Indigenous Tamaulipas
By John P. Schmal
The state of
Tamaulipas is located in the northeastern portion of the Mexican Republic.
It shares common borders with the Mexican States of Nuevo León (to the
west), San Luis Potosí (to the southwest) and Veracruz (to the south). It also
shares its northern boundary with the American state of Texas.
On the east, Tamaulipas also has a 458-kilometer long coastline along the
Gulf of Mexico.
With a total of
80,249 square kilometers, Tamaulipas is divided into 43 municipios and occupies
4.1% of the national territory. However,
Tamaulipas’ 3,268,554 inhabitants make up only 2.9% of the national population
of the Mexican Republic. The capital of Tamaulipas is Ciudad Victoria. The
northern, central, eastern and southeastern regions of Tamaulipas mainly consist
of hills and coastal plains that expand westward into the Sierra Madre Oriental.
Only the western and southwestern regions of the State include the high
mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental.
Origin
of the Name
There are
several theories about the origins of the name Tamaulipas, the most accepted of
which states that Tamaulipas means “high mountain.” The name is believed to
derive from the Huasteca word, “Tamaholipa.” Tam means “in” or “the
place of.” While some say that
Tamaulipas means “the place of high mountains,” others historians believe it
means “the place where people pray a lot.”
The investigator
Gabriel Saldívar
y Silva theorized in his “Los Indios de Tamaulipas” (Institute de Instituto
Panamericano de Geografia e Historia Publication No. 70: Distrito Federal, 1943)
that the indigenous peoples of Tamaulipas represented an Eastern branch of Paleo-Americans
that had probably arrived in the region from New Mexico, Coahuila and Texas.
Conquest
of the Huastecas
The first
Spanish expedition to reach Tamaulipas was led by Hernández de Córdoba and
Juan Grijalva (1518). A few years
later, after taking control of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) and the Aztec Empire
in August 1521, the Conquistador Hernán Cortés marched toward Huasteco
territory on the Gulf Coast with a large force of Spaniards and Mexica
auxiliaries. The Huasteco Indians, who speak a form of the Mayan language, today
occupy 55 municipios in the modern-day states of Veracruz, San Luis Potosí and
Hidalgo, as well as smaller regions of southern Tamaulipas and Querétaro. It is
believed that they were isolated from the rest of the Maya and evolved
separately and may have arrived in the area as early as 200 A.D. Under Aztec
rule, the Huastecos occupied two Aztec provinces, Atlan and Tochpan.
After meeting with considerable resistance, Cortés defeated the
Huastecos and founded the Villa de San Esteban in 1522. However, subsequent
revolts by the Huastecos in October-December 1523 and 1525-26 were put down with
great cruelty. In spite of their battles with both the Mexica and the Spaniards,
the Huastecos continue to survive today, maintaining many aspects of their
traditional culture and language. In fact, Huastecan music and dancing have
influenced the musical folklore of Mexico.
After the
conquest of the Huastecas, the Spaniards explored the Tamaulipas coastline up to
the Rio Grande during the late 1520s. Then, in 1530, Franciscan missionaries
began their work in the southern area of Tamaulipas, creating the first mission
for the Huastecan and Pame Indians. In the decades that followed, Spanish
slaving parties ranged northward into what they called “Chichimec” territory
in an attempt to find natives for the profitable trade in Indian slaves. The
slaving activity reached a crescendo in the 1580s and was continued later in a
disguised form under the system of “congregas” by which entire rancherías
were rounded up and transported to Nuevo Leon.
However, native
attacks eventually pushed the Spaniards back to the Tamesí River in southern
Tamaulipas. For the next century-and-a-half, the Spanish authorities became more
focused on subduing other areas of Mexico and paid little attention to most of
this area. Not until 1747 did extensive European colonization begin with the
founding of the “Nuevo Santander” colony.
The
Seno Mexicano
By the end of
the Sixteenth Century, Spanish settlement was moving northward along the western
slope of the Sierra Madre Oriental toward the Rio Grande River that today
represents the border between Texas and Tamaulipas. The Spanish movement became
even more targeted in the early Seventeenth Century when Spain recognized that
the French advance down the Mississippi River represented a threat to its
colonial empire. This prompted the Spaniards to establish missions and presidios
in east Texas in 1716. Two years later, the mission of San Antonio de Valero
(later known as “The Alamo”), was established.
However,
according to Hubert J. Miller, in “Jose de Escandon: Colonizer of Nuevo
Santander” (1980), the Spanish advance into Texas bypassed the area called the
“Seno Mexicano,” which extended from the Pánuco River at Tampico to the
Nueces River in Texas. Inland, it stretched to the Sierra Madre Oriental, a
distance that ranged between 100 and 150 miles. This region encompassed nearly
all of present-day Tamaulipas and the southern triangle of Texas below the
Nueces River.
Indigenous
Groups in the Seno Mexicano
According to
Miller, there were an estimated 80 Indian tribes that occupied the Seno Mexicano
prior to the arrival of the Spanish colonists in the mid-Eighteenth Century (the
Nuevo Santander settlement). Studies indicate that some thirty dialects were
spoken, many of them closely related to one another and probably originating
from a trunk language. The more advanced tribes tended to live in communities
consisting of four to five hundred persons.
Early observers
noted that these small tribal groups appeared
to be at war with each other a great deal and had minimal contact with native
groups outside of their immediate areas. Most of their languages have been lost
to history. The primary sources of information
available about these Tamaulipas indigenous groups are:
·
Gabriel Saldivar, “Los Indios de
Tamaulipas” (Mexico City: Pan American Institute of Geography and History,
1943).
·
J. R. Swanton, “Linguistic Material
from the Tribes of Southern Texas and Northeastern Mexico” (Washington:
Smithsonian Institution, 1940).
·
Rudolph C. Troike, "Notes on
Coahuiltecan Ethnography," Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society
32 (1962).
·
Campbell, Thomas N. “Coahuiltecans and
Their Neighbors,” in Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 10 (Washington:
Smithsonian Institution, 1983).
According to
Saldivar, when the Spaniards arrived, they found four cultures in the area of
present-day Tamaulipas. Each of the four groups are discussed below.
Grupos
del Norte (the Coahuiltecans)
The Groups of
the North were primitive, nomadic groups that lived mainly in the area between
the Purificación and Bravo Rivers (The Río Bravo is known as the Rio Grande to
Americans today). These numerous small northern Tamaulipas tribes appeared to
speak closely-related languages and shared the same basic culture. Because the
Spaniards did not initially take an interest in describing individual native
groups or classifying them into ethnic and linguistic groups, major dialectic
and cultural contrasts went unclassified for a long time.
The first
attempt at classification was based on language, and came after most of the
Indian groups had already gone extinct (or assimilated). Eventually, scholars
constructed the so-called "Coahuiltecan culture" by assembling bits of
specific and generalized information recorded by Spaniards from widely scattered
parts of the region.
Today, we
recognize that the Coahuiltecans were made up of hundreds of small, autonomous,
distinctively named Indian groups that lived by hunting, gathering and fishing.
It was their practice to move from one traditional campsite to another,
following herds of migrating animals and tracking seasonal changes. The
Coahuiltecans were tattooed and wore a breechcloth or hide skirt, fiber sandals,
and, in bad weather, they covered themselves with animal hides. Animal teeth,
bones, feathers, stones, and seeds were worn as jewelry and sometimes woven into
their intricately braided hair. Shelter consisted of small temporary huts of
brush or grass, sensible structures given their way of life and the climate of
the area over which they ranged.
The
Coahuiltecans ranged through a large area that included most of present-day
Coahuila, Nuevo León, northern Tamaulipas and southern Texas (north to San
Antonio River). A large number of the small tribal groups or bands belonging to
the Coahuiltecan stock remain unknown to this day and even their locations –
in many cases – is not clear.
A more detailed
discussion of the Coahuiltecan Indians can be accessed at the following link:
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bmcah
Grupos
de la Sierra Madre (i.e., Janambres, Pizones, Pames, Anacah)
The Groups of
the Sierra Madre – such as the Pizones and Janambres – were semi-sedentary
groups who occupied caves and projections within the mountains. They lived by
hunting and practiced a very rudimentary form of agriculture. The groups of the
Sierra Madre were very belligerent and initially opposed the Spanish incursions,
but eventually were assimilated.
Grupos
de Tamaulipas (i.e., Contetunas, Tagualilos, Maguagues, Caramiguay)
The Tamaulipas
groups included some sedentary peoples who were dedicated to agriculture, with
well-structured religious practices. The Tamaulipec groups were mainly small
tribes that occupied the central and southeastern parts of the present-day
state. Today, it is believed that the so-called Tamaulipecan family was related
the Coahulitecans. Through their Coahuiltecan ties, it is believed that the
Tamaulipecs were part of the Hokan language group, but very few fragments of
their languages survive today. However, Miller notes that “there is evidence
that some of their words may still be present in the language of the Mexican
American people in the south Texas area.” It is likely that the Tamaulipecs
also have some connection to the Karankawan and Tonkawan groups to the north of
them (in Texas).
Grupo
de Hauxteco (Huastecos)
The fourth
Tamaulipas group, the Huastecas – discussed in more detail earlier – were a
more advanced group that extended through much of Veracruz and merely occupied
the southern portion of the present-day State of Tamaulipas. Miller referred to
the Huastecas as “the cultural heirs of the Olmec civilization.” The
Huasteca cultivated cotton (which they supplied to the Aztec Empire), maintained
trade with other indigenous groups to the west, built artificial terraces and
raised domesticated animals.
A list of some
of the Coahuiltecan and Tamaulipecan groups and their locations is shown below:
Nuevo
Santander
In 1742, José
de Escandón, Lieutenant General Captain of the Cerro Gordo District, carried
out three expeditions through the mountains of southern Tamaulipas and helped
friars to establish 11 missions there. Then, in September 1746, Escandón
received word that he had been appointed to head the colonization project known
as “Nuevo Santander” – the establishment of small settlements along the
Rio Grande that would commence in the next year.
In 1747, Escandón
engineered a seven-point penetration from southern Tamaulipas with a convergence
of all the expeditions at the mouth of Rio Grande. On June 1, 1748, he was
officially appointed the Governor of Nuevo Santander, named for his home
province in Spain. In a period of seven years, Escandón would establish 23
settlements and 15 missions with 1,337 families (6,000 colonists) along the Rio
Grande in Tamaulipas. The whole colony was settled with remarkable speed. For
the first time, viceregal officials relied on colonists rather than missionaries
and soldiers to settle a new territory. Many of the settlers of Nuevo Santander
are, in fact, the ancestors of today’s Tejanos.
Political
Chronology
Tamaulipas
represented a large portion of the Spanish province of Nuevo Santander, which
was founded in 1748 as a part of the Nueva España Kingdom. It became part of
the “Provincias Internas” in 1777 until Mexican independence in 1822. On
October 3, 1824, Tamaulipas became an independent state.
Twentieth Century
According to the 1895, 1900 and 1910 Mexican census schedules, no
inhabitants of Tamaulipas spoke any indigenous languages.
At least no one admitted to speaking such languages, although it is
likely that there may have been bilingual speakers.
In the unusual
1921 Mexican census, residents of each state were asked to classify themselves
in several categories, including “indígena pura” (pure indigenous), “indígena
mezclada con blanca” (indigenous mixed with white) and “blanca” (white).
Out of a total state population of 286,904, only 39,606 persons (or 13.8%)
claimed to be of pure indigenous background.
A large portion of the population – 198,990, or 69.4% –classified
themselves as being mixed, while 38,845 (13.5%) claimed to be white.
Not until 1930
did any speakers of indigenous languages turn up in the census. In that year,
185 persons were classified as indigenous speakers who also spoke Spanish.
This figure reached 306 in the 1940 census. By the time of the 1950
census, Tamaulipas had one monolingual speaker of indigenous languages and 695
bilingual speakers.
The
2000 Census
According to the
2000 census, the population of persons five years and more who spoke indigenous
languages amounted to 17,118 individuals. The primary groups were:
Náhuatl (8,407 speakers), Huasteco (4,083), Totonaca (1,321), Otomí
(530), Mazahua (467), Zapoteco (432), Maya (226), and Mixteco (200).
The
2005 Conteo
According to
Mexico’s 2005 census count (conteo), 20,221 persons five years of age and
older spoke indigenous languages in Tamaulipas.
The three languages most represented in the population were:
Other languages
represented in the population were the Mazahua, Otomí, Zapotec and Mixtec.
2010
Census
In the 2010 census,
Tamaulipas was ranked 27th among the Mexican states and the Federal
District for the number of persons 5 years and older who speak indigenous
languages. A total of 23,296 residents of the State represented 0.8% of
Mexico’s indigenous speakers. Only Colima, Zacatecas, Guanajuato,
Aguascalientes and Coahuila had smaller percentages of indigenous speakers.
In the 2010 census, the three most represented language-speakers in the
Tamaulipas population were:
Huasteco is the eleventh
most spoken language in Mexico – with 161,120 Huasteca speakers in all the
states 2010, representing 2.41% of Mexico’s indigenous speakers five years of
age or more.
Ciudad Matamoros
has been recognized by the National Population Council (CONAPO) as a major
center of attraction for migrants from other Mexican states.
Tampico and Matamoros are both the destination for Nahuas from various
states, especially Veracruz, Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí.
Mexicans
Considered Indigenous
The 2010 census also
included a question that asked people if they considered themselves indigenous,
whether or not an indigenous language was spoken. The results of this question
indicated that 15.7 million persons 3
years of age and older identified themselves as “indigenous.”
By comparison, 6.9 million people in the same age bracket were tallied as indigenous
speakers, meaning that approximately 8.8 million Mexicans aged 3 and older did
not speak an indigenous language but considered themselves to be of indigenous
origin.
In this category, Tamaulipas
– with 3.9% percent of its people 3 years of age an older considered
indigenous – is ranked 30th among the Mexican states and Distrito
Federal. At the present time, Tamaulipas continues to attract indigenous
language speakers from other states, but its overall population of native
speakers is relatively small compared to many of its sister states in the
Mexican Republic.
Copyright
© 2014, by John P. Schmal.
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