The

Nahuatl language Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan languages, Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in ...

in the U.S. is spoken primarily by Mexican immigrants from indigenous communities and

Chicano Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...

s who study and speak the Mexicano language as L2. Despite the fact that there is no official census of the language in the North American country, it is estimated that there are around 140,800 Nahuatl speakers. During the last decades, the United States has carried out many educational initiatives aimed at teaching Nahuatl as a language of cultural heritage. Thanks to first-hand sources collected over several decades, it is known that there are Nahua communities in the cities of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

, with the first two (known as the "Nahua migratory capital cities" since they were established as international referents of the Nahua region since the

1980s File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...

) where community networks have been consolidated. In

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, Nahuatl is the fourth

indigenous language of Mexico Many languages are spoken in Mexico, though Spanish language, Spanish is the ''de facto'' national language spoken by the vast majority of the population, making Mexico the world's most populous Hispanophone country. The indigenous languages are ...

that is most present in the state's agriculture, behind

Mixtec The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture wa ...

, Zapotec and Triqui. The California Indigenous Farmworker Study (IFS) estimates based on the California Indigenous Community Survey (ICS) that, in rural areas of that state alone, there are about 165,000 Mexicans who speak an indigenous language from the states of

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

(Zapotec, Mixtec, Mazatec, Mixe, Triqui),

Guerrero Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...

(Nahuatl, Mixtec, Tlapaneco, Amuzgo),

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

(Nahuatl, Totonac) and

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...

(Purepecha, Nahuatl), mainly. However, the number of speakers of each language is not specified and the speaking population in urban areas is not included.

Use in education

Many universities, centers and schools in the United States offer Nahuatl classes. The first university to start a teaching program was

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, in 1998. The

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

is one of several academic institutions in the United States that regularly teach the Nahuatl language. There are also Nahuatl professors who teach Nahuatl classes at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. The

University of California in Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Latin American Institute has a program of classes in Nahuatl. The

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

has been offering the language course since 2020, taught by a native speaker from the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

. A charter school in Lynwood offers Nahuatl classes to its high school students, thanks to a graduate student from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. In addition, a native speaker of Nahuatl has been teaching Nahuatl classes for 26 years at a local church in Santa Ana. Another educational institution, Academia Semillas del Pueblo, is a charter school in

where the Nahua language and culture are taught to students of all ages.

Use of the language

Historically, there began to be Nahuatl communities for the first time in what is now the United States from the Tlaxcalan colonization in the north of the

Viceroyalty of New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Amer ...

. Unlike the other

languages of Mexico Many languages are spoken in Mexico, though Spanish is the ''de facto'' national language spoken by the vast majority of the population, making Mexico the world's most populous Hispanophone country. The indigenous languages are from eleven lan ...

that are spoken in the United States, a large portion of Nahuatl speakers are

Mexican-Americans Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican ...

. Many of this group have created their own identity by connecting with the Mexica culture. Since Nahuatl is identified as the language of the Mexica, the Chicanos have appropriated it as a symbol of their identity. There are many who speak Nahuatl with native Mexican speakers and others who prefer only to speak it with other Chicanos. Likewise, the Nahuatl connection with its own identity is the reason why many of them have Nahuatl names. On the other hand, Nahuatl is used by inmates in prisons in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and other states to speak in code, an issue that has greatly concerned officials. In many prisons in the United States, many Chicanos have taken it upon themselves to promote the language within the prison system (using it as

prison slang Prison slang is an argot used primarily by criminals and detainees in correctional institutions. It is a form of anti-language.Mayr, A. 2012. Prison Language. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Many of the terms deal with criminal behavior, ...

). Typically, inmates also use the language to confuse and provoke guards, as in the known case of an inmate being reprimanded by a guard who says to her friend "''¿tlen ahko ika inon siwatl?''" (''What's up with that woman?''). They also teach the language to new inmates, and there are cases of people from ethnic groups other than Mexican-Americans who ended up learning the language because they heard it every day. In New Folsom, California, staff intercepted a Nahuatl dictionary, which shows the adaptation of the meaning of many words that ended up forming inmates' slang used when they speak the language. In this way, the ''achkawtli'' (chiefs) of the gangs issue their secret orders in Nahuatl so that the ''pitsomeh'' (pigs / policemen) cannot understand what they are doing or planning. In addition to these two terms, some of the words, variations and meanings of this

argot A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argot ...

are: ''kalpolli'' (school), ''siwatl'' (lady), ''kwilonyotl'' (punk), ''ixpol'' (northerners), ''kanpol'' (southerners), ''kawayoh'' (heroin), ''makwawitl'' (war club), ''malinalli'' (marijuana), ''mika'' (brother), ''toka'' (snitch), ''momo'' (your hand), ''kimichimi'' (spy), ''tekoni'' (speak), ''tla'' (yes), ''ma'' (no), ''ti'' (you), ''tlilli pol'' (blacks), ''topileh'' (law), ''towia'' (soldier), ''itstolli'' (shank), ''awilnema'' (intercourse), ''wel'' (good), ''mixchiya'' (wait), ''mixpantsinko'' (salutations), ''yakatl'' (point), ''pochtekatl'' (trader), ''pilli pol'' (small person), ''oktli'' (pruno), ''kan'' (south), ''pilli'' (senor) and ''kalli'' (cell). In California, although Nahuatl is sometimes described without evidence as prevalent and numerous among immigrants, there are few speakers anywhere in the state. The Indigenous Farmworker Survey finds the vast majority of agricultural workers who speak a language indigenous to the Americas spoke other languages, and all of them combined are only 1%. Nahua and Chatino are present in trace amounts. Nahua is also listed as only a trace finding along with Acateco/ Akateko, Chatino, Tarasco/

Purépecha The Purépecha (endonym pua, P'urhepecha ) are a group of indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico, mainly in the area of the cities of Cherán and Pátzcuaro. They are also known by the pejorative "Tarascan ...

, Quiche/

K'iche' K'iche', K'ichee', or Quiché may refer to: *K'iche' people of Guatemala, a subgroup of the Maya *K'iche' language, a Maya language spoken by the K'iche' people **Classical K'iche' language, the 16th century form of the K'iche' language *Kʼicheʼ ...

, and Zoque by the National Agricultural Workers Survey 2016. In the fall of year 2016, an entire scene of an American television program was filmed in Spanish and modern Nahuatl, making that the first time the Mexicano language was heard on an American broadcast.

References

{{Reflist Immigrant languages of the United States Nahuatl

Use in education

Use of the language

See also

References