The Zacatecos (or Zacatecas) is the name of an indigenous group, one of the peoples called

Chichimeca Chichimeca () is the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who were established in present-day Bajio region of Mexico. Chichimeca carried the meaning as the Roman term "barbarian" that d ...

s by the

Aztecs The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

. They lived in most of what is now the state of

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

and the northeastern part of

Durango Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in ...

. They have many direct descendants, but most of their culture and traditions have disappeared with time. Large concentrations of modern-day descendants may reside in Zacatecas and Durango, as well as other large cities of Mexico.

Name

"Zacateco" is a

Mexican Spanish Mexican Spanish ( es, español mexicano) is the variety of dialects and sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexican territory. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, with more than twice as many as in any other country in ...

derivation from the original

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

''Zacatecatl'', pluralized in early Mexican Spanish as ''Zacatecas'', the name given to the state and city. The name was given by the Aztecs to the people inhabiting a region in which a grass they called the ''zacatl'' was abundant. The region was thus called ''Zacatlan'' by the Aztecs. (

Mexica The Mexica (Nahuatl: , ;''Nahuatl Dictionary.'' (1990). Wired Humanities Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved August 29, 2012, frolink/ref> singular ) were a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of ...

)

History

The Zacateco united militarily with other Chichimeca nations to form the Chichimeca Confederation to defeat the

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ...

during the

Chichimeca War The Chichimeca War (1550–90) was a military conflict between the Spanish Empire and the Chichimeca Confederation established in the territories today known as the Central Mexican Plateau, called by the Conquistadores La Gran Chichimeca. Th ...

(1550-90). See

The Chichimeca War

Geography

To the east and north they overlapped lands with the Guachichiles. They extended to border the Tepehuanes to the west near Durango. To the north their land bordered that of the Irritilas or Laguna tribes, up to were Cuencamé and

Parras Parras de la Fuente () is a city located in the southern part of the Mexican state of Coahuila. The city serves as the municipal seat of the surrounding Parras Municipality, which has an area of 9,271.7 km2 (3,579.8 sq mi). At ...

are located. Their principal population centers were in Malpaís, around Peñón Blanco, and around the

Cerro de la Bufa Bufa Hill or El Cerro de la Bufa is a hill found east of historic downtown Zacatecas City, Zacatecas, Mexico, of historic and cultural significance in the Zacatecas state. Name The origin of Bufa Hill's name is disputed. What is, perhaps, the b ...

. They also extended down to what is now Los Altos Jalisco and overlapped territory with the

Caxcan The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion in 1540-42. During the rebellion, they were described as ...

es.

Culture

Way of Life

Most Zacatecos were nomadic, although a few groups were essentially sedentary. Both men and women wore their hair down to their waist. Some Chichimeca tribes wore their head braided, but it is unspecified if any Zacatec tribes did so. They used body paint and tattoos to distinguish themselves from other tribes. Zacatecos were known to wear skin coverings below their knees and skin headbands on their foreheads. Occasionally they wore leather-soled sandals. They were "graceful, strong, robust and beardless".

Juan Bautista de Pomar Juan Bautista (de) Pomar (c. 1535 – after 1601) was a mestizo descendant of the rulers of prehispanic Texcoco, a historian and writer on prehispanic Aztec history. He is the author of two major works. His ''Relación de Texcoco'' was written ...

commented, "In the opinion of men experienced in foreign lands, the Zacatecos are the best archers in the world."

Religion

The Zacatecos were a nomadic tribe and others were sedentary which means they lived in one area. Some tribes did in fact have temples dedicated to some kind of worship in the southwestern part of the state of Zacatecas. In a town called El Teul Gonzalez De Ortega there is a hill called el cerro del sombrero upon this hill there are temples ball courts and also ancient channels where the tribe extracted fresh water from the hill.

Conclusion

The Zacatecos as a culture have vanished or faded, due to assimilation and

mestizaje (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though thei ...

of the Mexican people. However many of their direct descendants still live in large concentrations in central Mexico. Taking all this into account, it is extremely difficult to even approximate the population of their descendants. It is equally hard to elaborate on their culture, language, art, and traditions.

References

*Powell, Philip Wayne. ''Soldiers, Indians, & Silver: The Northward Advance of New Spain, 1550-1600''. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1969. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zacateco Indigenous peoples of Aridoamerica Indigenous peoples in Mexico Durango Zacatecas