Nahuas
The Nahuas are a Uto-Nahuan ethnic group and one of the Indigenous people of Mexico, with Nahua minorities also in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest Indigenous group in Mexico, as well as the largest population out of any North American Indigenous people group who are native speakers of their respective Indigenous language. Amongst the Nahua, this is Nahuatl. When ranked amongst all Indigenous languages across the Americas, Nahuas list third after speakers of Guaraní and Quechua.
The Mexica are of Nahua ethnicity, as are their historical enemies and allies of the Spaniards: the Tlaxcallans. The Toltecs which predated both groups are often thought to have been Nahua as well. However, in the pre-Columbian period Nahuas were subdivided into many groups that did not necessarily share a common identity.
Their Nahuan languages, or Nahuatl, consist of many variants, several of which are mutually intelligible. About 1.5 million Nahuas speak Nahuatl and another million speak only Spanish. Fewer than 100 native speakers of Nawat remain in El Salvador.
It is suggested that the Nahua peoples originated near Aridoamerica, in regions of the present day Mexican states of Durango and Nayarit or the Bajío region. They split off from the other Uto-Aztecan speaking peoples and migrated into central Mexico around 500 CE. The Nahua then settled in and around the Basin of Mexico and spread out to become the dominant people in central Mexico. However, Nahuatl-speaking populations were present in smaller populations throughout Mesoamerica.
Nomenclature
The name Nahua is derived from the Nahuatl word-root nāhua-, which generally means "audible, intelligible, clear" with different derivations including "language". It was used in contrast with popoloca, "to speak unintelligibly" or "speak a foreign language". Another, related term is Nāhuatlācatl or Nāhuatlācah literally "Nahuatl-speaking people".The Nahuas are also sometimes referred to as Aztecs. Using this term for the Nahuas has generally fallen out of favor in scholarship, though it is still used for the Aztec Empire. They have also been called Mēxihcatl , Mēxihcah or in Spanish Mexicano "Mexicans", after the Mexica, the Nahua tribe which founded the Aztec Empire.
Distribution
In Mexico
| Language | Total persons 3 years & older speaking an Indigenous language | % of total Indigenous speakers 3 years & older in Mexico | Total Indigenous speakers 3 years & older who do not speak Spanish | Monolingual rate |
| Náhuatl | 1,651,958 | 22.4% | 111,797 | 6.8% |
The Mexican government does not categorize its citizens by ethnicity, but only by language. Statistical information recorded about the Nahua deals only with speakers of the Nahuatl language, although unknown numbers of people of Nahua ethnicity have abandoned the language and now speak only Spanish. Other Nahuas, though bilingual in Nahuatl and Spanish, seek to avoid widespread anti-Indigenous discrimination by declining to self-identify as Nahua in INEGI's decennial census. Nor does the census count as Indigenous children under 5. An INI-Conepo report indicates the Mexican Indigenous population is nearly 250% greater than that reported by INEGI.
As of 2020, Nahuatl is spoken across Mexico by an estimated 1.6 million people, including 111,797 monolingual speakers. This is an increase from 1.4 million people speakers total but a decrease from 190,000 monolingual speakers in 2000. The state of Guerrero had the highest ratio of monolingual Nahuatl speakers, calculated at 24.8%, based on 2000 census figures. The proportion of monolinguals for most other states is less than 5%.
The largest concentrations of Nahuatl speakers are found in the states of Puebla, Veracruz, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, and Guerrero. Significant populations are also found in México State, Morelos, and Mexico City, with smaller communities in Michoacán and Durango. Nahuatl was formerly spoken in the states of Jalisco and Colima, where it became extinct during the 20th century. As a result of internal migrations within the country, all Mexican states today have some isolated pockets and groups of Nahuatl speakers. The modern influx of Mexican workers and families into the United States has resulted in the establishment of a few small Nahuatl-speaking communities, particularly in Texas, New York and California.
64.3% of Nahuatl speakers are literate in Spanish compared with the national average of 97.5% for Spanish literacy. Male Nahuatl speakers have 9.8 years of education on average and women 10.1, compared with the 13.6 and 14.1 years that are the national averages for men and women, respectively.
In Central America
In El Salvador, it is estimated that there are 12,000 Nahuas/Pipiles. However, some Indigenous organizations claim that the real population is significantly higher. Their Nawat language is endangered, but undergoing a revival.In Nicaragua, the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs counted 20,000 Nahuas/Nicaraos in 2022. The International Labour Organization also counted 20,000 Nicaraos. However, DNA analysis has proven that the Nahua admixture in the modern Nicaraguan gene pool is high, especially among western Nicaraguans, both whites and Mestizos alike, making the number of Nahua descendants much higher. Fully Indigenous Nahuas can be found all over the western half of Nicaragua. They spoke the Nawat language before it went extinct in Nicaragua in the late 1800s.
In Costa Rica, a small population of Nahuas inhabit Bagaces and other parts of Guanacaste province. They are descended from Nicaraos who migrated and displaced the Huetares who originally inhabited Bagaces. They spoke the Nawat language before it went extinct in Costa Rica.
In Honduras, different sources give estimates of 6,339 and 19,800 persons of Nahua ethnicity. They are concentrated in Olancho, in the municipalities of Catacamas, Gualaco, Guata, Jano and Esquipulas del Norte. Nawat is extinct here. However, unlike the Nahuas of El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica who fled central and southern Mexico during the post-classical era due to famine, societal collapse, civil wars, and invasions from enemy forces, the Nahuas of Olancho are descended from pochtecas who were sent to Central America by Ahuizotl of Tenochtitlan at the start of the modern era in 1501 CE to establish trade relations with the Indigenous peoples of Central America. There were some Nahua communities in other parts of Honduras in the 16th century, but they have since disappeared.
Geography
At the turn of the 16th century, Nahua populations occupied territories ranging across Mesoamerica as far south as Panama. However, their core area was Central Mexico, including the Valley of Mexico, the Toluca Valley, the eastern half of the Balsas River basin, and modern-day Tlaxcala and most of Puebla, although other linguistic and ethnic groups lived in these areas as well. They were also present in large numbers in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, southeastern Veracruz, and Colima and coastal Michoacan. Classical Nahuatl was a lingua franca in Central Mexico before the Spanish conquest due to Aztec hegemony, and its role was not only preserved but expanded in the initial stage of colonial rule, encouraged by the Spaniards as a literary language and tool to convert diverse Mesoamerican peoples. There are many Nahuatl place names in regions where Nahuas were not the most populous group, due to Aztec expansion, Spanish invasions in which Tlaxcaltecs served as the main force, and the usage of Nahuatl as a lingua franca.The last of the southern Nahua populations today are the Pipil of El Salvador, the Nahua of Honduras and the Nicarao of Nicaragua. Nahua populations in Mexico are centered in the middle of the country, with most speakers in the states of Puebla, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Guerrero and San Luis Potosí. However, smaller populations are spread throughout the country due to recent population movements within Mexico. Within the last 50 years, Nahua populations have appeared in the United States, particularly in New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston.
History
Pre-conquest period
Archaeological, historical and linguistic evidence suggest that the Nahuas originally came from the deserts of northern Mexico and migrated into central Mexico in several waves. The presence of the Mexicanero people in this area until the present day affirms this theory.Before the Nahuas entered Mesoamerica, they were probably living for a period of time in northwestern Mexico alongside the Cora and Huichol peoples. The first group of Nahuas to split from the main group were the Pochutec who went on to settle on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca possibly as early as 400 CE. From the Nahua quickly rose to power in central Mexico and expanded into areas earlier occupied by Oto-Manguean, Totonacan and Huastec peoples. Through their integration in the Mesoamerican cultural area the Nahuas adopted many cultural traits including maize agriculture and urbanism, religious practices including a ritual calendar of 260 days and the practice of human sacrifices and the construction of monumental architecture and the use of logographic writing.
Image:Telamones Tula.jpg|thumb|"Atlantean figures" from the Nahua culture of the Toltecs at Tula|alt=
Around 1000 CE the Toltec people, normally assumed to have been of Nahua ethnicity, established dominion over much of central Mexico which they ruled from Tollan Xicocotitlan.
From this period on the Nahua were the dominant ethnic group in the Valley of Mexico and far beyond, and migrations kept coming in from the north. After the fall of the Toltecs a period of large population movements followed and some Nahua groups such as the Pipil and Nicarao arrived as far south as northwestern Costa Rica. And in central Mexico different Nahua groups based in their different "Altepetl" city-states fought for political dominance. The Xochimilca, based in Xochimilco ruled an area south of Lake Texcoco; the Tepanecs ruled the area to the west and the Acolhua ruled an area to the east of the valley. One of the last of the Nahua migrations to arrive in the valley settled on an island in the Lake Texcoco and proceeded to subjugate the surrounding tribes. This group were the Mexica who during the next 300 years became the dominant ethnic group of Mesoamerica ruling from Tenochtitlan their island capital. They formed the Aztec Empire after allying with the Tepanecs and Acolhua people of Texcoco, spreading the political and linguistic influence of the Nahuas well into Central America.