When Spanish soldiers arrived in Mexico in 1519, native people ranged through every part of the country that was eventually made into a colony of Spain. It is estimated that at least 200 languages were spoken through this entire area at the time.

According to Professor Jürgen Buchenau, Mexico has proven to be a "salad bowl," instead of a "melting pot“ mainly because "most immigrant families sought to retain their native languages and customs.“ Two of the largest immigrant groups in Mexico were the Germans and the French and many of them formed “enclaves” in which they could maintain their own cultural integrity.

“The Indians of Southern California’s Interior” will explore the Native American people that inhabited Southern California’s mountains and deserts. While the Spanish mission system dominated the coastal area, the interior of California was settled more slowly and the conquest of these inland Indians took more time. Today, nearly three dozen Indian reservations lie within this area. The region from San Diego to San Bernardino counties will be discussed.

When the Spaniards first reached Sinaloa and Sonora in 1531, they found indigenous people living along the coastal region. Speaking eighteen closely related dialects, the Cáhita peoples of Sinaloa and Sonora numbered about 115,000 and were the most numerous of any single language group in northern Mexico. The Spaniards called them "ranchería people.“

For hundreds of years, the lowlands of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas were occupied by hundreds of small, autonomous Indian groups that lived by hunting and gathering. We call these Indians Coahuiltecans to denote the broader geographic range they shared. They spoke many languages, some of which were not believed to be related. As such, Coahuiltecan is not an ethnic classification.

For many years, Aguascalientes and Nueva Galicia researchers have agreed that one branch of Moctezuma’s descendants ended up in Aguascalientes. However, the paper evidence for this theory has been difficult to assemble. And, at this point in time, there are still some gaps. It is believed that the researchers Guillermo Tovar de Teresa and Mariano Gonzalez-Leal have put together more detailed analysis on this lineage, but at this time, we will present what we have, which present parts of the picture.

Mexico’s 2020 Population and Housing Census was conducted in March 2020. More than 147,000 interviewers traveled the nearly two million square kilometers of the national territory, visiting all Mexican households to obtain information about the demographic, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of the people of each state.

More missions were established among the Chumash than among any other Native American group in California. Five missions were founded in Chumash territory: San Luis Obispo (1772), San Buenaventura (1782), Santa Bárbara (1786), La Purísima Concepción (1787) and Santa Ynez (1804). The Indians of this area were described by the Spaniards as gentle, hospitable to strangers, lively, industrious, skillful and clever.

“The Enemies of the Aztecs” will discuss the various groups who fought the Aztecs and were not conquered by them. In 1519, the Aztec Empire ruled over fifteen million people living in 489 communities in 38 provinces. Professor Michael E. Smith has stated that “one of the more intriguing characteristics of the Aztec Empire is the existence of major unconquered enemy states surrounded by imperial territory... Ethnohistoric sources from Tenochtitlán [the Aztec capital city] suggest that the Aztecs did not really want or need to conquer these states, and that they could easily have done so had they wished.” But Smith adds, “the boasts of the Mexica are better seen as propaganda than as accurate descriptions of political reality.” In fact, Smith’s research concluded that “the nature of the enemy states and their dealings with the empire shows that they were serious and powerful adversaries.”

Coahuila de Zaragoza – the third largest state of Mexico – was inhabited by six nomadic indigenous groups when the Spaniards arrived in the late Sixteenth Century: The Tobosos, Irritilas, Coahuiltecans, Rayados, Chisos and Guachichiles. The Coahuiltecans occupied a considerable part of what is now eastern Coahuila, but also occupied a large portion of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. They were made up of hundreds of small autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers.

This presentation explores the Chumash tribes that inhabited the coastal region of the Santa Barbara area when the Spaniards arrived there in 1769. Speaking eight distinct languages – most of which were mutually unintelligible – the Chumash lived and thrived in an area where five Catholic missions were founded between 1772 and 1804. Their history, customs and present status with regards to federal recognition will be explored.

The following tables contain information of the native people of the Spanish jurisdictions in Nueva Galicia, Nueva Vizcaya, Sonora and Sinaloa. These extracts primarily contain information about the indigenous groups occupying these areas at the time of the Spanish contact, the year of which varies from one place to another. However, Peter Gerhard’s book contains a wealth of local information, and it is highly recommended that interested researchers purchase the book to have access to all the information provided.

According to Professor Jürgen Buchenau, Mexico has proven to be a "salad bowl," instead of a "melting pot." Why?: Largely due to the fact that "most immigrant families sought to retain their native languages and customs." Although the British, French, Americans, Germans and Chinese have been the largest foreign ethnic groups in Mexico in the Twentieth Century, they tended to form enclaves, or “colonies,” in which they could maintain their own cultural integrity. For most of these groups, only after two or three generations did their descendants blend into the Mexico’s Spanish-speaking population.

This presentation will discuss the settlement and evolution of the Nuevo Santander Colony along the Rio Grande. José de Escandón’s Villas del Norte– established in the mid- Eighteenth Century – appeared like a string of pearls along the Lower Rio Grande River, where Spain was reinforcing the distant frontier of its American empire.

The Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains run from south of the Arizona-Sonora border southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Jalisco and farther south. The Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains run parallel to the Sierra Madre Occidental range on the eastern side of the country.

The German Merchant Colony in Mexico

Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821 after an eleven-year armed struggle against that European nation which had colonized it since 1519. The subsequent period from 1821 to 1876 was a period of great instability and economic stagnation for Mexico. During this period Mexico was ravaged by civil wars between rival generals, as well as foreign wars against other countries (Spain, United States, France).

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. The old Aztec empire had been replaced with Nueva España.

Oaxaca is characterized by extreme geographic fragmentation with extensive mountain systems, wide tropical coastal plains and fertile valleys. The entire state is very mountainous, being crossed by three cordilleras:

1. The Sierra Madre Oriental in western Oaxaca.

2. The Sierra Madre del Sur covers 70% of the state territory.

3. The Sierra Atravesada in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Mexico’s 2020 Population and Housing Census was conducted in March 2020. More than 147,000 interviewers traveled the nearly two million square kilometers of the national territory, visiting all Mexican households to obtain information about the demographic, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of the people of each state.

It is believed that as many as 300,000 American Indians spoke at least 80 distinct languages in California at the time of the Spanish arrival. The map on this page shows the California tribal groups at the time of the Spanish arrival in the Eighteenth Century.