The Chatinos are an indigenous people of Mexico. Chatino communities are located in the southeastern region of the state 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 ...

in southern central Mexico. Their native

Chatino language Chatino is a group of indigenous Mesoamerican languages. These languages are a branch of the Zapotecan family within the Oto-Manguean language family. They are natively spoken by 45,000 Chatino people, whose communities are located in the sout ...

are spoken by about 23,000 people (Ethnologue surveys), but ethnic Chatinos may number many more. The Chatinos of San Juan Quiahije call themselves ''neq-a tnya-j'' and their language ''Chaq-f tnya-b''. Chatino populations are found in the following Oaxacan municipalities, mostly in the area around Juquila:

Santos Reyes Nopala Santos Reyes Nopala is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Juquila District in the center of the Costa Region. The name Nopala is derived from the Nahuatl word for nopatlan, Environment The municipality ...

San Juan Quiahije San Juan Quiahije is a town and Municipalities of Oaxaca, municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Juquila District in the centre of the Costa Region. The origen of Quiahije is not known, some people conjecture it might me ...

or KichinA kiqyaC,

San Miguel Panixtlahuaca San Miguel Panixtlahuaca is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Juquila District in the center of the Costa Region The Costa Region or Costa Chica lies on the Pacific coast of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, ...

or KchinA SkwiE,

Santiago Yaitepec Santiago Yaitepec is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico, two kilometers southeast of Santa Catarina Juquila. It is part of the Juquila District in the center of the Costa Region The Costa Region or Costa Chica lies on the P ...

or KeG XinE,

Santa Cruz Zenzontepec Santa Cruz Zenzontepec is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the U ...

or QyaC ytiB,

San Juan Lachao San Juan Lachao is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Juquila District in the center of the Costa Region. The municipality covers 190.1 km2 of hilly land. The town is at an elevation of 60 meters abov ...

or TsoH,

Santa María Temaxcaltepec Santa María Temaxcaltepec is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Juquila District in the center of the Costa Region The Costa Region or Costa Chica lies on the Pacific coast of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico ...

or XyanA, Santa Catarina Juquila or SqweF and

Tataltepec de Valdés Tataltepec de Valdés is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Juquila District in the center of the Costa Region The Costa Region or Costa Chica lies on the Pacific coast of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, sou ...

or LoA qoJ. The region that the Chatinos inhabit is rich in natural resources. Traditionally many Chatino people have been involved in

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

, which depends very much on the climate, so some Chatinos have had to emigrate to the corners of the district of Juquila to work on coffee plantations. Most Chatino communities have public services, and there are

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

s for airports in many

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. Federal bilingual schools, high schools, and ''

telesecundaria ''Telesecundaria'' is a system of distance education programs for secondary and high school students created by the government of Mexico and available in rural areas of the country as well as Central America, South America, Canada and the United ...

s'' (distance education programs for secondary and high school students) have been established. The traditional authorities of this people are organized in a system based on civil and religious roles, in which advice from elders is treated as the greatest authority. They believe in the Holy Grandmother, the Holy Father Sun, the Holy Mother Earth, and the Holy Mother Moon. In addition, they worship the deities of water, wind, rain, the mountain, and fire.

Chatino languages

Chatino is a family of indigenous Mesoamerican languages, which is classified under the Zapotecan branch of the Oto-Manguean

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...

. The Chatino people have close cultural and linguistic ties with the

Zapotec people The Zapotecs ( Valley Zapotec: ''Bën za'') are an indigenous people of Mexico. The population is concentrated in the southern state of Oaxaca, but Zapotec communities also exist in neighboring states. The present-day population is estimated at app ...

s, whose Zapotec language form the rest of the Zapotecan branch of the Otomanguean language family. According to Campbell, there are three main Chatino languages, which exhibit varying degrees of

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

: Zenzontepec Chatino, Tataltepec Chatino, and Eastern or Highland Chatino. Varieties of Eastern or Highland Chatino are the most widely spoken. The Zenzontepec language is also spoken in Tlapanalquiahuitl and Tlacotepec; the Tataltepec language is used only in that ''municipio''.Greenberg, James B. "Chatino." In Davíd Carrasco (ed).
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures
'. : Oxford University Press, 2001.

External links

– Ethnographic description of the Chatino people *

References

Ethnic groups in Mexico Indigenous peoples in Mexico Oaxaca {{Mexico-stub