The Mexicaneros are an Indigenous people from between west and northern Mexico, in the Durango and Nayarit borders. They are one of the 62 original cultures of Mexico. [1] They speak only a creole Nahuatl named likewise them, Mexicanero, until they lives far from Aztec Empire ancient area of influence. Some 1,300 individuals spoke the Mexicanero language as of 2011.
They live in Mezquital Municipality, Durango (settlements of Agua Caliente, Agua Fría, Bancos de Calitique, Berenjén (Tepetates II), Combustita, Curachitos (Buena Vista), Chalatita, Chalchihuites, El Catorce, El Durazno (Duraznitos), El Rincón, El Toro, Escalera, Guajolote, Huazamotita, La Cañada, La Estancia, La Guajolota, La Tinaja, Las Campanas, Las Cruces, Las Norias, Las Pilas, Llano de Jacalitos (Jacalitos), Los Alacranes, Los Arquitos, Los Charcos, Los Crucitos, Los Espejos, Los Gavilanes, Los Leones, Mesa de los Lobos (Lobitos), Metatita, Nuevo León, Pino Real, San Antonio de Padua, San Bernabé, San Buenaventura, San Diego, San Francisco del Mezquital (El Mezquital), San Pedro Xícoras [San Pedro Jícoras], Santa María de Ocotán, Techalote (Buenavista), Tepalcates, Tortillas, and Yerbaniz) and Acaponeta (settlements of Acaponeta, Agua Tendida, Buenavista (Las Paredes), El Duraznito, El Naranjo, El Resbalón, Huanacaxtle, La Guásima, La Laguna (La Lagunita), La Paloma Nueva Reforma, Mesa las Arpas, Paredes, Rancho los López, Rancho de Ernesto Aguilar, San Diego de Alcalá, San Diego el Naranjo, San Dieguito de Abajo, San José de Gracia, Santa Cruz, Saycota, Sayulilla, Unidad Habitacional, and Zacatecas) and El Nayar (settlements of Dolores, Los Chapiles, Santa Teresa, and Tierras Cuevas) municipalities in Nayarit. [2]
No ancient documents nor codex contains something about their people. Scientific hypothesis are about they lives always been in their region, still since pre-Columbian times like the other Indigenous peoples settled in the region. [3] Other hypothesis are about Spanish settling Nahua people here to ease colonization, that are past wandering Aztec people in search of the eagle hunting the rattlesnake walking from Aztlán if the city are not mythological, that they really are just Caxcans that also are settled in their regions by the Spanish and their Nahuan dialect mixed with Spanish language was the Caxcan language but mixed with the Spanish language and that are just Indigenous people of the region that adopted Nahuatl during Spanish colonial era due is similar to languages of the region. [4] [3] [5] Mexicanero people haves their own religion related to Aztec religion, present-day few syncretized with Spanish' Roman Catholicism. [6]