The State of Quintana Roo lies on the eastern end of the Yucatán Peninsula in Southeastern Mexico. Quintana Roo also neighbors the Mexican States of Yucatán (on the northeast) and Campeche (on the southeast) and the nations of Belize and Guatemala (on the south). The state consists of only 44,825 square kilometers, which is equal to 2.0% of the national land mass. While the western and northern coasts of the Yucatán Peninsula are on the Gulf of Mexico coast, the eastern coast of the peninsula — including Quintana Roo — touches the Caribbean Sea.

The State of Sinaloa, with a surface area of 58,200 square kilometers (22,471 square miles) is basically a narrow strip of land running along the Pacific Ocean and represents only 2.9% of the national territory, ranking it as the 17th largest state. Sinaloa is bordered to the north by Sonora and Chihuahua; to the south, by Nayarit; to the east by Durango, and to the west, by the Gulf of California.

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.

The State of México is located in the center-south section of the Mexican Republic. This landlocked state has common boundaries with Querétaro de Arteaga and Hidalgo on the north, Puebla and Tlaxcala on the east, Distrito Federal, Guerrero and Morelos on the south and Michoacán de Ocampo on the west. The capital of México is Toluca de Lerdo, which had a population of 819,561 in 2010, making it the fifth largest city in the entire Republic of México.

Most Americans have heard of Oaxaca and its copious diversity. Usually this knowledge is spread by word of mouth or through informative newspaper and magazine articles. However, Mexico’s census Mexico’s Census Agency — the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) — known to Americans as the National Institute of Statistics and Geography — is the original source for much of the census data regarding Indigenous Mexican languages today. And this information will be outlined below.

Nueva Galicia’s Indigenous People
Established in 1548, the Spanish province of Nueva Galicia embraced 180,000 kilometers and included most of present-day Jalisco, Nayarit, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas. Across this broad range of territory, a wide array of indigenous groups lived during the Sixteenth Century.

Guanajuato is a relatively small state – twenty-second in terms of size among the Republic’s states – with a surface area of 30,608 square kilometers of territory, giving it 1.6% of the national territory. Politically, the State is divided into 46 municipios. Guanajuato’s 2010 population was 5,853,677, representing 4.9% of Mexico’s total population and ranking six among the 31 states and the Distrito Federal.

On September 4, 1781, 44 pobladores (settlers) arrived at a location 9 miles west of the San Gabriel Mission to establish California’s second pueblo: El Pueblo de Nuestro Señora la Reina de Los Angles del Río de Porciúncula or The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angeles by the River of Porciúncula. Later, the name was shortened to Los Angeles. When the 44 settlers arrived in Los Angeles, they and their families settled a short distance from a Kizh Nation village called Yang-na (now referred to as Yaanga) — now near the intersection of Alameda and Commercial Streets (south of the 101) — where 300 natives already lived.

In recent years, many Americans have taken an interest in their indigenous roots from northern Mexico. From the Late Eighteenth Century to the present, significant numbers of people from the State of Sonora migrated to Los Angeles and other areas of California.

Throughout human history, many groups of people have witnessed the arrival of aliens from far away countries in their traditional homeland territories. Responses to such intrusions have varied from century to century, continent to continent and from one people to another. In most cases, the invader intruded upon the economy, the resources and the political administration of the indigenous peoples. And all too often, the invader dominates and enslaves the people. Other occupations are less dramatic.

The Baja California Peninsula is located in the northwestern portion of the Mexican Republic. This body of land extends approximately 775 miles (1,250 kilometers) from Tijuana in the north to Cabo San Lucas in the south and is separated from the rest of Mexico by the Gulf of California (also called the sea of Cortés).

The state of Tlaxcala is located in center-south Mexico. Its neighbors are the States of México (on the east), Hidalgo (on the north) and Puebla (on the north, west and south). The small state of Tlaxcala lies just north of Heroica Puebla and is surrounded by the State of Puebla on all sides, except the northwest. Tlaxcala is the smallest of Mexico’s 31 states, with an area of only 4,016 square kilometers, representing 0.2% of the national territory. Only the Federal District is smaller.

From its founding in 1781, Los Angeles has had an important cultural link to the Mexican state of Sonora. A significant number of the inhabitants of Los Angeles during its first few decades were natives of Sinaloa and Sonora. And many of those migrants from the south were of Yaqui, Mayo or Totorame descent. By the time they came to California, most of those people were Christianized indios, mestizos and mulatos who were citizens of the Spanish Empire and had lost many elements of their original indigenous heritage and culture. Nevertheless, for many Angelinos, a distinct bond between Los Angeles and Sonora remained. And some Angelinos recognized their genetic link to the Yaqui Indians of southern Sonora.

The State of Oaxaca is located in the south of Mexico where the Eastern Sierra Madre and the Southern Sierra Madre mountain ranges merge. Oaxaca shares common borders with Guerrero (on the west), Puebla (on the north), Veracruz (on the north and northeast), and Chiapas (on the east). Oaxaca also shares a long coastline with the Pacific Ocean on its south.

The land-locked state of San Luis Potosí (SLP) is located in center-north Mexico. With a surface area of 61,138 square kilometers (representing 3.1% of the total area of the Mexican Republic), San Luis Potosí is politically divided into 58 municipios and touches nine other Mexican states. The state is adjacent to Coahuila on the north, Nuevo León on the northeast, and Tamaulipas on the northeast. Additionally, San Luis Potosí has a common border with Veracruz Llave (on the east), Guanajuato, Querétaro and Hidalgo on the south, Jalisco on the southwest, and Zacatecas to the west.

It has been a well-established fact that the long-lived dictatorship of General Porfirio Díaz (1876 — 1911) ushered in an era of significant Mexican immigration. During the Porfiriato, the Mexican government sponsored the influx of foreign capital and immigrants as an essential ingredient to its nation building strategy.

The Mexican State of Hidalgo is located in Mexico’s Central Plateau and shares common borders with San Luis Potosí on the north, Puebla on the east, Tlaxcala on the southeast, the state of Mexico on the south, Querétaro on the west, and Veracruz on the northeast. Politically, Hidalgo is divided into eighty-four municipios and has a surface area of 20,813 square kilometers, or 1.1% of the national territory, making it the twenty-sixth largest state of Mexico.

Morelos is a land-locked state located in south central Mexico and is surrounded by the States of Mexico (on the west and northeast), Puebla (on the east), Guerrero (on the south), and the Distrito Federal (on the north). As the third smallest federal entity in the Mexican Republic (after Distrito Federal and Tlaxcala), Morelos is made up of 4,879 square kilometers (1,884 square miles), representing 0.2% of the national territory.

The state of Chihuahua is located within the northwest central plains of the Mexican Republic. Bordered by the United States (Texas and New Mexico) on the north and northeast, Chihuahua has a common border with Sonora (on the west and south) and with Sinaloa (on the southwest). The state of Coahuila de Zaragoza lay to the east, while Durango shares much of Chihuahua’s southern boundary.

Morelos is a land-locked state located in south central Mexico and is surrounded by the States of México (on the west and northeast), Puebla (on the east), Guerrero (on the south), and the Distrito Federal (on the north). As the third smallest federal entity in the Mexican Republic (after Distrito Federal and Tlaxcala), Morelos is made up of 4,879 square kilometers (1,884 square miles), representing 0.2% of the national territory.