The Ixcatec people are a native ethnic minority in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
. There are a reported 207 of them living in 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 Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipaliti ...
.
Their traditional language is the
Ixcatec language
Ixcatec, or ''Xwja'', is a language spoken by the people of the Mexican village of Santa María Ixcatlan, in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxa ...
(Xwja) which is in
danger of extinction.
The Ixcatec community is centered in
Santa María Ixcatlán
Santa María Ixcatlan is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico.
It is part of the Teotitlán District in the north of the Cañada Region.
Geography
The municipality has an area of 201.58 km2 at an elevation of 1,840 me ...
, which is within the
Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve
The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán biosphere reserve is a protected natural area located in southeastern Mexico. Its name derives from its two main locations: Cuicatlán and Tehuacán, in the latter are their administrative offices, covers 490,186 hectares d ...
.
Ixcatec is an
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group ...
. In Xwja, they are ''Xuani'' or ''Xula''.
References
Ethnic groups in Mexico
{{Mexico-stub