Mexico – Mexico is a country that is home to many indigenous civilizations. Even before the conquest of Spain, they have had a rich culture from each of the traditional communities, with their own languages and traditions. One of these particular groups is the Nahuas.
Despite undergoing a long period of Hispanization, they remain one of the major indigenous communities in the country. Through the years, they have gradually connected more to the larger Mexican population. However, how does the Nahua community look like now?
Who are the Nahua peoples?
The Nahua ethnic group is a Middle American Indian population of central Mexico, who is best known as a member of the Aztecs before the conquest of Spain. According to historical accounts and records, the Nahua originated from North America. Their language, Nahuatl, is from the general linguistic family known as Uto-Aztecan.
In the past, their communities are separated from the other Uto-Aztecan groups. They settled in and around the Basin of Mexico and simply spread out, which led to their dominant number in central Mexico. Then, during the 15th century, the language variety spoken in the imperial capital of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) spread rapidly across Mesoamerica.
With their population and the development at that time, most of the important Mesoamerican civilizations were from their ethnicity. These contributions include the Toltec and Aztec cultures as well as Xochimilca, Acolhua, and many others.
Modern Language Divisions
About 1,500,000 Nahua people speak Nahuatl, while another 1,000,000 speak only Spanish. However, according to a recent study, even with the long history of a large ethnic group, less than 15% of Nahuatl speakers are monolingual. Thus, Spanish literacy greatly exceeds Nahuatl literacy.
Continuous Viability despite the Threat of Language Extinction
The current language characteristic helps the ethnic group connect with the larger population of Mexico. However, as time went on, some varieties of the language have disappeared, while many others are now severely endangered. Of the 27 known varieties of Nahuatl, only 12 have more than 10,000 speakers, while 11 other varieties have only 1,000–9,000 speakers, and three varieties are already extinct.
The Nahuatl communities are growing steadily in line with the rest of the remaining Mexican ethnicities, but other records of their rich languages are slowly diminishing. Nevertheless, researchers and linguists believe that the number and geographic range of Nahuatl speakers across the country ensure some continued viability.
The younger generation is encouraged to look back at the rich history of the group. However, this movement is dependent on how each community preserves tradition. Some towns have young people who do not learn Nahuatl, while in other areas, the majority of the children who are in school do not speak Spanish.
Through a deeper understanding of the Nahua tradition as well as their abundant contributions in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Nahuatl languages can also be preserved. There are, after all, records in poems, myths, administrative documents, historical chronicles, and texts in other genres to study.
Image from Thomas Aleto, https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilhuicamina/339667264/
