Indigenous Colima: Past and Present
Colima is the third smallest of Mexico’s thirty-two states, and has a larger area than only Aguascalientes, Morelos, Tlaxcala and the Federal District. This state lies in western Mexico and is surrounded by the states of Michoacán de Ocampo on the southwest and Jalisco on the north. It also shares a 157-kilometer shoreline along the Pacific Ocean.
Colima is 5,627 square kilometers in area, representing only 2.9% of the national territory. This includes the Revillagigedo Islands, 500 miles (800 km) off the coast. Politically, Colima is divided into ten municipios. The state of Colima is the least populated state with only 711,235 inhabitants in 2010, which represented 0.6% of the national population. Its capital city of Colima has a population of 137,383, which represents almost one-fifth (19.3%) of the total state population.
The State Name
The state name, Colima, is also the name of the capital city and was derived from Coliman, a term in the Náhuatl Indian language; Colli (mountain, volcano or grandfather), and maitl, (domain of), which means “place conquered by our grandfathers,” or “place dominated by the Old God or Fire God.” Local tradition claims that the name was taken from a warrior named Coliman, who governed these lands at the time of the Spanish contact and organized his people to defend their land against the Conquistadors.
The Physiographic Provinces of Colima
The surface of the State of Colima is part of two physiographic provinces. Nearly three-quarters of the state is covered with mountains and hills. The northeastern portion of the state belongs to the Eje Neovolcánico (Neovolcanic Axis) province. This feature — also known as the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt — is a volcanic belt that crosses central Mexico from Colima and Jalisco in the west to central Veracruz in the east. Several of its highest peaks have snow all year long. The volcano of Fuego de Colima, which has an altitude of 3,820 meters above sea level is the highest peak in the state.
The Sierra Madre del Sur province runs through the rest of the state and includes four separate mountain systems. The two physiographic provinces are illustrated in the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) map below:
Early Settlement
Colima was settled in prehistoric times by successive waves of people arriving from the north: the Otomies may have come through the area around 250-750 AD, followed by the Toltecas who flourished between 900 and 1154 AD, and the Chichimecs who came to the area in the Twelfth Century.
The Purépecha Empire
The Purépecha (Tarascan) Empire that thrived in Michoacán, Colima’s much larger neighbor to the east, first came into being under the rule of Tariacure (Characu), from 1370 into the 15th Century. Later Purépecha rulers fought against the Aztec Empire and attempted to conquer territories to the west, north and south.
Eventually, the Purépecha Kingdom would control an area of at least 45,000 square miles (72,500 square kilometers), including parts of the present-day states of Guanajuato, Guerrero and Jalisco. The following map illustrates how the Purépechas had extended their empire beyond Michoacán into the three adjacent present-day states [Tumblr. Tlatollotl: What Was the Tarascan Government Like?” Online: https://tlatollotl.tumblr.com/post/154284146371/what-was-the-tarascan-government-like].
The Purépecha Move on Colima (1460s)
According to Donald D. Brand, in “An Historical Sketch of Geography and Anthropology in the Tarascan Region: Part I” (1943), a later monarch, Tzitzic Pandacuare, the son of Tangaxoan, expanded his empire by conquering parts of southeastern Jalisco, Colima and Zacatula (now in the State of Guerrero) in the 1460s.
The Tarascan move into Coliman (Colima) in the 1460s was probably made to obtain salt, metals, slaves and other useful commodities. The metals sought were probably gold (in Motines), copper (in Ameca), and silver (in Tamazula). Some historians have reported that in these days, Coliman was part of a loose confederacy known as Chimalhuacan.
King Pandacuare also defeated the Aztec Empire in the war of 1469-1478 before dying in 1479. However, during the reign of Pandacuare’s son, Zuanga, the Tarascan Kingdom appears to have lost much of the Zacatula, Colima, and Jalisco territories.
Colima in the Early Sixteenth Century
During the early 16th Century, Colima was primarily dominated by the Tecos (or Colimecas) that inhabited the kingdom of Colimán. Its capital was called Caxitlán, which was located in the present-day municipio of Tecomán, about 50 km (30 miles) south of the capital city of Colima.
In the early years of the century, the Purépecha Indians of Michoacán attacked the Tecos in what became known as the “Saltpeter War.” Saltpeter is the natural mineral source of the chemical potassium nitrate. The Purépecha advanced to the Tecos’ saltpeter refineries of Tzacoalco, but were defeated by Hueytlatoani Colimotl (also known as Tzomé, and later named Coliman by Hernán Cortés). Upon their victory over the Purépecha, the Tecos then undertook the conquest of Sayula, Zapotlán and Amula, cities now in the neighboring state of Jalisco.
The First Spanish Contacts (1522-1523)
After the Spanish takeover of Tenochtitlán in 1521 and the conquest of the Purépechas in the 1522, Juan Rodriguez de Villafuerte, commanding a force of Spaniards and Tarascans, first made his way into the province of Colimán, in 1522. However, he was defeated by the Tecos in the Tecomán Valley.
In 1523, Hernán Cortés gave Gonzalo de Sandoval instructions to enter Colima and conquer the entire area and establish a villa. Sandoval advanced up through Guerrero, Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco, subduing most of the natives in the area. King Colimán, recognizing the threat presented by the conquistadors, resisted the incursion but lost a decisive battle against Gonzalo de Sandoval at Caxitlán.
The Founding of Colima (1523)
On July 25, 1523, Sandoval founded the settlement, San Sebastián de Colima, at a location near Caxitlán, in the present municipio of Tecomán. However, in 1525, the settlement was moved to its current location. Initially, the town was populated with 145 European settlers.
Indian Labor (The Encomienda)
In the early years of New Spain, Cortés, seeking to reward his officers for their services, awarded many encomienda grants to the inner core of his army. The first cédulas de encomienda were distributed by Cortes in July 1524. The tribute-receiving soldier, known as an encomendero received a grant in the form of land, municipios or Indian labor. The grant would give the Spanish encomendero the right to extract a few months’ work from a certain proportion of the male population of nearby agrarian communities.
In return, the encomendero was to provide military protection and a Christian education for the Indians under his command. Although the Indian worker was introduced to Spanish customs, the encomienda system was prone to bribery, corruption and misuse. According to Jorge Chapa, “The abuses which the workers suffered under the encomendero were horrendous. Although royal decree abolished this system in the mid-sixteenth century, there was a vast difference between law and practice in colonial Mexico. Many laws were flagrantly violated, especially those which regulated the relations of production.”
According to Peter Gerhard’s A Guide to the Historical Geography of New Spain, in the first decade after the Conquest, the Spaniards in this region “engaged in extensive gold placer mining with slave labor” and “the natives were divided among a great many (probably more than a hundred), encomenderos.” But in the 1530s, after the gold placer economy had been depleted, many encomenderos deserted the area, but the Crown assigned the indigenous people to new encomenderos in the following decades.
The Creation of Nueva Galicia (1548)
According to Ricardo Medina Garcia’s “Nahuatl-Language Petitions and Letters from Northwestern New Spain, 1580-1694” (UCLA Ph.D. Dissertation, 2016), Hernán Cortés created the province of Colima as an alcaldía mayor that initially extended as far north as Tepic (Nayarit) and as far east as Lake Chapala (Jalisco).
In 1548, the Audiencia of Nueva Galicia – embracing about 180,000 square kilometers – was created, first based in Compostela (now Nayarit) and later moved to Guadalajara. Nueva Galicia would include most of the present-day Mexican states of Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit and Zacatecas. The creation of Nueva Galicia led to the establishment of new corregimientos which led to the shrinking of the Colima province.
The Decline of Colima’s Indigenous Population
In the years following the Spanish conquest, the native population was reduced drastically. According to some estimates, the population of the Colima region declined from 150,000 in 1523 to 15,000 in 1554, rebounding somewhat in the 17th century. The most serious losses occurred in a series of plagues that took place between 1531 and 1540, as well as the great cocoliztli epidemic of 1545-48.
This population reduction led to the introduction of African slaves and indigenous people from neighboring regions who would take part in harvesting bananas, coconuts, cotton and peanuts in Colima’s hot and tropical climate. Evangelization of the indigenous people was carried out by the Franciscans who established the San Francisco de Coliman monastery in 1554. The parishes in this area were originally made part of the diocese of Valladolid (Morelia).
Indigenous Languages Spoken in Colima
In the late 16th Century, most of the indigenous languages in Colima had vanished as the local Indians lost their traditional languages and learned Spanish. However, with the influx of Otomí, Tarascan and Mexica settlers, indigenous languages from other regions were introduced to the residents of the area. The Vascones Report of 1580 referenced a “Mexicana Corrupta” dialect that was spoken along the lower Rio Zacatula (Balsas), which could have been a vulgar form of Mexicano acquired by the natives from Mexicas brought in by the Spaniards.
In addition, Xilotlantzinca (likely a form of Náhuatl) was spoken in the east and through adjacent parts of Jalisco. An Otomí tongue was spoken in northern part of present-day Colima and adjacent parts of Jalisco. The following map shows the area languages in the latter half of the 16th Century [Donald D. Brand, “An Historical Sketch of Geography and Anthropology in the Tarascan Region: Part I,” New Mexico Anthropologist, Vol. 6/7, No. 2 (Apr. – Jun., 1943), Addendum].
In the preceding map, the State of Colima is enclosed by the crosses, which represent its borders with Jalisco and Michoacán. Some of the abbreviations used in this map include:
Col – Colima
Man – Manzanillo
Ixt – Ixtlahuacán
The Political Evolution of Colima
On January 31, 1824, by decree, the territory of Colima was created. Colima was split off from Jalisco in the 1840s. On February 5, 1857, Colima became a free and sovereign state, after the Constitution of 1857 took effect.
Colima and the 1921 Census
In the unique 1921 Mexican census, residents of each state were asked to classify themselves in several categories, including “indígena pura” (pure indigenous), “indígena mezclada con blanca” (indigenous mixed with white) and “blanca” (white).
Out of a total state population of 91,749, 23,854 persons (or 26.0%) claimed to be of pure indigenous background in Colima. It was ironic that more than one-quarter of the inhabitants of the State of Colima perceived themselves to be of pure indigenous background while speaking no indigenous languages. A much larger number – 62,886, or 68.5% – classified themselves as being mixed. The following table shows the 1921 racial classifications:
Colima in the 2000 Census
According to the 2000 census, the population of persons five years and more who spoke indigenous languages in Colima totaled 2,932 individuals, representing 0.64% of the population. The most common indigenous languages in Colima from this census were: Náhuatl (1,028), Purépecha (506), Mixteco (362), Zapoteco (162), Mazahua (76), Hausteco (72), and Maya (56).
The two municipios with the largest concentration of indigenous speakers were Tecomán (with 990 people – 1.18%) and Manzanillo (with 917 people – 0.89%).
Colima in the 2010 Census
The indigenous languages spoken by persons 3 years of age and older in Colima in the 2010 census are tallied in the following table. While Náhuatl was spoken by more than a third of the state’s indigenous speakers, Mixteco and Zapoteco were migrant languages from Guerrero or Oaxaca.
In 2010, no municipio of Colima has a population of indigenous speakers greater than 1.5%. The Municipio of Tecomán had 1,614 indigenous speakers 3 years of age and older, whose Mixtec and Náhuatl speakers represented almost 40% of the entire indigenous speaking population of the state.
The municipio with the second largest indigenous speaking population, Manzanillo, had 1,171 residents who spoke an indigenous population (primarily Zapotec and Náhuatl speakers), representing close to 30% of the state’s indigenous speakers
The municipio of the capital city of Colima had the third largest population of indigenous speakers (524, or 12.8% of the indigenous speaking population).
Mexico’s 2015 Intercensal Survey
In 2016, the Mexican government agency, Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática (INEGI), published the 2015 Intercensal Survey, which upgraded Mexico’s socio-demographic information to the midpoint between the 2010 census and the census to be carried out in 2020. With a sample size of over 6 million homes, this survey provides information on the national, state and municipio level, as of March 15th, 2015.
Indigenous Self-Identity in the Mexican Census
From 1895 to 1990, the Mexican census asked Mexican citizens if they spoke an indigenous language. Only the 1921 census used racial categories. However, in recent years, INEGI has begun to recognize “Autoadscripción étnica” (Ethnic self-identification) which gives its citizens the right to “self-identification based on their own culture, traditions and history,” even if they do not speak an indigenous language.
In 2000, INEGI first began using indigenous self-identification in the census. But, in 2010 and 2015, it was used in a more careful and measured manner and the results were very interesting, as noted in the following section.
Considered Indigenous Classification
One of the 2015 survey questions read “De acuerdo, con su cultura, se considera indígena?” Essentially, Mexican residents were being asked if they considered themselves indigenous through their culture. Survey respondents had four possible responses:
Sí (Yes)
Sí, en parte (Yes, in part)
No
No sabe (Do not know)
According to the Intercensal Survey 2015, one-fifth of Colima’s residents identified themselves with their indigenous heritage and culture, while only a mere 0.63% of the state’s population three years of age and older actually spoke an indigenous language.
An Indigenous Heritage
Although very few indigenous languages were spoken in colonial Colima by the year 1600, some dialects of Náhuatl and Otomí continued to be used during the colonial period. Today, nearly everyone in Colima speaks Spanish, but one-fifth of the population recognizes some connection to its indigenous past from centuries past.
Bibliography
Brand, Donald D. “An Historical Sketch of Geography and Anthropology in the Tarascan Region: Part I,” New Mexico Anthropologist, Vol. 6/7, No. 2 (Apr. – Jun., 1943), pp. 37-108.
Chapa, Jorge. “The Creation of Wage Labor in a Colonial Society: Silver Mining in Mexico, 1520-1771,” Berkeley Journal of Sociology, XXIII, 1978-79, 99-122.
Departamento de la Estadistica Nacional. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Censos General de Habitantes: 30 de Noviembre de 1921, Estado de Coahuila. Mexico, Distrito Federal: Talleres Graficos de la Nación, 1926.
Garcia, Ricardo Medina. Nahuatl-Language Petitions and Letters from Northwestern New Spain, 1580-1694. UCLA Ph.D. Dissertation, 2016.
Gerhard, Peter. A Guide to the Historical Geography of New Spain. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993 (2nd edition), “17. Colima,” pp. 78-82.
INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda (2010): Panorama Sociodemográfico de México (March 2011).
INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010. Mexico: INEGI, 2013.
INEGI. XII Censo General de Población y Vivienda, 2000. Tabulados Básicos y por Entidad Federativa. Bases de Datos y Tabulados de la Muestra Censal.
Romero, José Miguel. Breve Historia de Colima. México: El Colegio de México. Fideicomiso Historia de las Américas: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1994.
Sauer, Carl O. Colima of New Spain in the Sixteenth Century. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1948. (Ibero-Americana, Vol. 29).
Velasco, Alfonso Luis. Geografía y Estadistica del Estado de Colima. México, Ofícina Tipográfica de la Secretaria de Fomento, 1896.