Autonomous Indigenous People Who Speak Nahuatl]

Tue Mar 25 18:33:17 UTC 2008

Listeros,

There are many Nahuatl speaking people in the U.S., and as has been suggested (earlier on in this digital conversation), many or most of them are also speakers of Spanish.  I'm working on an article about this at the moment, based on research in Tlaxcala, Mexico and the northeast U.S.  I've interviewed people in Mexicano/Nahuatl speaking communities in the state of Tlaxcala about their social networks in the US (among other topics related to language use and ideology).  My research indicates that most speakers are in New York, New England and LA county, with some scattered smaller communities in Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas as well.  

Jacqueline Messing, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor 

Department of Anthropology

University of South Florida

4202 E. Fowler Ave., SOC 107

Tampa, FL 33620-8100

Tel. (813) 974-0807

Fax (813) 974-2668

________________________________

From: nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org] On Behalf Of HJVsqzIMIS at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 2:08 PM
To: nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
Subject: Re: [Nahuat-l] Autonomous Indigenous People Who Speak Nahuatl]

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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