Job characteristics
Miguel León-Portilla described tlamemes as "porters trained from childhood", from the class of commoners macehualtin, devoted exclusively to freight in the Aztec culture." They began to exercise since childhood, carrying on average 23 kilos and did a daily commute of 21 to 25 kilometers before being relieved .
With the Spanish conquest in 1521 the first domestic species of cargo animals arrived, but they continued to use tlamemes because of a lack of roads. They were considered of lower status in the social scale, only slightly higher than the simple soldiers of the Aztec military. Porters that were located on the outside of the markets or swap meets, provided services transporting purchases, but the most important were the porters who served in the expeditions of the merchants.
Before leaving in each convoy, merchants carefully calculated the number of porters that would accompany them, taking into account the duration of the trip, the number of casualties possible in the course, etc. . They carried all the goods that the merchants would sell on the trip, which often lasted for months. When the expedition reached a resting place, they were granted special attention to the through the night, so they could recover from their strenuous efforts, recognizing the value of their work. When they returned to base, the expedition porters were engaged in periods of rest, not acting in the tianguis(stores)q, or mingling with the other porters.
In remote areas or for economic reasons, this profession continues even today.
With a population of about 129 million in 2022, Mexico is the 10th most populated country in the world. It is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world and the third-most populous country in the Americas after the United States and Brazil, the most populous city in the country is the capital, Mexico City, with a population of 9.2 million and its metropolitan area is also the most populated with 21.8 million as of 2020. Approximately 53% of the population lives in one of the 48 large metropolitan areas in the country. In total, about 76% of the population of the country lives in urban areas and 23% lives in rural ones.
The Spanish colonization of the Americas began in 1493 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola after the initial 1492 voyage of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus under license from Queen Isabella I of Castile. These overseas territories of the Spanish Empire were under the jurisdiction of Crown of Castile until the last territory was lost in 1898. Spaniards saw the dense populations of indigenous peoples as an important economic resource and the territory claimed as potentially producing great wealth for individual Spaniards and the crown. Religion played an important role in the Spanish conquest and incorporation of indigenous peoples, bringing them into the Catholic Church peacefully or by force. The crown created civil and religious structures to administer the vast territory. Spanish men and women settled in greatest numbers where there were dense indigenous populations and the existence of valuable resources for extraction.
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Aztec culture was organized into city-states (altepetl), some of which joined to form alliances, political confederations, or empires. The Aztec Empire was a confederation of three city-states established in 1427: Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Mexica or Tenochca, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan, previously part of the Tepanec empire, whose dominant power was Azcapotzalco. Although the term Aztecs is often narrowly restricted to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, it is also broadly used to refer to Nahua polities or peoples of central Mexico in the prehispanic era, as well as the Spanish colonial era (1521–1821). The definitions of Aztec and Aztecs have long been the topic of scholarly discussion ever since German scientist Alexander von Humboldt established its common usage in the early 19th century.
Mestizo is a person of mixed European and non-European ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though their ancestors were Indigenous American. The term was used as an ethno-racial exonym for mixed-race castas that evolved during the Spanish Empire. It was a formal label for individuals in official documents, such as censuses, parish registers, Inquisition trials, and others. Priests and royal officials might have classified persons as mestizos, but individuals also used the term in self-identification. With the Bourbon reforms and the independence of the Americas, the caste system disappeared and terms like "mestizo" fell in popularity.
The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa, various islands in Asia and Oceania, as well as territory in other parts of Europe. It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period, becoming known as "the empire on which the sun never sets". At its greatest extent in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Spanish Empire covered over 13 million square kilometres, making it one of the largest empires in history.
The Nahuas are a Uto-Nahuan ethnicity and one of the indigenous people of Mexico, with Nahua minorities also in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico, as well as the largest group of Native Americans in North America by number of native speakers, and the third in the Americas after Guaraní and Quechua.
A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique, was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European contact with those places. The term is a Spanish transliteration of the Taíno word kasike.
Indigenous peoples of Mexico, Native Mexicans or Mexican Native Americans, are those who are part of communities that trace their roots back to populations and communities that existed in what is now Mexico before the arrival of Europeans.
Aztec society was a highly complex and stratified society that developed among the Aztecs of central Mexico in the centuries prior to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and which was built on the cultural foundations of the larger region of Mesoamerica. Politically, the society was organized into independent city-states, called altepetls, composed of smaller divisions (calpulli), which were again usually composed of one or more extended kinship groups. Socially, the society depended on a rather strict division between nobles and free commoners, both of which were themselves divided into elaborate hierarchies of social status, responsibilities, and power. Economically the society was dependent on agriculture, and also to a large extent on warfare. Other economically important factors were commerce, long-distance and local, and a high degree of trade specialization.
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, and his small army of European soldiers and numerous indigenous allies, overthrowing one of the most powerful empires in Mesoamerica.
Talamanca is a canton in the Limón province of Costa Rica. The head city is Bribri, located in Bratsi district.
Nicoya is a canton in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. The head city is in Nicoya district.
Bagaces is a canton in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. The head city is in Bagaces district.
Indian auxiliaries, also known in the sources as Indios amigos, were those indigenous peoples of the Americas who allied with Spain and fought alongside the conquistadors during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. These auxiliaries acted as guides, translators and porters, and as warriors often outnumbered peninsular Spaniards by immense degrees. In these roles were also referred to as yanakuna, particularly during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
The Spanish conquest of Chiapas was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Mesoamerican polities in the territory that is now incorporated into the modern Mexican state of Chiapas. The region is physically diverse, featuring a number of highland areas, including the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and the Montañas Centrales, a southern littoral plain known as Soconusco and a central depression formed by the drainage of the Grijalva River.
The Spanish conquest of El Salvador was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Mesoamerican polities in the territory that is now incorporated into the modern Central American country of El Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, and is dominated by two mountain ranges running east–west. Its climate is tropical, and the year is divided into wet and dry seasons. Before the conquest the country formed a part of the Mesoamerican cultural region, and was inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples, including the Pipil, the Lenca, the Xinca, and Maya. Native weaponry consisted of spears, bows and arrows, and wooden swords with inset stone blades; they wore padded cotton armour.
The Spanish conquest of Nicaragua was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores and their Tlaxcaltec allies against the natives of the territory now incorporated into the modern Central American republic of Nicaragua during the colonisation of the Americas. Before European contact in the early 16th century, Nicaragua was inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples. The west was inhabited by Mesoamerican groups such as the Nicarao, the Chorotega, and the Subtiaba. The Nicarao are a Nahua people closely related to the Mexica of Mexico. The Chorotega and the Subtiaba are closely related to the Zapotecs and Mixtecs of Oaxaca, Mexico due to their shared Otomanguean ethnicity. Other groups included the Matagalpa and the Tacacho, both of which mainly inhabited central Nicaragua.
Quitirrisí is the seventh district of the Mora canton, in the San José province of Costa Rica.
Matambú is a district of the Hojancha canton, in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica.
