Azqueltán is a small settlement located on the banks of the
Bolaños River in the municipality of
Villa Guerrero,
Jalisco
Jalisco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in western Mexico and is bordered by s ...
,
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
. "Azqueltán" (reduced from earlier "Atzqueltlán") means "land of many
ant
Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
s" in the
Tepehuán language
Tepehuán (Tepehuano) is the name of three closely related languages of the Piman languages, Piman branch of the Uto-Aztecan languages, Uto-Aztecan language family, all spoken in northern Mexico. The language is called O'otham by its speakers.
...
.
According to
John Alden Mason
John Alden Mason (January 14, 1885 – November 7, 1967) was an American archaeological anthropologist and linguist.
Mason was born in Orland, Indiana, but grew up in Philadelphia's Germantown. He received his undergraduate degree from the Univ ...
, the village was originally settled by a group of indigenous
Tepehuán
The Tepehuán are an Indigenous people of Mexico. They live in Northwestern, Western, and some parts of North-Central Mexico. The Indigenous Tepehuán language has three branches: Northern Tepehuan language, Northern Tepehuan, Southeastern Tepe ...
who migrated to the isolated canyon location in the 13th or 14th Century AD following droughts in the northern Sierra Madre Occidental and
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
during that time. In 1534, Spaniards arrived in the area and
Huichol
The Huichol () or Wixárika () are an Indigenous people of Mexico living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, with considerable communities in the United States, in the states of Califo ...
groups settled in the surrounding areas, most likely as a result of Spanish incursion into their homelands to the east.
In the eighteenth century, historically Tepehuán lands outside of the river-canyon were taken over by Spaniards and
Tlaxcaltec
The Tlaxcallans, or Tlaxcaltec, are an indigenous Nahua people who originate from Tlaxcala, Mexico. The Confederacy of Tlaxcala was instrumental in overthrowing the Aztec Empire in 1521, alongside conquistadors from the Kingdom of Spain. The ...
s brought to the region as colonizers by the Spaniards. While other historically Tepehuán settlements in the region, such as
Totatiche and Temastián, lost their Tepehuán identity due to migration of the Spanish and Tlaxcaltecs, inhabitants of Azqueltán, isolated in the river-canyon, maintained their Tepehuán identity and
language
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
through the beginning of the 20th century.
Traditionally, the people of Azqueltán and the divergent dialect of Southern Tepehuán once spoken at Azqueltán have been referred to as Tepecano. The
Tepecano language
The Tepecano language is an extinct Indigenous language of Mexico belonging to the Uto-Aztecan language-family. It was formerly spoken by a small group of people in Azqueltán (earlier Atzqueltlán), Jalisco, a small village on the Río Bola� ...
was studied during the period 1911-13 by Mason,
[J. Alden Mason, "Tepecano, a Piman Language of Western Mexico", ''Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences'', 25:1.309-416.] and in 1965 and 1979-80 by Dennis Holt.
In more recent years, some
Huichol
The Huichol () or Wixárika () are an Indigenous people of Mexico living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, with considerable communities in the United States, in the states of Califo ...
inhabitants from the area west of the Sierra Madre Occidental have settled in the village.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azqueltan, Jalisco
Neighborhoods in Jalisco