Autonomous Indigenous People Who Speak Nahuatl]

[HJVsqzIMIS at aol.com]

Greetings,

     I'm sorry to bring back a topic that may have been answered already, but 
did anybody ever come up with some kind of reasoning for this phenomenon that 
almost no Nahuatl speakers come to the United States? I was a bilingual 
teacher in California for 33 years, and I found the same situation in the schools 
as k_salmon at ipinc.net observed. Many of my students were Zapotec, Mixtec, 
Tarasco, Mayan, Huichol, and other language speakers, but never Nahuatl. I visit 
open air markets in California and find the same groups among the vendors and 
shoppers. So far there I have never come across a Nahuatl speaker. Are they 
hiding in some specific areas maybe?
     Some teacher friends in Coachella, CA tell me of a trailer park in the 
community of Thermal where there are hundreds of Purépeches (Tarascos). Could 
there be any such communities of Nahuas in California or other states?

Tlazo'camati,
Henry Vasquez

In a message dated 8/28/07 9:11:02 AM, k_salmon at ipinc.net writes:

> On Aug 28, 2007, at 8:05 AM, John F. Schwaller wrote:
> > The top ten indigenous groups were:
> >     Náhuatl        2,563,000
> >     Maya            1,490,000
> >     Zapoteco        785,000
> >     Mixteco           764,000
> >     Otomí               566,000
> >     Tzetzal            547,000
> >     Tzotzil              514,000
> >     Totonaca        410,000
> >     Mazateco       339,000
> >     Chol                274,000
> 
Looking at this strikes a question that has been in my mind.
I work as a spanish english medical and legal interpreter.  In the 
course of the last 18 months I have run into many people speaking one 
of the mayan dialects, Yucatec and Quiche being the most common, 
Zapotec and Mixtec as well as a few who speak Cora and Tarascan (or 
was it Tarahumara or was it Huichol *NW mountain range*?).  But never 
have I found people who are bilingual spanish nahuatl.  I wondered if 
it was because most nahuatl speakers ARE bilingual and thus I don't 
know about it.  But people chat with me and I find out from names and 
in general conversation about where they've come from.  The other 
explanation that comes to mind is that the nahua don't want to come 
to the USA... but then, why would the maya come in such numbers?
This is the rankest curiosity; since I am interested in learning to 
speak nahuatl, I've been paying attention and asking questions.  Does 
anybody have a hypothesis?




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