Information and Life of the Nahua

Nowadays, in a number of villages in Sierra Norte de Puebla and the State of Morelos, the women continue to dress in traditional clothing, consisting of embroidered blouses, woven belts, and black wrap skirts. Many of the indigenous groups still speak their own language - Nahuatl - and maintain a number of religious and social traditions. The Nahuas traditional system is family and village-based. Nahua Because of the challenges of poverty and the loss of land and territory, a number of Nahua groups have become heavy assimilated into mestizo culture, losing their native language which is still spoken by 23 percent of Mexico's indigenous population.In the early 1980s, exploration by Shell led to contact with the isolated Nahua tribe. Within a few years around 50% of the Nahua had died.

The modern Nahua are an agricultural people; their staple crops are corn (maize), beans, chili peppers, tomatoes, and squash. Also common are maguey (the Mexican century plant), sugarcane, rice, and coffee. The primary farming tools are the wooden plow, hoe, and digging stick. Groups of three or four men may cultivate corn, beans, and squash collectively, using slash-and-burn techniques to clear new land. Chickens and turkeys are also raised, and pigs, goats, and donkeys are often kept. Settlements consist of central villages divided into four sections (barrios) grouped around a central church; each barrio recruits compulsory labour to work village common lands in addition to private farming. Weaving of cotton and wool is the chief craft among the Nahua, whose skill is great in this respect. Both men and women weave, men usually on the European upright loom and women more often on the native belt loom. Fibres of the maguey plant are also woven to make carrying cloths and sacks. Pottery, rope making, palm-fibre weaving, and adobe brickmaking are other crafts practiced. Nahua houses are usually one-room structures of cane, wood, adobe, or stone, with thatch or tile roofs. Traditional clothing consists of a long wraparound skirt, blouse (huipil), sash (faja), short triangular cape (quechquemitl), and a shawl (rebozo) for women; short white cotton pants, cotton shirt, faja, woollen overshirt, sandals, and straw hat for men. Ready-made clothes are commonly worn by Nahua men, however, and women may wear dark skirts and white blouses made of commercial cloth. The social institution of godparenthood (compadrazgo) is widely practiced, and parents and godparents are felt to have strong ties. The Nahua are Roman Catholics, oriented toward the patron saints of their villages as well as the Virgin of Guadalupe and various “Cristos” involved in local legend. Witchcraft is commonly believed in, along with a variety of pagan or semipagan supernatural creatures. Pagan religious rituals, except as they relate to witchcraft, are no longer practiced.

Today, most Nahua children learn both their mother tongue and Spanish, although in some villages the Nahuatl language has disappeared altogether in recent generations.Today, the Nahuas are primarily farmers and tradesmen, and also do some fishing and hunting as a source of food. Largely because of population growth, environmental degradation and national policies, there are no longer enough resources to support these indigenous people. Therefore many Nahuas have left their homeland, seeking jobs in the cities and the U.S. However, daily life in the village persists with the ever present sense of the gods' effect in their lives.

Nahuas are primarily farmers and tradesmen, and also do some fishing and hunting as a source of food. Largely because of population growth, environmental degradation and national policies, there are no longer enough resources to support these indigenous people. Therefore many Nahuas have left their homeland, seeking jobs in the cities and the U.S. However, daily life in the village persists with the ever present sense of the gods' effect in their lives.

Citation :

Indigenous Peoples of the World: The Nahua. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015.

Nahua peoples. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015.