The Nahua of La Huasteca are an Indigenous ethnic group of Mexico and one of the Nahua peoples. They live in the mountainous area called La Huasteca which is located in north eastern Mexico and contains parts of the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz and Puebla. They speak one of the Huasteca Nahuatl dialects: western, central or eastern Huasteca Nahuatl.
Location La Huasteca is located in the northeastern portion of Mexico and covers sections of six states: San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Hidalgo, Querétaro, and Puebla. Its eastern border is the Gulf of Mexico and on the western edge is the Sierra Madre Oriental range. Three climatic ranges exist in this region: tierra fria, tierra templada and tierra caliente. This land contains relatively rocky and nutrient-poor soil, except for coastal areas.Sandstrom, Alan R. Corn Is Our Blood: Culture and Ethnic Identity in a Contemporary Aztec Indian Village. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. (1991) Historians do not agree, but the coastal Huastecans might have had the first Mexican contact with Europeans, when Américo Vespucio mapped the coast of Veracruz and Tamaulipas in 1497. These coastal Huastecans spoke a language very similar to the Maya, and Vespuci described them well, naming the area Lariab.
Subsistence and Diet To say that corn is fundamental to the Nahua would be an enormous understatement. It engulfs every aspect of their life. From the actual consumption of corn at every meal, to its political role in the community, there is no escaping its power and influence. Nahua men will actually spend the greater part of their lives farming, while women and children also play a role in land cultivation. With everyone in the community contributing, an occasional cyclical shortage is possible, but normally, food like corn, is copious.Sandstrom, Alan R. Corn Is Our Blood. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1991.
To the Nahua, corn is known not only as a physical life sustainer, but also a spiritual sustainer. It is used at every meal and also feeds domesticated animals. It is the main source of income and is therefore an inevitable constituent in community *politics. Corn can be divided, by color, into four groups. White is superior for human consumption and is sold at the market. Yellow is resilient, thus grown in the dry season and is the corn of choice for domesticated animals. Black and red corns are grown in lesser amounts and are not preferred for eating.Sandstrom, Alan R. Corn Is Our Blood. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
Since the pre-Columbian period, the people of Amatlán have seen little change in their farming practices and thus, their diet. The Nahua use horticulture cycles of slash and burn agriculture in order to grow corn, amongst other staple food. All of the men in the community work the surrounding land with only a steel machete and a digging stick. Individual families also use milpa horticulture (cultivated fields) for the growing of their own choice.
Whereas the larger farming plots are utilized for staple crops, families can choose to grow herbs, flowers and fruit trees (mango, banana, plum, orange, lime) in their personal household garden. Although milpa gardens are labor-intensive, the attention that is put into them often generates high revenue. Sections of the larger plots are segmented for squash, chiles, yucca, amaranth, melons, tomato, herbs and onion. Sugarcane and coffee are grown as commercial crops to be sold at the market.
Domesticated animals are free to roam about the land. Families rarely eat pigs because they are components of income. Pigs are sold at the market along with meat and eggs that are produced from turkeys, chickens and ducks. The elite and wealthy families in the community can be determined by the number of cattle that they are raising. Cattle are costly to purchase and maintain, but are the height of economic activity.
Nahua subsistence strategies also include hunting, gathering and fishing. Gathering is done by women and children and is restricted to times of food shortage. They gather wild products and firewood from the surrounding forest. Hunting, done only by men, is presently a rare practice. Due to deforestation from slash and burn agriculture and an ever-growing human population, animals have migrated south. In the past, hunted animals were commonly deer and pig. Now, animals are limited to the smaller game of rabbit and birds. Compared to hunting and gathering, fishing plays a more important role in the Nahua diet. Men and boys use commercial nylon nets to catch fish, crayfish, and shrimp-like crustaceans. Spear fishing, bow and arrow and stunning fish with firecrackers are other techniques used to catch fish.
Families choose to support their households with a combination of farming, animal husbandry and temporary wage labor. Farming is the most important production activity, thus farmers are always looking to increase their crop size. They will either double-crop (growing two major crops at once), or increase the size of their land. With minimal technology and intense physical labor, managing a larger crop is nearly impossible. Even if a farmer is successful, there is no way for him to transport large loads to the market, or to store surplus. The tropical climate is too damp for the food to keep – not to mention the vermin and insects that will eat the crops. Because farming does not match household expenses, families are forced to grow secondary crops to sell at the market, take on secondary occupations (labor at cattle ranches), or sell their animals at the market.
Women and girls prepare every meal. They spend the bulk of their day making tortillas. They shell corn, boil the kernels, and add mineral lime to the water. Once the corn has softened, it is washed and then ground, three times, with a mano and metate. After all of this is done, the corn is ground and twisted to make a wet paste. The pieces of dough are then slapped together into a circular shape. Throughout meals, women continue making tortillas. Food is eaten from a bowl and tortillas are used as utensils. All meals are based around corn. Dishes include: corn straight off the cob, tortillas and cornmeal dishes of bread, tamales, enchiladas and black beans that are boiled or eaten as a soup. The third major food of the Nahua is squash. It is also boiled, but is sweetened with raw sugar. Fish and crustaceans are placed in a tortilla, cooked whole, or boiled in a cornhusk or banana leaves. Although meat is a rarity, it is prepared as a thick chili sauce. Onion, tomato and a variety of hot chili peppers are added to dishes for increased flavor. Porridge that is composed of amaranth seed and sweetened with raw sugar makes for a popular dessert.
A variety of plants and animals provide a generally nutritious diet. With corn as the principal component of every Nahua meal, protein is sometimes lacking. Compensation can be found in the consumption of beans and fish, and also the meat that men obtain from hunting. Unfortunately, these means are not always available. Lack of protein is not as detrimental to adults, as it is to infants. There is a high incidence of infant mortality in the area that is thought to be associated with this factor. Growing access and availability to sweets, sodas, and processed foods will, no doubt, cause a future epidemic of health problems.
Religion
Before the conquest the Nahua of la Huasteca practed a variant of Aztec religion.
Syncretism of Virgin of Guadelupe In some ways the Nahua still worship many of their old deities. One of the most important spirits to the Nahuatl is Tonantsij. This deity represented fertility in the Pre-Hispanic era, but has now come to be identified as the Virgin of Guadalupe. As patroness of Mexico and “honored mother” to the Indians, she has become a link between pre-Hispanic traditions and Christianity. People believe that tonantsij originally came from the sky, but now lives among the mountains as she watches over the village. Her current form is of a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe usually kept in the village shrine.Sandstrom, Alan R. Corn is Our Blood. Norman: University of Oklahoma P, 1991. The development of the Guadalupe story started in the late seventeenth century, and actually may have been related to the development of a “macro-ethnic saint” who could symbolize the larger unit of Mesoamerica. Bachiller Luis Lasso de la Vega created a Nahuatl book directed to an Indigenous audience explaining the legend of the Virgin to the Indians in 1649 and it emphasized the Virgin appearing specifically to the Indians and wanting to help them. The Indigenous villagers worship her as the representation of fertility and life and all the aspects of the earth, sun and water.Lockhart, James. The Nahuas After the Conquest. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992. Her embodiment as Tonantzin especially important for the Nahua—as well as all Indigenous populations—to accept her.
In addition to this syncretism of the development of Guadalupe from Tonantzin, was one of the myths associated with Tonantzin when she gave birth to four sons, tlahualilo, sa hua, Montezuma and toteotsij, the last of which is a representation of the sun and Jesus Christ in his Christian aspect. As the last son, this myth explains how it is believed that the sun-Christ rules our current era. In addition to the Christian god, the Christian devil has also been identified with pre-Hispanic malevolent spirits. Tlacatecolotl (Nahuatl for “man owl”) leads victims to the underworld, and often appears on earth as an owl. His alter ego, tlahualilo, (wrathful one) is the spirit that lurks around graveyards and pre-Hispanic ruins
Ritual Celebrations The Nahua still practice many of their ancient traditions, but at the same time they have synchronized and coordinated many of these rituals with the Catholic Church. One major calendrical observance occurs during the winter solstice, from December 21 through December 24, called tlacaelel, which means birth in Nahuatl. During this time, the sun begins to move north as the days grow longer and thus it is associated with birth. During the celebration the shamans open the shrine and remove a plaster statue of tonantsij in the form of the Virgin of Guadalupe; the statue is moved in a line of procession with fanfare in the form of guitarists and violinists who play sacred melodies along with young girls bearing lighted candles. The statue is placed in a house altar, that the villagers had already prepared beforehand and two other plaster statues of lesser significance are placed next to it: the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, which are believed to be important for the milpa to be productive.
The Nahua religion is a creative blend of both the Catholic and costumbre religion, and although they have incorporated Christian beliefs and practices in their Indigenous rituals, the basic belief system is very similar to what it was pre-conquest.
Curanderos The Curandero, or Shaman, is basically expected to tend to all types of illnesses and disease that are not covered by Hueseros or Parteras, including spiritually-related ones. This responsibility includes diagnosis, pharmacy, divination and ritual leadership. Nahua medicine is closely related to religion and divination, so the curer takes on a both medical and religious responsibility.Schuster, Angela M. "On the Healer's Path." Archaeology 54 (2001): 34-39. In the Huasteca region, curers play a somewhat more broad part in the community, speaking at public rites and meetings having to do with crop fertility and church events. The Curer is usually at the same time respected and feared in the community, the result of the healthcare they provide, the knowledge they possess and the sorcery they are thought to be able to perform.