Many people look to Mexico as a nation rich in mineral resources, cultural antiquities and historical significance. Indeed, it is this... and much more. But many people, aware of Mexico's tumultuous past, a history full of political strife and turmoil, don't realize that - inspite of its difficult periods - Mexico has an extraordinary record of keeping diligent and detailed records of its people and their significant life events.

My ancestors lived in Illinois, Minnesota and New York in the 1850s and 1860s and getting information on my ancestors from those areas for those two decades is exceedingly difficult. However, I have traced the Mexican lineages of my relatives and my friends in Zacatecas, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes and Chihuahua during the same two decades with extraordinary success. Many Mexican Catholic church records from the 1800s, from the 1700s and even from the 1600s are very rich in details that you would never see in most American records. (There are exceptions, of course.)

It is worth noting that most American counties did not begin keeping birth and death records until the 1900s, and the recording to marriage records was only slightly better. However, Mexico started civil registration in 1859 and this practice was in widespread practice by the 1880s, and these records, for the most part, are very detailed.

To the family history researcher, Mexico is a land whose vital records are rich in both detail and availability. Mexico's Registros Parroquiales (Parish Registers) - in particular - have provided many Mexican Americans with a fabulous window into their past. From one end of Mexico to another, countless church books and civil registries have chronicled the life events of ordinary laborers and slaves, alongside those of wealthy landowners. Millions of baptisms, marriages and confirmations were performed and it appears that a great number of these church records have survived to the present day. Mexico's civil registration, enacted in 1859, provides the researcher with a secondary source that is sometimes even more detailed than the church records.

To help you better appreciate this valuable resource, I would like to present a translated record of the 1903 marriage record of Olayo Morales and Juana Luevano. This marriage record was performed by the Judge of the Civil Court in the small town of Cieneguilla in the state of Aguascalientes in central Mexico. The civil registry of birth, marriage and death records from Cieneguilla have been microfilmed by Genealogical Society of Utah and are now present on seventeen rolls of film

The civil marriage record of Olayo Morales and Juana Luevano, as translated to English, tells us:

In Cieneguilla on January 18, 1903 at nine in the morning in this office and before the recording judge, appeared the citizens OLAYO MORALES and JUANA LUEVANO, who stated that they desired to be married (in a civil ceremony) in conformity with the applicable laws for which they will make their best efforts. The first party (Olayo) is single, 22 years of age, originally from Santa Maria and a resident of this place, a laborer, and the legitimate son of Eustacio Morales and Juana Salas, who are living. The second party (Juana) is 16 years old, the legitimate daughter of Tiburcio Luevano and Manuela Martinez, who are also alive. At once, and at the end of the demonstration of their legal capacity to marry, introduced as witnesses were the citizens Crispin Santana (50 years of age) and Zacarias Salinas (60 years of age), both married and adults of age, laborers and residents of this hacienda, witnesses for the first party. The second party presented as witnesses the citizens Juan Perez and Eligio Chavez, both married, adults of age, laborers, and residents of this property, who under the protest of their truthfulness, declared that they are not aware of any impediments to marriage, prior to the consent of the parents, I, the Judge, made the presentation and I decided that it will be published for the period required by law. According to the content that was read to the people present in front of me, I, the Judge, signed it. The people present did not sign it because they do not know how to write.

Signed, Pablo Valdivia

This rich detail can also be found in the following 1788 marriage in the Catholic Church of Aguascalientes which I have also translated to English:

In the Village of Aguas Calientes on the 23rd day of April, 1788, having presided over the usual preparatory steps and having read the arranged marriage banns as required by the Holy Council of Trent in the parish church on three holy days in solemn Mass on the 6th, 13th, and 20th days of the current month, and no impediment to marriage having resulted, I, Father Sir Thomas Serrano, with permission from Father Andres Martinez, the senior interim parish priest, assisted in the marriage in my presence and by these words celebrated in Holy Mass - JOSE CIPRIANO GOMES, of Spanish origin (White), originally from and a resident of this jurisdiction in Juiquinaqui, legitimate son of Antonio Gomes and Rita Quitaria de Robalcava - and MANUELA MASIAS, Spanish, originally from this jurisdiction in the Canutillo and resident of the above-mentioned Juiquinaqui, natural daughter of Ines Masias (deceased) - (joined) in Blessed Nuptials. The padrinos (sponsors)were Antonio Flores and Dolores Garcia and the witnesses, Matias Hernandez and Juan Valades - In witness thereof we signed it.

Even the marriages of slaves and Indians were recorded in detail by the parish priests, as is evident in this partial translation of a 1774 marriage record from Charcas, San Luis Potosí, which indicates the marriage between one Jacinto Ramon Rodriguez Flores, a mulato esclavo (slave mulato), and Maria Manuela Sauzeda (a mestiza from El Rancho del Sitio). The translation of this 233-year-old marriage document reads in part:

In this Parish Church of Our Lady of Charcas on the 16th of August in 1774, having presided over the usual preparatory steps as required by the Holy Council of Trent and the synod of this town,... I married JACINTO RAMON RODRIGUEZ FLORES, a mulato, originally of Aalosto, servant in this place, widower of Rita Quiteria Felicia, who was buried in the Parish a year and three months ago, legitimate son of Francisco Rodriguez and Maria Magdalena Perez, deceased mulata slave,

And MARIA MANUELA SAUZEDA, a mestiza of the Post of Animas in this jurisdiction and resident of Ranch of San Jose de Sitio, legitimate daughter of Francisco Xavier Zauzeda and Martina Xaviera Perez, and not having found any impediments, I proclaimed the banns of marriage...

Mixed marriages of couples who had various combinations of Spanish, African, and Indian blood were common throughout Mexico in the colonial period and many of those records can be viewed today, by either visiting the ancestral parish or accessing the film through the Family History Library's microfilmed resources.

Stepping back into an earlier century, I now present another translated marriage record from the parish archives in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco from 1673:

On the 6th day of the month of July of the year 1673, I married and veiled within the church FRANCISCO DE CARDONA, a native of Saint Barholome de la Agua, a dependent of the Bishopric of Guadalajara, legitimate son of Francisco de Cardona and Magdalena de Carbajal, with LUISA DE ROBALCABA, native of this village, legitimate daughter of Jose Gonsalez de Robalcaba and Ana Gonsalez Florida (already deceased), resident of this village, having presided over the conciliar measures as required by the Holy Council of Trent, and having published the marriage banns in Holy Mass on three holy days, on Sunday the 9th of July, Sunday the 16th of July and Saturday the 22nd of July. I continued (with the marriage), no impediments to marriage that I know of having resulted...

The evidence is clear that Mexico has another rich resource that many people, in fact, were not aware of.

Los Tapatiós de California: Returning to Their Jalisco Roots
The History of Jalisco

By John P. Schmal

The Mexican state of Jalisco seems to inspire a sense of cultural identity and pride that is not nearly as evident with other Mexican states. Even among some second- and third-generation Americans, loyalty to and interest in Jalisco is commonplace among Mexican Americans. To many people, Jalisco represents the essence of Mexican culture, tradition and music. The Tapatiós are well-known for their energetic and colorful dances, which are usually accompanied by the mariachi music that made Guadalajara famous. The state itself has been contributing large numbers of immigrants to the U.S. since the early Twentieth Century and continues to send many Jaliscans to California, Texas, Illinois and other American states.

One of the founding fathers of Los Angeles, Luis Quintero, was born in Guadalajara and his descendants, numbering in the thousands, live throughout Los Angeles and neighboring counties. In my own personal and professional dealings, I have known at least a couple hundred people who either came from Jalisco or whose ancestors came from the place.  In fact, my nieces and nephews have ancestors from Tequila and Hostotipaquillo in the valleys of northern Jalisco, not far from the Nayarit border.

Thousands of Jaliscans have been arriving in Los Angeles and throughout California each year for the last half-century, and, today, the sons and daughters of Jalisco work in California's banks, health care companies, publishing companies, schools, libraries and factories. Many of them attend elementary school or are making their way through college, while others stand on street corners, looking for day laboring opportunities. Today, without a doubt, the lifeblood of Jalisco flows through the heart of California.

I spend a few hours of each month as a volunteer Family History Consultant for people who are seeking to find their roots in Mexico and have met with many individuals who were interested in exploring their Jalisco roots. Many of them also have ancestors from Michoacán, Zacatecas, and Guanajuato, but for some reason, they have a compelling urge to explore their Jalisco origins first and foremost. (Michoacán runs a close second, in large part because some people have a sense of pride for their Purépecha/Tarascan roots in Jalisco’s neighbor to the south).

Some of the most successful, rewarding and enjoyable research that I’ve done is Jalisco research. Jalisco’s parish priests and the civil registrars followed a rigorous system of record-keeping that was not nearly as meticulous in some of the other Mexican states. As an added benefit, a significant number of Jalisco's parish records after 1850 are indexed, offering great opportunities for the family history researcher.

The most endearing characteristic of Jalisco records after 1800 is what I call The Abuelos Factor. Unlike some Mexican states and most countries of the world, a baptism record in the Jalisco parish books gives the family historian six new names to research: the padres (parents), abuelos paternos (paternal grandparents), and abuelos maternos (maternal grandparents) of the person being baptized.

As an example, the following baptism – translated into English from Spanish – was recorded on September 29, 1885 for Juana Luevano in the northern Jalisco town of Villa Hidalgo (a hop, skip and jump from the border with Aguascalientes):

In the Parish of Paso de Sotos on the 29th of September of 1885, I, Father Estevan Agredano... baptized solemnly and poured Holy Oil and Sacred Chrism on Juana, who was born on the 27th day at seven in the morning in this place, legitimate daughter of Tiburcio Luevano and Manuela Martinez. Paternal grandparents: Pablo Luevano and Manuela Serna. Maternal grandparents: Timoteo Martinez and Fermina Rubalcaba. Godparents: Paulin Diaz and Epifania Aguallo, whom I advised of their spiritual and parental obligation. In witness thereof, I signed it.

For the most part, people researching in Michoacán, Guanajuato and several other Mexican states do not usually have the benefit of the Abuelos Factor. But many post-1800 records in Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Chihuahua are influenced by the Abuelos Factor which makes jumping from one generation to another an easier process.

The most important repository of Jalisco records for most Americans to research are available through the Family History Library in Salt Lake city. This library probably has the largest genealogical resources for the state of Jalisco in the world and its catalog can be accessed at the following link:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp

For the state of Jalisco alone, the Family History Library owns at least 20,000 rolls of microfilm, covering roughly 200 cities, municipios, and villas. Of the 165 towns and villages whose Catholic churches are represented in this collection, 46 have registers going back to the 1600s while another 37 have records stretching back to the 1700s. Each roll of microfilm in the FHL collection can be ordered from any local Family History Center for $6.05. That roll of film will stay "in-house" for one month and can be renewed at the end of that period.

Most of Jalisco's 124 municipios are also represented in the FHL catalog. Although Mexico enacted civil registration in 1859, most of the municipios of Jalisco did not start keeping birth, marriage, and death records until 1867 or later. This collection is constantly being updated for some cities. In addition, the 1930 Mexican census is available for almost one hundred of the municipios. Another invaluable resource for the Hispanic researcher is the International Genealogical Index (IGI). In this database, many of the church records held by the FHL have been indexed. Of Mexico's 30 million baptism and marriage entries in the IGI, Jalisco accounts for about 3.5 million. In my own research, I have found this powerful and dynamic database to be of enormous value for pre-1880 baptisms and marriages.

Guadalajara, the second largest city in Mexico, is the capital of Jalisco. Founded in 1542, Guadalajara became the administrative capital of the province of Nueva Galicia. As the second largest tourist destination in Mexico, the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area enjoys the highest quality of life in Mexico. With a present-day population of around 4 million people, it is not surprising that many Mexican Americans search for their roots in the parish registers of Guadalajara and its immediate vicinity.

The FHL owns an impressive 3,400 rolls of microfilm dealing with Guadalajara. Fifteen Catholic churches, some with baptism and marriage registers stretching back as far as 1635, are represented on 1,500 rolls of film. Padrones (local census lists) from 1639 to 1875 comprise 48 rolls of film and can be a very useful resource. Property and water rights records can be found on 269 rolls of microfilm and date back to 1584. Notarial and probate records, dating back to at least 1583, make up almost 1,300 rolls.

It is interesting to note that, as one goes back in time, the records of some cities actually become more detailed. For example, a researcher exploring the marriage records in Lagos de Moreno between 1650 and 1670 will find that they are amazingly detailed, even for Indian couples who have no surnames.

In pre-Columbian times, many indigenous groups inhabited Jalisco, and, in fact, the present-day territory of Jalisco was crisscrossed by a large number of small autonomous states speaking a multitude of languages, some of which are long forgotten. The area around Guadalajara was inhabited by Cocas and Tecuexes, while the northern Altos region was dominated by the Caxcanes and Guachichiles. The Otomies lived around Zapotitlán, Juchitlán, Autlán in the south, but it is possible that they were transplanted Indians who came to fill a demographic void left by the original inhabitants after epidemics had reduced their numbers.

The Purépecha Indians (Tarascans), identified with the State of Michoacán, inhabited some of the southern border regions. The Tepehuán Indians, presently inhabiting Chihuahua, Durango and Nayarit, once lived in some of the northern mountains of Jalisco’s Three-Fingers Border Region with Zacatecas. The Huicholes, who now live in Nayarit, also inhabited some regions of northern Jalisco until shortly after the Spanish contact.

An integral part of genealogical research is historical perspective and understanding Jalisco’s indigenous past is a step towards understanding your own family history. Only three authors have dealt with the topic of Jalisco’s indigenous people at great length. The following two books may be of assistance to the determined researcher:

Peter Gerhard, The North Frontier of New Spain. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982.

Eric Van Young, "The Indigenous Peoples of Western Mexico from the Spanish Invasion to the Present: The Center-West as Cultural Region and Natural Environment," in Richard E. W. Adams and Murdo J. MacLeod, The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Volume II: Mesoamerica, Part 2. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 136-186.

In addition, Dr. Phil Weigand of the Centro de Estudios Arqueologicos, El Colegio de Michoacan, in Zamora, Michoacán, has spent years studying the archaeology and history of the indigenous peoples of Jalisco and Zacatecas. Dr. Weigand has written many books and articles on the topic of indigenous Jalisco, both pre-Hispanic and later, and most of these works can be found in the California University library system. Although most of his works are in Spanish, a few are in English.

Many people have come to me talking about the etymology of their surname and how it came from a certain place in Spain at a certain time. Sometimes they give very intricate details about a surname’s history, without really knowing exactly how they connect to the surname, and sometimes their sources of this information are just quotes off the Internet, not from published academic sources.

This is all good information to know and may turn out to be useful (and hopefully accurate), but it is important for people to realize that there is only one way to actual trace your own family tree and that is to look for your ancestors one generation at a time, baptism by baptism, marriage by marriage, going back gradually through time. Like any genealogical research project, tracing your roots in Jalisco demands a certain amount of patience, perseverance, and determination, as well as an open mind. Once you get the hang of it, it is really quite simple and the rewards can be spectacular.

Jalisco is still a vibrant and proud state. People who come from there have difficulty shedding their cultural ties to their tapatió heritage and generally maintain a sense of identity about their Jaliscan origins. The State of Jalisco, with its rich cultural inheritance, has become, in many ways, part of California society as well. But no matter how American you are, it doesn’t hurt to know about your ancestors from Jalisco and the evolution that transformed them from Indian warriors and Spanish settlers into American citizens.

Source: John P. Schmal and Donna S. Morales, Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico (Heritage Books, 2002).

For more than a century, Mexican nationals have been crossing the southern border to begin new lives in the United States. A large percentage of those immigrants have come from the state of Jalisco. Jalisco, located in the west central part of the Mexican Republic, is the sixth largest of Mexico's thirty-one states. Within its 124 municipios, the state boasts a population that is approaching seven million.

Bordered by the Pacific Ocean on its west, the 31,210 square miles of Jalisco make up 4.1% of the total area of Mexico and touches seven other Mexican states. While Colima and Michoacán lay to her south and east, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Nayarit lay to the north. In addition, Jalisco has a common border with Guanajuato and a small sliver of San Luis Potosí on her northeastern frontier.

Today, Jalisco is a land of peace. But from the early Sixteenth Century until the Cristero Rebellion of the 1920s, Jalisco's beautiful landscape was ravaged by warfare time and again. Over a period of four centuries, many battles were fought on the soil of Jalisco. When one learns of the trials and tribulations endured by the people of Jalisco, he or she can begin to appreciate and understand the pride that Jaliscans feel for their native soil.

The name "Jalisco" is believed to be derived from the Nahuatl words xalli (sand, gravel) and ixtli, which means "face," or by extension, plane. Thus, the word Jalisco would literally mean "sandy place." The first inhabitants of Jalisco were nomadic tribes traveling through the area en route to the south. At one point, the Toltecs ruled over the Kingdom of Xalisco. But, in 1112, the Indian subjects of this kingdom rose in rebellion, leading to the disintegration of Xalisco. Among the indigenous tribes inhabiting Jalisco at the time of the Spanish encounter were the Cazcanes (who inhabited the northern regions near Teocaltiche and Lagos de Moreno) and the Huicholes (who also inhabited the northwestern region near present-day Huejúcar and Colotlán).

The Guachichile Indians, who inhabited a large part of Zacatecas, also had some representation in the Los Altos area near Tepatitlán and Arandas. The Cuyuteco Indians, who spoke the Nahua language of the Aztecs, lived in the western sector near the present-day towns of Cuyutlán and Mixtlán. Living close to what is now Guadalajara were the Tecuexes and Cocas. However, the Tecuexes also extended to the northeast through Los Altos all the way to Lagos de Moreno. The Guamares lived in the far east, along what is now the border of Jalisco and Guanajuato. The Otomíes, who inhabited the southern area near Zapotitlán and border area with Colima, were transplanted Christian Indians brought to the region as allies of the Spaniards.

In 1522, shortly after the fall of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City), Hernán Cortés commissioned Cristóbal de Olid to journey into the unexplored territories of the northwest to explore that area we now call Jalisco. Then, in December 1529, the President of the First Audiencia in Nueva España (Mexico), Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, left Mexico City with a force of 300 Spaniards and 6,000 Indian allies. Guzmán, a lawyer by profession, had already gained a reputation as a ruthless and cruel administrator when he served as Governor of Panuco on the Gulf Coast. With little regard for Spanish laws forbidding the enslavement of Indians, Guzmán had enslaved and shipped tens of thousands of Indians off to the Caribbean Islands to live out their lives as slaves.

Traveling through Michoacán, Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Sinaloa, Guzmán left a trail of devastation and terror wherever he went. In 1531, Guzmán ordered his chief lieutenant, Juan de Oñate, to found La Villa de Guadalajara - named after the city of his birth in Spain - on the plateau near Nochistlán in the present-day state of Zacatecas. The construction of Guadalajara began on January 5, 1532. However, the small settlement came under repeated attacks almost immediately from the local Cazcanes Indians and, on August 5, 1533, had to be abandoned. The town of Guadalajara would be moved four times before finding its final home on February 14, 1542 at its present site.

While Guzmán ravaged through the western and central parts of Mexico, reports of his brutal treatment of the Indians reached the authorities in Mexico City. One man who took special notice of Guzmán's genocidal transgressions was Antonio de Mendoza, who in 1535 was appointed as the first of sixty-one viceroys who would rule Nueva España. Egged on by both Bishop Bartolome de las Casas and Archbishop Juan de Zumarraga, strong advocates for the Indians, Mendoza arrested Guzmán in 1536 and imprisoned him. He was returned to Spain where he died in obscurity and disgrace.

The long-range implications of Guzmán's reign of terror were realized in 1541 when the Mixtón Rebellion pitted the indigenous people of Jalisco against Spanish rule. Under the leadership of Tenamaxtli, the Indians fortified their positions near Mixtón, Nochistlán, and other towns, while laying siege to Guadalajara. Unable to cope with the intensity of this uprising, Cristóbal de Oñate, the Acting Governor of the region, pleaded for aid from Viceroy Mendoza. The famous conquistador, Pedro de Alvarado, coming to the aid of Oñate, led an attack on Nochistlán. However, the indigenous defenders counterattacked with such ferocity that Alvarado's forces were routed. In this hasty retreat, a horse fell upon Pedro de Alvarado. Mortally wounded by the crushing weight of the horse, Alvarado, the conqueror of Guatemala, died in Guadalajara a week later on June 24, 1541.

However, eventually Viceroy Mendoza, with a force of 300 horsemen, 300 infantry, eight pieces of artillery and 20,000 Tlaxcalan and Aztec Indian allies, succeeded in recapturing one town after another, against great resistance. By December 8, 1541, most of the indigenous resistance had been ended. In 1548, King Carlos V of Spain decreed the creation of the Audiencia of Nueva Galicia, which included all of present-day Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Aguascalientes.

In 1550, the Chichimeca War started. The definitive source of information relating to the Chichimeca Indians and the Chichimeca War is Philip Wayne Powell's Soldiers, Indians, and Silver: North America's First Frontier War. Although Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, and Guanajuato were the primary battlegrounds in this fierce frontier war, some parts of Jalisco also came under attack. In 1554, the worst disaster of all took place when Chichimeca Indians attacked a Spanish caravan of sixty wagons with an armed escort 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 last decade of the century, the efforts of Viceroy Alonso Manrique de Zuñiga to make peace with the Chichimecas met with success. Mr. Powell has described in detail the efforts of Viceroy Mendoza to achieve peace. The end of hostilities brought a period of extended prosperity for the economy of Jalisco. During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century, the commercial importance of Jalisco became a crucial ingredient to the success of Spain's prized colony.

Guadalajara, because of its strategic location within the Spanish colony, became prosperous as it funneled imported goods - both legal and illegal - to other parts of the colony. This period was also a period of consolidation in which certain Indian groups were formally brought under Spanish control. In 1721, the leader of the Coras, an indigenous group living in present-day Nayarit and western Jalisco, negotiated a peace with the Spanish authorities.

On September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo set into motion the Mexican struggle for independence when he issued El Grito de Dolores (The Cry of Dolores) from his parish in Guanajuato. What started as a small rebellion quickly snowballed into a full-scale revolution. Moving from one town to another, Hidalgo's insurgents were able to take control of some cities without firing a shot.

On November 4, 1810, the rebel forces defeated a Creole militia at Zacoalca, killing over 250 Loyalists. This victory left the city of Guadalajara vulnerable to rebel attack. On November 26, 1810, the forces of Hidalgo entered Guadalajara. Once in the city, the rebels arrested many Spaniards and announced the abolition of slavery. In the meantime, the recruitment efforts of Hidalgo brought the rebel strength up to about 80,000 in January. However, on January 13, 1811, Hidalgo learned that the Royalist forces of General Félix María Calleja del Rey were approaching Guadalajara. Upon receiving this news, Hidalgo assembled his forces and led them to the outskirts of the city. Here the rebel forces took up positions on several hills and awaited the arrival of the enemy.

On January 17, 1811, at Calderón Bridge on the Lerma River east of Guadalajara, Hidalgo's forces joined battle with the Royalist forces of Gen. Calleja del Rey. Hidalgo's men were on the verge of victory when - suddenly - Royalist artillery fire struck one of the insurgents' ammunition wagons. A stupendous explosion resulted, igniting the grass of the plains and panicking Hidalgo's men. Within minutes, Hidalgo's forces were in a massive retreat. It was this battle that broke the back of Hidalgo's revolt. Eventually, Hidalgo was captured and executed (July, 1811).

As the revolution continued, Jalisco remained the site of confrontations between royalist forces and insurgents. In 1812, insurgent activity became particularly strong in the vicinity of Lake Chapala. However, after the capture and execution of key leaders, the rebel movement lost momentum and some insurgent leaders accepted amnesty in 1816. The uncertainty of the rebellion against Spain was further magnified on the morning of May 31, 1817 when a massive earthquake caused great damage to Guadalajara and the surrounding areas. Jalisco remained, for the duration of the war, a stronghold of periodic insurgent activity. Finally, in 1822, the Spanish authorities relinquished their claim on Mexico, and Royalist forces embarked for Spain, leaving behind an independent Mexican Republic.

On June 2, 1823, the Free State of Jalisco was established in confederation with the other Mexican states. But independence did not bring stability to Jalisco. The historian Dawn Fogle Deaton writes that in the sixty-year period from 1825 to 1885, Jalisco witnessed twenty-seven peasant (primarily indigenous) rebellions. Seventeen of these uprisings occurred within one decade, 1855-64, and the year 1857 witnessed ten separate revolts.

According to Ms. Deaton, the cause of these "waves of unrest, popular protest, and open rebellion" arose "out of the political and social struggles among classes and between classes." She further explained that the "commercialization of the economy," especially in agriculture, had led to fundamental changes in the lifestyles of the peasants and thus brought about "the seeds of discontent."

The peasant rebellions were accompanied by revolts on the state level against the federal government. On April 12, 1834, the Jalisco Legislature invited the states of Querétaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Michoacán, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Tampico and Durango to form a coalition to defend themselves against the Federal rule of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. During that summer, a mob of about sixty to eighty men, through intimidation and threats, persuaded the leaders of Guadalajara to resign. Through such manipulation, the Federal Government kept Jalisco under heel.

During the 1850s, the ongoing and passionate battle between the Liberals and Conservatives spilled into Jalisco. From 1855 to 1864, Ms. Deaton writes, Jalisco's government witnessed eighteen transfers of power. One of the key issues was the role of the Catholic Church and the separation of church and state. The Liberals viewed the Church as their staunch opponent and as the conservatives' political and economic supporter. In effect, Liberal advocates sought to reduce influence of the Church.

Then, with the adoption of a Liberal-based constitution in January 1857, the Conservative/Liberal conflict evolved into a full-scale civil war, referred to as the War of the Reform. With the resignation of President Comonfort, Liberal leader Benito Juárez had become Acting President of the Mexican Republic. However, Conservative forces moved quickly to attack Juárez in Mexico City. As a result, Juárez was forced to flee to Guadalajara.

Then, on March 20, 1858, faced with the imminent arrival of Conservative forces, Benito Juárez and his Liberal forces were forced to flee Guadalajara. Soon he would arrive in Veracruz, where he set up his government. Reaching its peak in June and July of 1859, the War of the Reform paralyzed the economy of Jalisco. A large segment of southern Jalisco, including Guadalajara, were devastated, leading to a mass migration of middle class persons. Of the thirty most important battles of the War of the Reform, twelve took place on Jalisco's territory.

With the end of the War of the Reform and the return of Juárez to Mexico City in 1861, Mexico faced a French invasion. The French, invited to Mexico by the Conservatives, moved - against great resistance - to occupy most of the country. During the French occupation, multiple confrontations between French and Republican troops took place within the territory of Jalisco. On December 18, 1866, Mexican forces under General Eulogio Parra won a decisive battle against the French forces near Acatlán. Within months, the French would completely evacuate their forces from Mexico.

A state of Jalisco's prominence was unable to avoid becoming a battleground during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). In Manuel M. Diéguez, an ally of President Venustiano Carranza and the Governor of Jalisco, enacted a reign of terror. During his occupation of Guadalajara, Diéguez's forces persecuted the clergy, confiscated holdings of the rich, and imprisoned or executed followers of Victoriano Huerta. As the rebel forces of Pancho Villa approached Guadalajara, many people from the Jalisco countryside joined forces with the Villistas. Finally, on December 17, 1914, Villa entered Guadalajara, forcing Diéguez to flee. Soon after, Villa called together the richest men of both Jalisco and Guadalajara and announced a forced loan of one million pesos. Passing out money to the poor, Villa became enormously popular, but his victory was short-lived and soon he had to leave the city. By April, the Constitutionalist forces of Diéguez once again controlled Guadalajara.

One of the major consequences of the Mexican Revolution was the Constitution of 1917. The articles of this constitution deprived the Catholic Church of its traditional privileged position in Mexican society by secularizing all primary education and requiring the registration of all clergymen with the government (to regulate their "professional conduct"). Article 24, which forbade public worship outside the confines of the church, had antagonized many Mexican citizens.

In 1926, President Plutarco Elías Calles, in implementing the articles of the Constitution, signed the so-called Intolerable Acts. The implementation of these strongly anti-clerical laws antagonized many Catholics and laid the foundation of the so-called "Cristero Religious War." Los Altos and the "Three-Fingers" border region of northern Jalisco, long regarded as a vanguard of Catholicism in Mexico, would become battlefields in this next war, which started in 1926.

During the period from 1926 to 1932, the government of Jalisco changed hands ten times. At one point, some 25,000 rebels had been mobilized to resist the articles of the Constitution. The bloody conflict was formally ended in June 1929. However, outbreaks of violence continued into the 1930s. Over time, the uneasy relationship between the Church and state relaxed considerably and, while the oppressive laws originally signed into law by Calles remained on the books, little effort was made to enforce them.

Today, Jalisco remains one of the most important states in Mexico, both culturally and economically. With the third-largest economy in the Mexican Republic, Jalisco exports more than $5 billion annually to 81 countries and ranks first among the states in agribusiness, computers and the manufacturing of jewelry. Some people say that Jalisco is both the heart and soul of Mexico. Many of the things that are considered as typically Mexican, such as mariachi music, charreadas (rodeos), the Mexican Hat Dance, tequila, and the broad-rimmed sombrero hat, are in fact derived from Jalisco's rich cultural heritage. For the last five centuries, Jalisco has been the site of many civil wars and many battles. But, in spite of these ongoing conflicts, the spirit of the people of Jalisco has endured and, in fact, flourished.

Copyright © 2008 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.

Sources:

Michael P. Costeloe, The Central Republic in Mexico, 1835-1846 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Dawn Fogle Deaton, "The Decade of Revolt: Peasant Rebellion in Jalisco, Mexico, 1855-1864," in Robert H. Jackson (ed.), Liberals, the Church, and Indian Peasants: Corporate Lands and the Challenge of Reform in Nineteenth-Century Spanish America (Albuquerque: New Mexico Press, 1997).

José María Muriá, Breve Historia de Jalisco (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1994).

Philip Wayne Powell, Soldiers, Indians and Silver: North America's First Frontier War (Tempe, Arizona: Center for Latin American Studies, 1975).

Jim Tuck, The Holy War in Los Altos: Regional Analysis of Mexico's Cristero Rebellion (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1982).

The Mexican state of Jalisco is located in the west central part of the Mexican Republic. This large state, occupying a total of 78,839 square kilometers, borders the states of Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, Nayarit and Durango (on its north), Guanajuato (on its east) and Michoacán de Ocampo and Colima to the south. On its west, Jalisco borders the Pacific Ocean.

Jalisco is crossed by two large mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Neo-Volcanic Axis. With a wide range of topographies, Jalisco became the home to wide variety of indigenous peoples. Domingo Lázaro de Arregui, in his "Descripción de la Nueva Galicia" – published in 1621 – noted that 72 native langauges were spoken in the Spanish colonial province of Nueva Galicia, which included a large part of Jalisco, as well as Aguascalientes and Zacatecas.

The Spaniards first visited the indigenous peoples of Jalisco in the early 1520s and their journey for the rest of the Sixteenth Century led to displacement, assimilation and mestizaje which I have discussed in a separate article at:

http://houstonculture.org/mexico/jalisco_indig.html

By the early part of the Nineteenth Century, very few people living in Jalisco still spoke Indian languages. In fact, a large number of the original languages spoken in Jalisco had disappeared from the face of the earth. However, the descendants of the original Indians still lived in Jalisco and many of them still felt a spiritual, cultural and physical bond to their Indian ancestors.

On June 23, 1823, the Department of Guadalajara was proclaimed as the "El Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco" (The Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco). This new era, however, did not bring stability to Jalisco, nor did it bring economic reform to the descendants of Jalisco’s indigenous peoples. The historian Dawn Fogle Deaton has written that in the sixty-year period from 1825 to 1885, Jalisco witnessed twenty-seven peasant rebellions, most of them carried out by indigenous citizens.

According to Ms. Deaton, the cause of these "waves of unrest, popular protest, and open rebellion" arose "out of the political and social struggles among classes and between classes." She further explained that the "commercialization of the economy," especially in agriculture, had led to fundamental changes in the lifestyles of the peasants and thus brought about "the seeds of discontent."

The bond that the people of Jalisco felt towards their indigenous ancestry continued well into the Twentieth Century and is clearly manifested in the 1921 Mexican census. At the time of this census, which was tallied after the end of the devastating Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), 199,728 Jalisco natives identified themselves as being of "indígena pura" (pure indigenous) descent, representing 16.8% of the entire state’s population. In contrast, a mere 195 individuals were classified as speakers of indigenous languages (primarily Náhuatl and Huichol).

In a true testament to the mestizaje of Jalisco’s inhabitants, 903,830 Jaliscans classified themselves as "indígena mezclada con blanca" (Indigenous mixed with White), representing 75.8% of the total state population. The mestizos of Jalisco, in fact, represented 10.6% of the mestizo population of the entire Mexican Republic in the 1921 census.

In contrast, only 87,103 of Jalisco’s 1,191,957 inhabitants referred to themselves as "blanca." When the next census was counted in 1930, only 1,681 inhabitants of Jalisco spoke indigenous languages. Nearly all of these persons were Huicholes (1,676). The racial classifications of Jalisco’s population in 1921 is illustrated in the following table:

According to the 2000 census, the population of persons five years and more who spoke indigenous languages in Jalisco totalled 39,259 individuals. The most common of these languages were: Huichol (10,976 persons), Náhuatl (6,714), Purépecha (3,074), Mixteco (1,471), Otomí (1,193), and Zapoteco (1,061). The majority of the indigenous languages spoken in the state were transplanted tongues from other parts of México and the Huichol language represented the only truly indigenous language of these tongues.

The State of Jalisco contains 124 municipios, but only 11 of these entities contained indigenous populations that numbered more than one percent in 2000. I have illustrated the indigenous populations of these municipios in the following table:

The most important indigenous group still living in Jalisco are the Huichol people. In the entire Mexican Republic, there were 30,686 persons five years of age or more who spoke the Huichol language in the 2000 census. They were primarily distributed across portions of four adjacent states: Nayarit (16,932), Jalisco (10,976), Durango (1,435), and Zacatecas (330). The Huicholes have managed to preserve their identity, language, culture and religious customs, largely because of their isolation in the Sierra Madre Mountains in the northern reaches of Jalisco, where they occupy portions of all four states.

The three main Huichol communities belong to the northern Jalisco municipio of Mezquitic. The Huichol speakers numbered 7,652 in the 2000 census and represented 64.75% of the municipio’s population. Monolingual Huicholes numbered 2,621 individuals, representing 34.25% of the Huichol speakers and a clear indication of their resistance to assimilation into mainstream Mexican culture.

In 2000, Huichol speakers also represented 48.35% of the population of the Municipio of Bolaños. The Huicholes have been described and analyzed in a multitude of published works. The reader may be interested in checking this source for a brief, but detailed, description of this indigenous group:

http://68.166.190.115/wixarika/Assets/pdf/THEHUICHOl-Wixarika.pdf

The Náhuatl language is spoken by many inhabitants of Jalisco. Because this language has been spoken for so long in so many parts of México for so long, some Náhuatl speakers are probably migrants from other states, while others are natives to the state. Náhuatl speakers tend to inhabit municipios with larger populations, such as Guadalajara (where 1,494 Náhuatl speakers lived in 2000), Zapopan (7,348 speakers) and Puerto Vallarta (779 speakers). They are largely bilingual and can communicate in Spanish.

Purépecha is the third most commonly spoken language in present-day Jalisco. The Purépecha – who are sometimes called Tarascans (a label that was given to them by the Spaniards in the Sixteenth Century) – ruled over a significant portion of Michoacán during the pre-Hispanic era and have managed to preserve their language and many of their unique customs. Many of the Purépecha speakers live in the border regions adjacent to Michoacán.

The Otomí, Mixtec and Zapotec languages are also believed to be largely migrant languages in Jalisco. Otomí is widely spoken through many central Mexican states, while the Mixtec and Zapotec languages have their origins in the southern state of Oaxaca. The Mixtecs and Zapotecs have migrated to many states of Mexico and are in great demand as agricultural laborers throughout the northern states.

The Cora people, like the Huichol, have survived in isolation, occupying mountains and valleys within the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain range. The vast majority of the Cora speakers (15,380) live in the State of Nayarit, Jalisco’s northwestern neighbor. However, in 2000, only 162 Cora speakers lived within Jalisco’s borders.

As Jalisco moves into the Twenty-First Century, the percentage of indigeous speakers in the state – as with many other Mexican states – will continue to drop as assimilation continues. The presence of migrant laborers from other parts of the country will ensure that Jalisco has a significant number of persons speaking Indian languages, but most of those languages are not truly indigenous to the state itself. Nevertheless, many sons and daughters of Jalisco recognize and feel great pride in the indigenous heritage that they have inherited from their distant ancestors.

Departamento de la Estadistica Nacional, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, "Censos General de Habitantes: 30 de Noviembre de 1921, Estado de Jalisco," (Mexico, Distrito Federal: Talleres Graficos de la Nación, 1926)

Dawn Fogle Deaton, "The Decade of Revolt: Peasant Rebellion in Jalisco, Mexico, 1855-1864," in Robert H. Jackson (ed.), "Liberals, the Church, and Indian Peasants: Corporate Lands and the Challenge of Reform in Nineteenth-Century Spanish America." (Albuquerque: New Mexico Press, 1997).

Population statistics from Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática (INEGI).

INDIGENOUS JALISCO: FROM THE SPANISH CONTACT TO 2010

By John P. Schmal

Modern Jalisco

The modern state of Jalisco consists of 78,597 square kilometers located in the west central portion of the Mexican Republic and taking up 4.0% of the national territory. As the seventh largest state in Mexico, Jalisco is politically divided into 124 municipios. With a 2010 population of about 7,844,830 inhabitants, Jalisco has the fourth largest population in Mexico with 6.6% of the national population. The capital of Jalisco is Guadalajara, which had a 2010 population of 1,495,182. In addition to being the second largest city in Mexico, Guadalajara’s population represents almost one-fifth of Jalisco’s entire population.

Jalisco is a very large state and actually has boundaries with seven other Mexican states. While Colima and Michoacán lay to her south and east, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Nayarit lay to the north. In addition, Jalisco has a common border with Guanajuato and a small sliver of San Luis Potosí on her northeastern frontier.  The name Jalisco comes from the Náhuatl words xali (sand) and ixco (surface). Together, these words mean "sandy surface". Up to 1867, Nayarit was part of Jalisco. In August 1867, Nayarit became the “Military District of Tepic.” It was elevated to the status of a territory separate from Jalisco in 1884, achieving full statehood in 1917.

The Jalisco Economy

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Jalisco exceeded one trillion pesos in 2015 and contributed 6.8% of Mexico’s national GDP. In 2015, the five primary contributors to Jalisco’s GDP were: wholesale and retail trade (21.8%); manufacturing (20.5%); real estate, rental and leasing (13.0%); construction (8.6%) and agriculture/forestry/fishing/hunting (5.9%).

Of Jalisco’s 3.6 million workers during 2016, almost one-in-four (1,402,644, or 39.35%) were employed in the manufacturing and commerce sectors. While 304,996 persons were engaged in agriculture/forestry/ fishing and hunting (8.5%), a slightly larger number (319,730, or 9.0%) were employed in the accommodation and food services.

A Wide Range of Topographies

Jalisco is crossed by two large mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Neo-Volcanic Axis.  While the Sierra Madre Occidental runs north to south across western Mexico, the Neo-Volcanic Axis is a long line of ancient volcanoes (many still active) that extends from the Pacific Ocean (north of Guadalajara) eastward to the Gulf of Mexico, just to the south of Veracruz.

La Gran Chichimeca

When the Spaniards started exploring Jalisco and Zacatecas in the 1520s and 1530s, they encountered several nomadic tribes occupying the area which they referred to as La Gran Chichimeca. The Aztecs collectively referred to these Indians with the all-encompassing term, Chichimecas. All of the Chichimeca Indians shared a primitive hunting-collecting culture, based on the gathering of mesquite, acorns, roots and seeds, as well as the hunting of small animals, including frogs, lizards, snakes and worms. Within the present-day boundaries of Jalisco, the Caxcanes, Guachichiles, Tecuexes and Guamares were considered to be Chichimecas.

With a wide range of topographies, Jalisco became the home to a wide variety of indigenous peoples.  Domingo Lázaro de Arregui, in his “Descripción de la Nueva Galicia” – published in 1621 – noted that 72 native languages were spoken in the Spanish colonial province of Nueva Galicia, which included a large part of Jalisco, as well as Nayarit, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas. However,  according to the author Eric van Young, “the extensive and deep-running mestizaje” (the racial and cultural mixing of Amerindians with Europeans) of Nueva Galicia 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.”

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  the Chichimeca nations and their warriors.

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.”

Once Guzmán had consolidated his conquests, he ordered all of the conquered Indians of Jalisco to be distributed among Spanish encomiendas. The individual receiving the encomienda, known as the encomendero, received free labor and tribute from the Indians, in return for which the subjects were commended to the encomendero's care. It was the duty of the encomendero to Christianize, educate and feed the natives under their care. However, as might be expected, such human institutions were prone to abuse and misuse and, as a result, some Indians were reduced to slave labor.

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). Reports of Guzmán's brutal treatment of the indigenous people got the attention of the authorities in Mexico City. Two years later, he was returned to Spain in chains to stand trial. He spent some time in prison and died in Spain around 1558.

The Mixtón Rebellion (1540-1541)

In the spring of 1540, the Indian population of western Mexico began a fierce rebellion against 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. 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 gradually suffocated the uprising. By December, 1541, the native resistance had been completely crushed. The aftermath of this defeat, according to Peter Gerhard, led to thousands of deaths. In addition, he writes, “thousands were driven off in chains to the mines, and many of the survivors (mostly women and children) were transported from their homelands to work on Spanish farms and haciendas.” Fortunately, some of these people were allowed to return home a decade later.

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.” To function properly, the Zacatecas silver mines “required well-defined and easily traveled routes.” 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 present-day northern regions of Jalisco were included in this war zone.

Indigenous Allies

The Chichimeca conflict forced the Spaniards to rely heavily upon their Christian Indian allies. The result of this dependence upon indigenous allies as soldados (soldiers) and pobladores (settlers) led to enormous and wide-ranging migration and resettlement patterns that would transform the geographic nature of the indigenous peoples of Nueva Galicia. In describing this phenomenon, Mr. Powell noted that the “Indians formed the bulk of the fighting forces against the Chichimeca warriors; As fighters, as burden bearers, as interpreters, as scouts, as emissaries, the pacified natives of New Spain played significant and often indispensable roles in subjugating and civilizing the Chichimeca country.”

By the middle of the Sixteenth Century, the Tarascans, Aztecs, Cholultecans, Otomíes, Tlaxcalans, and the Cazcanes had all joined forces with the Spanish military. By the time the Chichimeca War began in 1550, the Tarascans and Otomíes, in particular, had already developed “considerable experience in warfare alongside the Spaniards.”  As a result, explains Mr. Powell, “They were the first important auxiliaries employed for entradas against the Chichimecas.”

Decline through Epidemic Disease

The physical isolation of the Indians in the Americas is the primary reason for which disease caused such havoc with the Native American populations. This physical isolation resulted in a natural quarantine from the rest of the planet and from a wide assortment of communicable diseases. When smallpox first ravaged through Mexico in 1520, no Indian had immunity to the disease.

During the first century of the conquest, the Mexican Indians suffered through 19 major epidemics. They were exposed to smallpox, chicken pox, diphtheria, influenza, scarlet fever, measles, typhoid, mumps, influenza, and cocoliztli (a hemorrhagic disease). Peter Gerhard has estimated the total native population of Nueva Galicia in 1520 at 855,000 persons. By 1550, this number had dropped to 220,000.

In two decades, the populous coastal region north of Banderas Bay witnessed the greatest population decline. By the late 1530s, the population of the Pacific coastal plain and foothills from Acaponeta to Purificación had declined by more than half. Subsequently, Indians from the highland areas were transported to work in the cacao plantations. When their numbers declined, the Spaniards turned to African slaves. In spite of the epidemics, several areas of Jalisco were less affected by contagious disease.

The Caxcanes

One of the primary indigenous groups of Jalisco was the Cazcanes (Caxcanes) who lived in the northern section of the state. They were a partly nomadic people, whose principal religious and population centers were at Teul, Tlaltenango, Juchipila, and Teocaltiche. The language of the Caxcanes Indians was widely spoken in the northcentral portion of Jalisco along the “Three-Fingers Border Zone” with Zacatecas. It is believed that the Caxcanes language was spoken at Teocaltiche, Ameca, Huejúcar, and across the border in Nochistlán, Zacatecas. The language of Cazcanes was very similar to the Nahua dialect spoken by the Mexica and has sometimes been referred to as a corrupt form of Nahua.

According to Mr. Powell, the Caxcanes were "the heart and the center of the Indian rebellion in 1541 and 1542." After the Mixtón Rebellion, the Cazcanes became allies of the Spaniards. For this reason, they suffered attacks by the Zacatecas and Guachichiles during the Chichimeca War. As a cultural group, the Caxcanes ceased to exist during the Nineteenth Century. The only person who has published detailed materials relating to the Caxcanes is the archaeologist, Dr. Phil C. Weigand.

The Cocas

From Guadalajara in the north to Sayula in the south and from Cocula in the west to La Barca and Lake Chapala in the east, the Cocas inhabited a significant swath of territory in central and southern Jalisco. Zapotitlan, Jocotepec, Cocula and Tepec were all within their domain. When the Spaniards first entered their territory, some of the Coca Indians, guided by their leader Tzitlali, moved away to a small valley surrounded by high mountains, a place they named “Cocolan.”  When the Spaniards arrived in the vicinity of present-day Guadalajara in 1530, they found about one thousand dispersed farmers belonging to both the Tecuexes and Cocas.

The late American anthropologist Carolyn Baus de Czitrom studied the Cocas extensively and published a remarkable work about their traditions and way of life. In her landmark work, “Tecuexes y Cocas: Dos Grupos de la Region Jalisco en el Siglo XVI,” Dr. Baus de Czitrom described the Cocas as a very peaceful and cooperative people (“Los cocas era gente dócil, buena y amiga de los españoles.”), which she based largely on the accounts of Tello.

Because the Cocas were a peaceful people, the Spaniards, for the most part, left them alone. Some historians believe that the word mariachi originated in the language of the Cocas. Some of the traditions surrounding mariachi are certainly derived from the Coca culture and the five-stringed musical instrument called vihuela was a creation of the Cocas.

The Tecuexes

From Magdalena and Tequila in the west to Jalostotitlán and Cerro Gordo in the east, the Tecuexes occupied a considerable area of northern Jalisco. Their southern border extended just south of Guadalajara while their eastern range extended into the northwestern part of Los Altos and included Mexticacan, Tepatitlán and Valle de Guadalupe. The Tecuexes were also studied extensively by Dr. Baus de Czitrom, who reported that the Spaniards considered them to be brave and bold warriors (“Los Tecuexes eran valientes y audaces guerreros.”)

The Tecuexes and Cocas both occupied some of the same communities within central Jalisco, primarily in the region of Guadalajara. It seems likely that this coexistence probably led to inter-marital relationships between the Cocas and Tecuexes in some areas and played a role in aligning the two peoples together. However, in other areas such as Lake Chapala, the Tecuexes and Cocas were adversaries.

The Tecuexes were frequently at odds with their other neighbors in the north, the Caxcanes. In fact, it is believed that Caxcanes originally invaded the territory of the Tecuexes in the area of Tlatenango, Juchipila, Nochistlán (Zacatecas) and Teocaltiche (Jalisco) during the pre-Hispanic era. The Caxcanes and Tecuexes in this area continued to their hostilities for as many as 260 years until the arrival of the Spaniards.

The Spaniards first confronted the Tecuexes in an area north of Lake Chapala. When Guzmán arrived in the area in February 1530, the Tecuexes fled at first, but returned a few days later. Both the Tecuexes and Cocas had heard that Guzmán was on his way and decided to accept the invaders peacefully.  When the Spanish force arrived, most of the leaders of the Cocas and Tecuexes received them in friendship and offered gifts.

However, one group of Tecuexes decided to resist and ambushed Guzmán and his men. Because of their superiority in arms, the Spaniards quickly defeated this group. Later, the manipulative Guzmán used an alliance with the Cocas to help subdue the Tecuexes. Like the Caxcanes, the Tecuexes suffered in the aftermath of the Mixtón Rebellion. 

The Coras

The Coras inhabited an area that is now located in present-day Nayarit as well as the northwestern fringes of Jalisco. The Cora call themselves Nayarit or Nayariti, a tribe belonging to the Taracahitian division of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic family. The Cora developed agricultural methods that included the building of terraces to control erosion. Today, the Coras, numbering more than 20,000 people, continue to survive, primarily in Nayarit and to a lesser extent in Jalisco. The Cora Indians have been studied by several historians and archaeologists. One of the most interesting works about the Cora is Catherine Palmer Finerty's “In a Village far From Home: My Life among the Cora Indians of the Sierra Madre” (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2000).

The Cuyutecos

The Cuyutecos ‒ speaking the Nahua language of the Aztecs ‒ settled in southwestern Jalisco, inhabiting Atenquillo, Talpa, Mascota, Mixtlán, Atengo, and Tecolotlán. The population of this area ‒ largely depleted by the epidemics of the Sixteenth Century ‒ was partially repopulated by Spaniards and Indian settlers from Guadalajara and other parts of Mexico. It is believed the Cuyuteco language may have been a late introduction into Jalisco.

The 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 present-day Jalisco cities of Lagos de Moreno, Arandas, Ayo el Chico, and Tepatitlán were within the territory of the Guachichiles.

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 resistance in the Chichimeca War became legendary. 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. After the end of the Chichimeca War, the Guachichiles were very quickly assimilated and Christianized and no longer exist as a distinguishable cultural entity.

The Guamares

The nation of the Guamares took up portions of western Guanajuato, northeastern Jalisco and a small part of Aguascalientes. The author, Gonzalo de las Casas, called the Guamares “the bravest, most warlike, treacherous, and destructive of all the Chichimecas.” The area around San Juan de los Lagos, Encarnación de Díaz and Jalostotitlán in northeastern Jalisco (Los Altos) was primarily occupied by the “Chichimecas Blancos,” a Guamares tribe who used limestone pigments to color their faces and bodies. When Pedro Almíndez Chirinos traveled through here in March 1530 with a force of fifty Spaniards and 500 Tarascan and Tlaxcalan allies, the inhabitants gave him a peaceful reception.

The Huicholes

Some historians believe that the Huichol Indians are descended from the nomadic Guachichiles, having moved westward and settled down to an agrarian lifestyle, inhabited a small area in northwestern Jalisco, adjacent to the border with Nayarit. The Huicholes, seeking to avoid confrontation with the Spaniards, became very isolated and thus we able to survive as a people and a culture.

In contrast to the Cora Indians, the Huichol were never congregated into nucleated mission settlements and thus, according to Franz (1996), were never converted from their "primitive pagan ways." In his 2001 thesis for the University of Florida, Brad Morris Biglow noted that, while the Cora Indians fought aggressively to resist acculturation, the Huichol response was primarily to “flee” to more remote locations in the Sierra Madre. According to Aguirre Beltran, the Huichol retreat into the Sierra created a “region of refuge” and enabled the Huichol to “resist the acculturative pressures around them.”

The isolation of the Huicholes ‒ now occupying parts of northwestern Jalisco and Nayarit ‒ has served them well for their aboriginal culture has survived with relatively few major modifications since the period of first contact with Western culture. Even today, the Huichol Indians of Jalisco and Nayarit currently inhabit an isolated region of the Sierra Madre Occidental. At the time of the Spanish contact, Huichol speakers were living in the northern stretches of what is now called the Three-Fingers Region of Northern Jalisco, in particular Huejuquilla, Tuxpan and Colotlán.

The survival of the Huichol has intrigued historians and archaeologists alike. The art, history, culture, language and religion of the Huichol have been the subject of at least a dozen books. Carl Lumholtz, in Symbolism of the Huichol Indians: A Nation of Shamans (Oakland, California: B.I. Finson, 1988), made observations about the religion of the Huichol. Stacy B. Schaefer and Peter T. Furst edited People of the Peyote: Huichol Indian History, Religion and Survival (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996), discussed the history, culture and language of these fascinating people in great detail.

The Otomíes

The Otomíes were a Chichimeca nation primarily occupying Querétaro and Guanajuato. However, early on, the Otomíes allied themselves with the Spaniards and Mexica Indians. As a result, writes Mr. Powell, Otomí settlers were “issued a grant of privileges” and were “supplied with tools for breaking land.”  For their allegiance, they were exempted from tribute and given a certain amount of autonomy in their towns. During the 1550s, Luis de Velasco (the second Viceroy of Nueva España) used Otomí militia against the Chichimecas. The strategic placement of Otomí settlements in Nueva Galicia made their language dominant near Zapotitlán, Juchitlán, Autlán, and other towns near Jalisco's southern border with Colima.

The Purépecha Indians (Tarascans)

The Purépecha Indians ‒ also referred to as the Tarascans and Porhé ‒ inhabited many parts of present-day Michoacán and boasted a powerful empire that rivaled the Aztec Empire during the Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Centuries. As recently as 2010, the Purépecha numbered over 124,000 speakers. This language, classified as an isolated language, was spoken along the southern fringes of southern Jalisco, adjacent to the border with Colima. Today, the Purépecha language is still the third-most spoken indigenous language in Jalisco.

The Tepehuanes

In pre-Hispanic times, the Tepehuán Indians inhabited a wide swath of territory that stretched through sections of present-day Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango and Chihuahua. According to Buelna (1891), they received their name from the Náhuatl term tepetl, "mountain," and huan, "at the junction of.” Unlike the Guachichiles, the Tepehuanes did not become involved in operations against the Spaniards in the Chichimec War. Charlotte M. Gradie’s “The Tepehuán Revolt of 1616: Militarism, Evangelism and Colonialism in Seventeenth Century Nueva Vizcaya” (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2000) discussed in great detail the Tepehuanes and their famous 1616-1619 revolt that ravaged much of Durango.  After their rebellion was crushed, the Tepehuán moved to hiding places in the Sierra Madre to avoid Spanish retaliation.

Today, the Tepehuán retain elements of their old culture. At the time of the Spanish contact, the Tepehuanes language was spoken in “Three Fingers Region” of northwestern Jalisco in such towns as Tepee, Mezquital and Colotlán. The Tepehuanes language and culture are no longer found in Jalisco, but more than 35,000 Tepehuanes still reside in southern Chihuahua and some parts of Durango and Nayarit.

Assimilation and Mestizaje (1590-1620)

The employment of Tarascans, Aztecs and Tlaxcalans for the purpose of “defensive colonization” ‒ discussed earlier in this report ‒ encouraged a gradual assimilation of the Chichimecas and other Jalisco Indians. In the 1590s Náhuatl-speaking colonists from Tlaxcala and the Valley of Mexico settled in some parts of Jalisco to serve, as Mr. Gerhard writes, “as a frontier militia and a civilizing influence.”  As the Indians of Jalisco made peace and settled down to work for Spanish employers, they labored in the fields alongside the Christian, “civilized” Indians. In time, the indigenous Jalisco groups were absorbed into the more dominant cultures from the south (i.e., Aztec, Tlaxcalan, Otomí and Tarascan Indians).

By the early Seventeenth Century, writes Mr. Powell, most of the Chichimeca Indians had disappeared as distinguishable cultural entities and “the sixteenth-century land of war thus became fully Mexican in its mixture.”

Independence from Spain (1823)

By the early part of the Nineteenth Century, very few people living in Jalisco still spoke indigenous languages. In fact, a large number of the original languages spoken in Jalisco had disappeared from the face of the earth. However, the descendants of the original Indians still lived in Jalisco and many of them still felt a spiritual, cultural and physical bond to their Indian ancestors. On June 23, 1823, the Department of Guadalajara was proclaimed as the “El Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco” (The Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco).

Indigenous Discontent (1825-1885)

Unfortunately, independence did not bring stability to Jalisco, nor did it bring economic reform to the descendants of Jalisco’s indigenous peoples. The historian Dawn Fogle Deaton writes that in the sixty-year period from 1825 to 1885, Jalisco witnessed twenty-seven peasant (primarily indigenous) rebellions. Seventeen of these uprisings occurred within one decade, 1855-64, and the year 1857 witnessed ten separate revolts. According to Ms. Deaton, the cause of these "waves of unrest, popular protest, and open rebellion" arose "out of the political and social struggles among classes and between classes." She further explained that the "commercialization of the economy," especially in agriculture, had led to fundamental changes in the lifestyles of the peasants and thus brought about "the seeds of discontent."

As Jalisco prepared to enter the Twentieth Century, the indigenous speaking population of the State declined considerably. In the 1895 census, only 4,510 persons spoke an indigenous language, representing 0.38% of the state’s total population. By the time of the 1930 census, this figure would drop to 2,648 (0.21% of the total population).

The 1921 Census: Racial Classifications

In spite of the lost language connection, the bond that many Jaliscans felt towards their indigenous ancestry continued well into the Twentieth Century and is clearly manifested in the 1921 Mexican census. At the time of this census, which was tallied after the end of the devastating Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), 199,728 Jalisco natives identified themselves as being of “indígena pura” (pure indigenous) descent, representing 16.8% of the entire state’s population. 

In a true testament to the mestizaje of Jalisco’s inhabitants, 903,830 Jaliscans classified themselves as “indígena mezclada con blanca” (Indigenous mixed with White), representing 75.8% of the total state population. The following table illustrates the racial classifications in the 1921 census:

The 2000 Census

According to the 2000 census, the population of persons five years and more who spoke indigenous languages in Jalisco totaled 39,259 individuals, representing only 0.7% of Jalisco’s 5,541,480 inhabitants. The most common of these languages were: 

1. Huichol (10,976 persons)
2. Náhuatl (6,714)
3. Purépecha (3,074)
4. Mixteco (1,471)
5. Otomí (1,193)
6. Zapoteco (1,061). 

The majority of the indigenous languages spoken in the state were transplanted tongues from other parts of México, with the Huichol language representing the only truly indigenous language of Jalisco. Although the State of Jalisco contains 124 municipios, only 11 of them contained indigenous populations that numbered more than one percent in 2000, including:

• Mezquitic (7,652 indigenous speakers – 64.75% of the municipio population)
• Bolaños (2,125 indigenous speakers – 48.35% of the municipio population)

The 2010 Census

The 2010 Mexican census reported that the inhabitants of Jalisco spoke 59 different indigenous languages. However, Jalisco’s 53,695 indigenous speakers represented only 0.8% of the total state population, and Jalisco ranked 26^th among the Mexican states and Distrito Federal in the percent of people speaking indigenous languages. The most commonly spoken language categories in Jalisco for the 2010 census were:

Together the three most common languages represented 63.4% of all indigenous speakers in the state.  The fourth- and fifth-most spoken languages were Mixteco and Zapoteco, both languages indigenous to the State of Oaxaca.

In 2010, seven municipios had indigenous language speakers who made up between 2.3% and 75.9% of their entire populations, as shown in the following table:

As noted in the preceding table, nearly one-quarter (12,540 or 23.4%) of Jalisco’s indigenous speaking population lived in the municipio of Mezquitic, which is in Jalisco’s Three-Fingers Area and has borders with both Nayarit (on the west) and Zacatecas (on the west and east).

The municipio with the second largest percentage of indigenous speakers was Bolaños, which is just south of Mezquitic. Both municipios together have over 16,000 indigenous speakers, most of which speak Huichol. The two municipios contain almost one-third of all Jalisco’s indigenous speakers (30.9%).

The Huichol People of Today

The most important indigenous group still living in Jalisco are the Huichol people. In the entire Mexican Republic, there were 30,686 persons five years of age or more who spoke the Huichol language in the 2000 census. They were primarily distributed across portions of four contiguous states:  Nayarit (16,932), Jalisco (10,976), Durango (1,435) and Zacatecas (330).  The Huicholes have managed to preserve their identity, language, culture and religious customs, largely because of their isolation in the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Stacy B. Schaefer’s Huichol Women, Weavers, and Shamans (2015) quotes the Comisión Nacional Para el Desarrollo de Los Pueblos Indígenas’ (INI) recent report which states the Huichol population nationwide totaled 59,280 in 2011, with 8,791 of this number four years old or younger.

The Purépecha (Tarascans)

Purépecha is the third most commonly spoken language in present-day Jalisco.  The Purépecha – who are sometimes called Tarascans (a label that was given to them by the Spaniards in the Sixteenth Century) – ruled over a significant portion of Michoacán during the pre-Hispanic era and have managed to preserve their language and many of their unique customs. In 2010, most of the Purépecha speakers in Jalisco lived in the municipios of Zapopan, Tlaquepaque and Guadalajara. Because these municipios are not adjacent to Michoacán, it is assumed that these are migrants or the descendants of Purépecha migrants.

The Cora People

The Cora people, like the Huichol, have survived in isolation, occupying mountains and valleys within the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain range. The vast majority of the 15,380 Cora speakers in 2000 lived in the State of Nayarit, Jalisco’s northwestern neighbor. In 2000, only 162 Cora speakers lived within Jalisco’s borders. By 2010, the number of Cora speakers in Jalisco had dropped to 116.

The Others

The Náhuatl, Otomí, Mixtec and Zapotec languages are believed to be largely migrant languages in Jalisco. Otomí is widely spoken through many central Mexican states, while the Mixtec and Zapotec languages have their origins in the southern state of Oaxaca. The Mixtecs and Zapotecs have migrated to a large number of Mexican states and are in great demand as agricultural laborers in some of the northern states. The largest number of Náhuatl speakers in 2010 lived in the municipios of Zapopan, Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta. They are most likely migrants who were attracted to these regions for employment.

The Life Blood of Jalisco

As Jalisco moves closer to the third decade of the Twenty-First Century, only the arrival of migrant laborers from other parts of the country will ensure that Jalisco has a small population of people who speak indigenous languages, but almost all of those languages are not truly indigenous to the state itself. 

However, many sons and daughters of Jalisco recognize and feel great pride in their distant indigenous ancestors who both greeted and went to war with the Spaniards who arrived there in the Sixteenth Century. Although the Cocas, Tecuexes, Caxcanes, Guachichiles and Chichimecos Blancos no longer exist as cultural groups with living languages and traditions, they are, in fact, The Life Blood of Jalisco.

Municipio Histories

At the following link, researchers will find links to each of Jalisco’s municipios. Through this resource, interested readers can learn more about the indigenous people and history of each of their ancestral municipios:

http://siglo.inafed.gob.mx/enciclopedia/EMM14jalisco/municipios/municipios.html

Copyright © 2017 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.

Primary Sources:

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Biglow, Brad Morris. Ethno-Nationalist Politics and Cultural Preservation: Education and Bordered Identities among the Wixaritari (Huichol) of Tateikita, Jalisco. Mexico. Gainesville, Florida: Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Florida, 2001.

Deaton, Dawn Fogle, "The Decade of Revolt: Peasant Rebellion in Jalisco, Mexico, 1855-1864," in Robert H. Jackson (ed.), Liberals, the Church, and Indian Peasants: Corporate Lands and the Challenge of Reform in Nineteenth-Century Spanish America. Albuquerque: New Mexico Press, 1997.

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