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Hñähñú, ñacaltura otomiñhó, ñathño ñ'yühü

The Otomí are an indigenous people of Mexico that inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguistically related to the rest of the Otomanguean-speaking peoples, whose ancestors have occupied the Neovolcanic Axis since several millennia before the Christian era.[citation needed] Currently, the Otomi inhabit a fragmented territory ranging from northern Guanajuato, to eastern Michoacán and southeastern Tlaxcala. However, most of them are concentrated in the states of Hidalgo, Mexico and Querétaro. According to the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, the Otomi2 ethnic group totaled 667,038 people in the Mexican Republic in 2015,1 making them the fifth largest indigenous people in the country[citation needed]. Of these, only a little more than half spoke Otomí. In this regard, it should be said that the Otomí language presents a high degree of internal diversification, so that speakers of one variety often have difficulty understanding those who speak another language. Hence, the names by which the Otomi call themselves are numerous: ñätho (Toluca Valley), hñähñu (Mezquital Valley), ñäñho (Santiago Mezquititlán in southern Querétaro) and ñ'yühü (Sierra Norte de Puebla, Pahuatlán) are some of the names the Otomi use to refer to themselves in their own languages, although it is common that, when speaking in Spanish, they use the ethnonym Otomí, of Nahuatl origin. 3

The origin of the Otomi name
Like most of the ethnonyms used to refer to the indigenous peoples of Mexico, the term Otomi is not native to the people to which it refers. Otomi is a term of Nahuatl origin that derives from otómitl,4 a word that in the language of the ancient Mexica means "one who walks with arrows,"5 although authors such as Wigberto Jimenez Moreno have translated it as "bird arrowman."

Native Territory
The ethnic territory of the Otomi has historically been central Mexico. Since pre-Hispanic times, Otomanguean-speaking peoples have inhabited that region and are considered native peoples of the Mexican highlands. According to Duverger's calculation, Otomanguean peoples may have been found in Mesoamerica at least since the beginning of the sedentarization process, which took place in the eighth millennium B.C.E.7 The Otomanguean occupation of central Mexico then refers to the fact that the linguistic chains between the Otomanguean languages are more or less intact, so that the linguistically closest members of the family are also close in the spatial sense. The first fracture of the Otomanguean group occurred when the eastern languages separated from the western languages. The western branch is composed of two major branches: the Tlapaneco-Manguean-speaking peoples and the Oto-Pame-speaking peoples. Among the latter are the Otomi, settled in the Mexican Neovolcanic Axis along with the rest of the peoples that form part of the same Otomanguean branch: Mazahuas, Matlatzincas, Tlahuicas, Chichimecas, Jonaces and Pames.8

The Otomí currently occupy a fragmented territory that extends through the states of Mexico, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Tlaxcala, Puebla and Veracruz. All these states are located in the heart of the Mexican Republic and concentrate most of the country's population. The areas with the highest concentrations of Otomi population are the Mezquital Valley, the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Semi-desert at Peña de Bernal,Querétaro and the north of the state of Mexico. Isolated from these large groups that concentrate around 80% of the total number of members of this indigenous people are the Otomí of Zitácuaro (Michoacán), those of Tierra Blanca (Guanajuato) and those that still remain in Ixtenco (Tlaxcala). Because of the territory in which they are located, the Otomí live in an intense relationship with large metropolitan areas such as the Metropolitan Zone of Mexico City, the city of Puebla, Toluca and Santiago de Querétaro, places where many of them have had to emigrate in search of better job opportunities.

In each state, men's and women's clothing varies according to climatic conditions:

The traditional dress, of the women of the Otomí group in the state of Mexico, consists of a very wide and long woolen or blanket chincuete or tangle, in the manner of a skirt, of white, blue, yellow, black, with green, orange and yellow lines; and a blanket or poplin blouse of white color, short-sleeved, with embroidered flowers. Characteristic of the Otomí clothing is the use of quexquémetl, made of cotton or wool in various colors, and all clothing is adorned with embroidered floral ornaments.9

Women's clothing in the state of Tlaxcala consists of a wool chincuete, which is usually black, a blouse embroidered with floral and animal motifs on the neck and arms of the blouse. An embroidered belt is used to hold the chincuete, the shawl and the huaraches.

History
Historiographical texts on the Mesoamerican peoples of the pre-Hispanic era have paid very little attention to the history of the Otomi. Many centuries ago, great cities such as Cuicuilco, Teotihuacan and Tula flourished in the territory occupied by the Otomi at the arrival of the Spaniards. Even in the Triple Alliance that dominated the so-called "Mexica Empire", Tlacopan inherited the domains of Azcapotzalco, with a majority Otomi population. However, the Otomi are almost never mentioned as protagonists of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican history, perhaps because the ethnic complexity of central Mexico at that time does not allow us to distinguish the contributions of the ancient Otomi from those produced by their neighbors.10 Only in recent years has interest begun to appear in the role played by this people in the development of the high cultures of the Neovolcanic Axis, from the Preclassic Period to the Conquest.

Otomi peoples in pre-Hispanic times

By the fifth millennium B.C.E., the Otomanguean-speaking peoples formed a large unit. The diversification of the languages and their geographic expansion from what has been proposed as their urheimat,11 that is, the valley of Tehuacán (currently in Puebla)12 must have occurred after the domestication of the Mesoamerican agricultural trinity, composed of maize, beans and chili. This is established on the basis of the large number of cognates that exist in the Otomanguean languages in the repertoire of words alluding to agriculture. After the development of incipient agriculture, the proto-Otomanguean legion gave rise to two distinct languages that constitute the antecedents of the present-day eastern and western groups of the Otomanguean family. Following the linguistic evidence, it seems likely that the Oto-Pames—members of the western branch—arrived in the Basin of Mexico around the fourth millennium B.C.E. and that, contrary to what some authors maintain, they did not migrate from the north but from the north.

In this sense, it is plausible that for a long time the population of central Mexico was part of the Otomanguean language family. From the Preclassic period (2500 B.C.E to first century C.E.), the Otopamean linguistic group began to fragment more and more, so that by the Classic Period Otomi and Mazahua were already distinct languages. If the linguistic chains of the Otopamean group are concentrated and more or less intact8 in central Mexico, it is possible that the Otomanguean groups have occupied their current ethnic territories for a long time, which would lead to a reevaluation of their participation in the flourishing of populations such as Cuicuilco, Ticomán, Tlatilco, Tlapacoya and others during the Preclassic Period, but especially in the development of the great city of Teotihuacan. Although several authors agree that the population of the Valley of Mexico during the flourishing of Teotihuacan was mainly Ottoman, they are reluctant to accept that also the rulers of the metropolis could have been part of the same linguistic group.13

The fall of Teotihuacan is a milestone that signals the end of the Classic Period in Mesoamerica. Changes in political networks at the Mesoamerican level, disputes between small rival states and population movements resulting from prolonged droughts in northern Mesoamerica facilitated the arrival of new settlers in central Mexico. Around this time, large Nahuatl-speaking groups arrived and began to displace the Otomi to the east. They then arrived in the Sierra Madre Oriental and some areas of the Puebla-Tlaxcala valley. In the following centuries, large states developed in the Otomi territory, led by the Nahua peoples. Around the 9th century, the Toltecs turned Tula (Mähñem'ì in Otomi) into one of the main cities of Mesoamerica. This city concentrated a large part of the population of the Mezquital Valley, of Otomi affiliation, although many of them continued to live to the south and east, in the state of Mexico and the Sierra Madre Oriental.14

The flourishing of the Tepanec state of Azcapotzalco in the lake basin of the Valley of Mexico led this people to expand westward, occupying territory that had traditionally been occupied by the Otomi, Mazahua, Matlatzinca and Atzinca peoples. In this way, the Otomí peoples fell into the orbit of power of the Nahua who had occupied the Basin of Mexico. After the defeat of Azcapotzalco before the alliance of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and Texcoco, the domains of the Tepanecas in the west of the current state of Mexico were assigned to Tlacopan. The territory of the Otomi was located precisely in the area where the domains of the Mexica and their allies to the east and the Tarascans of Michoacan to the west converged. When the Spaniards arrived in central Mexico, this area was inhabited by diverse ethnic groups that frequently mixed to form a locality. That is why the chroniclers of the Indies reported that Otomi, Nahuatl, Chocho, Matlatzinca and Mazahua were spoken in Tlacopan. Wright Carr points out that:

Conquest
The Otomi entered the history of the Conquest of Mexico when the Spanish arrived in the region dominated by the Tlaxcalans. As previously stated, the Otomi arrived in the Puebla-Tlaxcala region during the Early Postclassic period, when their original territory was invaded by the Nahua from western and northern Mesoamerica.16 In the Tlaxcala valley region they lived with the lordships of the so-called "Señorío de Tlaxcala," a confederation dominated by Nahua tribes and opposed to the Mexica and their allies. The Tlaxcalans were military allies of the Otomi of Tecóac, who were recognized as a people with great skills for warfare. According to the Florentine Codex, the Otomi were attacked by the Spaniards: ​ Y cuando a Tecoac llegaron, fue en tierra de tlaxcaltecas, en donde estaban poblando sus otomíes. Pues esos otomíes les salieron al encuentro en son de guerra; con escudos les dieron la bienvenida.​

Pero a los otomíes de Tecoac muy bien los arruinaron, totalmente los vencieron. Los dividieron en bandas, hubo división de grupos. Los cañonearon, los asediaron con la espada, los flecharon con sus arcos. Y no unos pocos sólo, sino todos perecieron.​

Y cuando Tecoac fue derrotado, los tlaxcaltecas lo oyeron, lo supieron: se les dijo. Mucho se amedrentaron, sintieron ansias de muerte. Les sobre vino gran miedo, y de temor se llenaron.17​ According to the version of Sahagún's informants, upon seeing the ruin of the Otomies of Tecóac, the Tlaxcalans decided to ally with the Spaniards.

In fact, the Otomies played a significant, but little recognized, role in the Conquest of Mexico. After the defeat of Cortés' army in the episode of the Noche Triste, the Otomies of the town of Teocalhueyacan visited Cortés a day later in the direction of Naucalpan. In this encounter, the Spaniards received food and a promise of alliance and refuge in the area of Teocalhueyacan. The Spaniards visited this town and remained there for about ten days, recomposing military forces and political alliances. At the request of this group of Otomi, Cortes attacked by surprise and massacred the Nahua of Calacoaya on July 2, 1520, allies of the Triple Alliance and enemies of the Otomi. This was the second military action of the Spaniards in the Valley of Mexico, this time successful and counting on the complicity of the Otomi of Teocalhueyacan. After recovering, the Spaniards departed for the allied territory of Tlaxcala; but on the way they faced the Mexica again in the Battle of Otumba. On this occasion they were triumphant and for this they probably had the help of the Otomi, both from Tlaxcala and Teocalhueyacan.

Colonial Period
The Otomí were Christianized in the years following the Conquest of Tenochtitlán. The first evangelization tasks were carried out by the Franciscans, concentrated in the provinces of Mandenxhí (Xilotepec) and Mäñhemí (Tula), where they carried out their work between 1530 and 1541. In 1548 the Augustinian order approved the creation of the convents of Atocpan and Ixmiquilpan. The convent of Ixmiquilpan stands out because its murals (made in the second half of the 16th century) present a purely indigenous theme (that of the sacred war) in a panorama of elements related to Christian mythology.18 With the Christianization of the Otomi also began the process of adaptation of European forms of political organization, which gave rise to the organization of the indigenous communities in mayordomías, which, in cases such as that of the Otomi of Ixtenco (Tlaxcala), constitute one of the few elements of ethnic identity that they still preserve. Parallel to this acculturation process, in other parts of central Mexico, the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún made inquiries among the Nahua peoples. Sahagún's informants described how the Nahua saw the Otomí before the arrival of the Spaniards, of whom they said "they had no lack of policy, they lived in towns; they had their republic".19

The Franciscan friars built a large convent, Corpus Christi, in Tlalnepantla in 1550 and on one of its side doors called porciúncula it is written that it was built equally by the local Nahua and Otomi peoples, now Christianized and equally subjects of the Spanish crown. This convent was built on a site halfway between the two large towns of Tenayuca (Mexica) and Teocalhueyacan (Otomi). The Tenayuca teocalli survives to this day, but the Teocalhueyacan teocalli does not. Given that it is known that the stones contributed for the construction by the Otomi were of gray color, it is possible that these are precisely the stones of the disappeared teocalli of Teocalhueyacan, paradoxically those of Teocalhueyacan were one of the first allies of Cortés in the Valley of Mexico.

During the Colonial period, the friars did a great deal of research on indigenous cultures and languages. However, in comparison with the case of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples, the documents produced about the Otomi are only a few. Luis de Neve y Molina in 1797 published, Reglas de orthographia, diccionario, y arte del idioma othomí, which were rediscovered in 1989. This document is in addition to other manuscripts that were produced earlier in central Mexico. Perhaps the best known of these is the Huamantla Codex, which was produced in the region of Tlaxcala in the 16th century and tells the history of the Otomi from pre-Hispanic times until the Conquest. Another document of equal importance is the Huichapan Codex, from the Mezquital Valley, written by the Otomi Juan de San Francisco at the end of the 16th century.20

The arrival of the Spanish in Mesoamerica meant the subjugation of the indigenous peoples to the dominion of the newcomers. By the 1530s, all the Otomi communities of the Mezquital Valley and the Barranca de Meztitlán had been divided into encomiendas. Subsequently, when Spanish legislation was modified, the so-called Indian republics appeared, systems of political organization that allowed a certain autonomy of the Otomi communities with respect to the Hispanic-mestizo populations. The creation of these Indian republics, the strengthening of the indigenous cabildos and the recognition of the possession of communal lands by the Spanish State were elements that allowed the Otomi to preserve their language and, to a certain extent, their indigenous culture. However, especially with regard to land possession, the indigenous communities suffered dispossession throughout the three centuries of Spanish colonization.21

At the same time that the Spaniards were occupying the ancient Otomi settlements, as is the case of the present-day city of Salamanca (Guanajuato), founded in the Otomi settlement of Xidóo ("Place of tepetates") in 1603 by decree of Gaspar de Zúñiga y Acevedo, viceroy of New Spain.22 Some Otomi families were forced to accompany the Spaniards in the conquest of the northern territories of Mesoamerica, occupied by the warlike Arido-American peoples. The Otomi were colonizers who settled in cities such as San Miguel el Grande and other cities of El Bajio. In fact, the colonization process of this territory was essentially the work of the Otomi, with the lordship of Xilotepec as the spearhead. In El Bajío, the Otomí served as a bridge for the sedentarization and Christianization of the nomadic peoples, who ended up being assimilated or exterminated by force. The importance of El Bajío in the economy of New Spain turned it into a scenario where different ethnic groups later converged, including the Tlaxcalan migrants, the Purepecha and the Spanish, who would finally end up overcoming all the indigenous groups that supported them in the conquest of this territory that had been the habitat of numerous peoples classified as Chichimeca. However, until the nineteenth century, the Otomí population in El Bajío was still a major component, and some of their descendants remain in municipalities such as Tierra Blanca, San José Iturbide and San Miguel de Allende.23 Otomí population movements continued throughout the colonial era. For example, in San Luis Potosí, a total of 35 Otomí families were forcibly taken to occupy the periphery of the city and defend it from attacks by the nomadic Indians of the region in 1711.24 In several places, the Otomí population was decimated not only by forced or consensual migrations, but also by the constant epidemics suffered by the Mesoamerican Indians after the Conquest. Numerous communities were wiped out between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries due to disease.25

Submission to Spanish rule by the Otomi was never complete. During the seventeenth century there was a great number of conflicts arising from the differences between Spaniards and Indians. In Querétaro, whose Otomí population had been assimilated or relegated from the best quality lands due to the push for the 'Spanishization' of the Bajío, there was a rebellion in 1735 in the capital of the province caused by the scarcity of grain for the population. Subsequently, between 1767 and 1785, the Otomí of Tolimán fought against the neighboring haciendas that had dispossessed the indigenous community of their lands. The tension originated by the reoccupation of the lands that the hacienda owners had obtained through the invasion of the communities' lands led to a new conflict in the Tolimán region in 1806. To put an end to the dispute, it was necessary for the Corregidor of Querétaro to intervene and put the leaders of the rebellion in prison. However, only two years later violence broke out again in Tolimán, and the indigenous people once again occupied the lands they had been dispossessed of.26

Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
In general, the indigenous people of Mexico remained indifferent to the War of Independence, in the Mezquital Valley several insurgents managed to ally themselves with Otomi groups in the area, who saw that the rebellion was a way to get rid of the dominion of the Creoles and peninsulars, who had appropriated large tracts of land in the valley and other areas of the current state of Hidalgo where the Otomi were settled. It was the Otomí who supported Julián Villagrán and José Francisco Osorio, who controlled the north of Mexico's intendancy for several years at the beginning of the war. At the end of the war, the country was involved in a series of internal rebellions that also dragged down the indigenous peoples. The liberal reforms of the governments of Valentín Gómez Farías and Benito Juárez caused the loss of juridical personality that the indigenous communities had had during the Colony. The implementation of the land disentailment laws provoked an agrarian conflict in the north of the state of Mexico—currently corresponding to the territory of Hidalgo—from Huejutla to Meztitlán, led by Otomí and Nahua communities who were dispossessed of their lands.27

Language
Otomi languages are part of the Otomanguean language family, one of the oldest and most diverse in the Mesoamerican area. Amongst one of the more than one hundred Otomanguean languages that survive today, the Otomi languages relate closely to the Mazahua language, also spoken in the northwest and west of the state of Mexico. Some glottochronological analyses applied to Otomi languages indicate that Otomi split from Mazahua around the 8th century CE. Since then, Otomi has fragmented into the languages known today.28

The native language of the Otomi is called the Otomi language. In reality, it is a complex of languages, whose number varies according to the sources consulted. According to the Ethnologue of the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the Catalog of Indigenous Languages of the National Institute of Indigenous Languages (Inali) of Mexico, there are nine varieties of Otomi.29 David Charles Wright Carr proposes that there are four Otomi languages. According to the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Mexico (CDI), only 50.6% of the Otomi population speaks the native language of this group. In 1995, this proportion corresponded to a total of 327,319 speakers of Otomi languages in the entire Mexican Republic.30 The above calculation corresponds to a CDI estimate that is intended to include Otomi-speaking children under the age of five, who are not included in Mexican population counts. According to the 1995 First Population Count, Otomi speakers over the age of five totaled 283,263 individuals, which represents a loss of 22,927 speakers compared to the 1980 Population and Housing Census, when 306,190 speakers of Otomi languages were recorded.31

The population of speakers of Otomi languages has declined in recent years. To some extent, this reduction of Otomi speakers is due to migration from their communities of origin and the urbanization of their ethnic territory, which imposes on them the need to coexist with an exclusively Spanish-speaking population for the most part. The contraction of the Otomi linguistic community is also the result of the Castilianization processes to which all the indigenous peoples of Mexico have been subjected. The Castilianization of indigenous people in Mexico has long been understood as a subtractive process, that is, one that implies the renunciation of the use of the mother tongue in order to obtain linguistic competence in the Spanish language.32 The Castilianization of indigenous people was presented as an alternative to integrate indigenous people into the Mexican national culture and to improve their living conditions. However, indigenous education programs in the Spanish language have been discredited by critics because they imply, on the one hand, the loss of the native language and, on the other hand, have not served to improve the quality of life of indigenous communities.33