The Chatinos are an

Indigenous people of Mexico Indigenous peoples of Mexico (), Native Mexicans () or Mexican Native Americans (), are those who are part of communities that trace their roots back to populations and communities that existed in what is now Mexico before the arrival of Europe ...

. Chatino communities are located in the southeastern region of the state of

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

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 sou ...

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, San Juan Quiahije or KichinA kiqyaC, San Miguel Panixtlahuaca or KchinA SkwiE, Santiago Yaitepec or KeG XinE, Santa Cruz Zenzontepec or QyaC ytiB, San Juan Lachao 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. Name The name "Temaxcaltepec" means "hill of baths", a reference to the use of steam b ...

or XyanA, Santa Catarina Juquila or SqweF and Tataltepec de Valdés or LoA qoJ. The region that the Chatinos inhabit is rich in natural resources. Traditionally many Chatino people have been involved in

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

, 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 In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

s for airports in many

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

. Federal bilingual schools, high schools, and '' telesecundarias'' (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 The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean () languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean languages, Ma ...

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...

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

Zapotec people The Zapotec (Zapotec languages, Valley Zapotec: ) are an Indigenous people of Mexico. Their population is primarily concentrated in the southern Political divisions of Mexico, state of Oaxaca, but Zapotec communities also exist in neighboring sta ...

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 different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intelli ...

: 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-culture-stub