Geography:


People:
Population

The Nahuas are the most numerous indigenous group in Guerrero state (Mexico). About 2.5 million people currently speak Nahuatl of which over 40,000 people live in the Alto Balsas. The Nahuas constitute 22 percent of the native-speaking populations in Mexico.

Language

The language spoken by the Nahuas del alto Balsas is Náhuatl, or Mexicano. Náhuatl was the language of the powerful Aztec civilization. It is still a major language in Mexico, where more than 60 native languages are spoken in indigenous communities, but Spanish is the only official language of the country.
In 2000, 10,220,862 people were speaking an indigenous language in Mexico of which 2,445,969 spoke Náhuatl.

In the Alto Balsas region, 38 016 indigenous people speak Mexicano. Náhuatl is spoken in many regions: Distrito Federal, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí y Veracruz.
Some European words used daily come from Náhuatl, for example the words chocolate, cocoa, tomato and avocado in English.

Culture and religion

Religion is primarily a community-based affair and religious life is a fundamental component of village organization. Catholic religion has assumed a great importance since the presence of the Spaniards, replacing much of the traditional faiths. However, many traditional customs and beliefs are integrated in the Catholic religion.

The community, which is the vital space in which identity is defined through everyday life, characterizes the identity of the indigenous peoples in Guerrero and political, economic, and family networks are created. The Nahuas invest a lot of time, work and economic resources in ceremonial life. Celebrations serve to strengthen the relations of reciprocal help between the families.

The people celebrate the principal saints of their churches and chapels according to the catholic calendar. Furthermore, the principal religious celebrations are the Virgen de Guadalupe day (12 December), the Holy Week, the posadas before Christmas and the Día de los Muertos (The All Saints' Day); the Nahuas support a very narrow relation with their deceased relatives, they prepare a special altar in their house where they place offerings: corn, fruits, bread, chocolate, and also in the place of the burial, believing that their soul will come back on earth on this day.

The Nahuas also perform some specific ceremonies, such as the Culto a los Cerros. In the whole region, the Nahuas communities celebrate a complex cycle of rituals that includes offerings in the highest hills of the basin, as a request of rains before initiating their agricultural work. Traditional music and dances are pillars of all these celebrations.
Economy and social organization
Guerrero is characterized by its structural inequalities and limited economic growth.

Due to the relatively low agricultural productivity of the region, Balsas Nahuas have developed other means of economic subsistence and survival strategies. The State has promoted tourism to the detriment of other economic sectors. All their land activity is only for their consumption and not for sale. They principally cultivate corn, bean and hot pepper. Large investments in the tourism industry have resulted in less economic/financial support for agricultural activities carried out by the indigenous peoples. Therefore, commerce in the Balsas Nahuas region has become a major activity linked to the production of a series of crafts.

The inhabitants of the region are famous - in Mexico as well as internationally - for the handicrafts they produce and sell as ambulant merchants for 50 years. The most well-known are the amate paper (it dates back to the pre-Columbian times), distinctive pieces of mud decorated with flowers and birds of strong colours, necklaces and jewellers of semiprecious stones, and hammocks woven to hand. The Nahuas from the basin of the Balsas River sell their wares in all the tourist centres and in the principal cities of Mexico.

History

The Nahuas arrived in the Guerrero area around 1250, more or less in the same migrations that conduced the Mexica to the centre of Mexico, to establish Tenochtitlan (today called Mexico City).

Thanks to some pre-Hispanic codices’ survival, in which the taxes were registered, we know that it was a productive region, since the people seated in the basin of the Balsas river were paying large quantities to the pre-Hispanic empire that was dominating them; among other products, they were delivering diverse types of cotton fabrics, axes of copper, necklaces of jade and gold, warrior's suits as well as cocoa, corn, bean and honey.

When the Spanish invaded Mexico and destroyed the complex native society in 1521, the conquerors took control of this region. They continued charging the same taxes from the villages and started demanding manpower to be employed at the silver mines and at the new European cultures. As in the whole of Mexico, the people of this region suffered terrible epidemics that the Spaniards introduced. During the first 120 years of settlement the Spanish eliminated 90 percent of the original population. For 500 years the Nahuas’ group of the Guerrero region, like in many other regions of Mexico, were in touch with European, Asian, half-caste and African people. The societal model imposed from Europe had a decisive impact on the indigenous communities.

The potentially devastating project for the Nahuas of the region arose in 1990, with the San Juan Tetelcingo’s hydroelectric power project in the Balsas. This work, if realized, would have flooded 16 of the villages of the region and almost all their lands. Thanks to the local mobilization, however, the project was not realized.

Recently, political parties have assumed greater importance in the villages. They are a source of conflicts between the communities, creating new interest groups.
The Nahuas people still form a strong and coherent community, which helps them face the severe political and economic pressures. Till today, the Nahuas del Alto Balsas could use their forms of social collective organization and their proper cultural tradition as resources to preserve their identity.

The indigenous movement of Guerrero has a presence in national and international processes, allowing them to make the indigenous people ‘s voice heard and to protect them against potentially threatening actions of the Mexican government. Examples of potential threats are the Panama Puebla Plan – roads construction, development of oil and electric industry, creation of a free trade area-which would also endanger the way of life of the indigenous communities of the region.

The Council of the Nahuas del Alto Balsas People participate in international events such as the 2003 UN sub-commission on the protection and promotion of Human Rights in Geneva. They struggle to include Indigenous People rights in the national constitution.
Main source: Nahuas del Alto Balsas, Catharine Good Esthelman y Guadalupe Barrientos López, 2004 http://www.cdi.gob.mx


Organizations:
The Council of the Nahuas del Alto Balsas People (CPNAB), founded in 1990, is a non-governmental and non-profit organization, without political and religious affiliation. It struggles for sustainable and autonomous development, the eradication of extreme poverty, for the human and indigenous rights defence and promotion, and for the respect, rescue and diffusion of the Nahuas del Alto Balsas’ culture. The Council is composed of more than thirty Nahuas communities. The organisation was created as a response to the Mexican governments’ plan to build a hydroelectric dam, which would destroy the Nahuas communities in the region. Thus, the Nahuas del alto Balsas communities decided to organize themselves in order to fight against this project and to save and strengthen their culture, language, and customs. In practice the CPNAB is proposing an “Alternative Plan of Development”. The Council is composed of delegates who come together in a general assembly, which generally consists of the authorities of the regional communities. They choose an Executive Council that runs the day to day operations.