced some limited cannibalism, according to the Spanish.
the coke town
The Coca people are an ethnic group belonging to the Chichimeca culture, they currently live in the state of Jalisco in the surroundings of Lake Chapala; currently only in Mezcala and other nearby communities. In ancient times, the coca people spread throughout all the salt flat valleys of Chapala in all the surroundings of Lake Chapala.
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the town of Coca was made up of three tlatoa nazgos (kingdoms): the kingdom of Chapallan, the kingdom of Coinan and the Kingdom of Cocula, from which the latter took their name. According to the historian Powell, the Coca people did not represent any problem for the Spanish conquerors. The Coca founded the city of Chapala, the city of Mezcala and the city of Cocula and some other towns. Currently they only survive in the city of Mezcala.
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