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| Tecuexe | |
|---|---|
| Group | Tecuexe |
| Regions | Jalisco, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes |
| Languages | Uto-Aztecan languages?; None |
| Population | extinct as distinct polity |
| Related | Caxcanes, Huichol people, Cocomaricopa, Purépecha, Tarascan |
Tecuexe The Tecuexe were an indigenous group of western Mesoamerica who inhabited parts of what are now Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Aguascalientes during the late Postclassic and early Colonial periods. They are known through colonial chronicles, archaeological surveys, and ethnohistoric studies that link them to regional polities, frontier conflicts, and networks of trade and cultural exchange across the Gran Chichimeca frontier and the northern rim of the Mesoamerican cultural area. Their material culture, settlement pattern, and historical record intersect with the narratives of several well-known groups and events in sixteenth-century New Spain.
Colonial sources record the ethnonym in Spanish chronicles and administrative documents, where it appears in orthographies reflecting Nahuatl and Spanish transliteration practices; these forms entered the records of officials associated with the Kingdom of New Spain and the Real Audiencia of New Galicia. Scholars compare the recorded name to elements in Nahuatl language and other Uto-Aztecan languages to hypothesize meanings tied to landscape or social identity, drawing parallels with naming patterns seen among the Caxcanes, Guachichil people, and Otomi people in regional sources such as reports by Antonio de Mendoza, Nuño de Guzmán, and provincial chroniclers.
Archaeological sequences for the southern Gran Chichimeca and northern Mesoamerica indicate continuity and interaction between Late Postclassic communities and the groups encountered by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado-era expeditions and later Spanish colonization of the Americas campaigns. Ethnohistoric narratives place Tecuexe communities in the wake of migrations and cultural transformations associated with the decline of Teotihuacan-era spheres and the rise of regional centers like Xolotl and Cihuatlán. Chroniclers link Tecuexe experience to military and diplomatic episodes involving the Caxcanes, Chichimeca War, and the Mixtón War period upheavals recorded by Fray Toribio de Benavente Motolinía and Bernal Díaz del Castillo.
Tecuexe territory spanned river valleys and mesa environments along tributaries of the Río Grande de Santiago and adjoining basins near modern Tepic-adjacent corridors and the Lerma River system; colonial cadastral maps and mission registers locate settlements near sites later identified with Lagos de Moreno, Teocaltiche, and smaller towns incorporated into the Province of Nueva Galicia. Archaeological surveys document fortification features, terracing, and habitation sites comparable to contemporaneous sites in Guadalajara hinterlands and in the transitional zone toward Aguascalientes and Zacatecas, linking Tecuexe settlement patterns to regional trade routes used by Purépecha and Tarascan traders before and after contact.
Ethnohistoric descriptions emphasize clan-based organization and kinship networks paralleled in neighboring groups such as the Caxcanes, Huichol people, and Coras. Social institutions appear flexible, with leadership roles comparable to those documented among Purépecha polities and tributary communities recorded by Miguel de Ibarra and other colonial administrators. Material culture—ceramics, lithic technologies, and textile fragments recorded in regional museum collections—shows stylistic affinities with craft traditions known from Colima, Nayarit, and the interior highlands recorded by Diego Durán and Hernán Cortés-era informants. Oral histories collected in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries associate Tecuexe communities with local place names and customary practices preserved among peoples documented by ethnographers such as Alfredo López Austin and Manuel Gamio.
Tecuexe subsistence integrated dryland agriculture, irrigation in valley bottoms, and seasonal foraging, with staple crops and cultivation practices comparable to those of the Tarascan and Toltec-influenced zones recorded in tribute lists compiled by colonial officials. Archaeobotanical remains and colonial tribute rolls show reliance on maize, beans, and gourds alongside agave exploitation and wild resource procurement similar to patterns reported for Chichimeca and Caxcan territories. Regional exchange networks connected Tecuexe communities to craft centers in Colima, obsidian sources in the Valley of Mexico, and saltworks along inland basins documented in early colonial economic reports.
Religious life incorporated ritual specialists, calendrical observances, and sacred sites located on hills and springs, mirroring ritual topographies described for neighboring groups such as the Caxcanes, Huichol people, and Purépecha. Colonial missionaries documented syncretisms arising after contact with Roman Catholic Church missions, noting continuities in earth- and water-centered cults and in practices associated with agricultural fertility and ancestral veneration, comparable to accounts of ritual change collected by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún and other ecclesiastical chroniclers.
Tecuexe communities entered the colonial record in the sixteenth century during incursions led by conquistadors and encomenderos linked to the administration of Nueva Galicia and campaigns by figures such as Nuño de Guzmán and his captains. They participated in regional resistance movements tied to the Mixtón War and ongoing Chichimeca War dynamics, appearing in petitions, lawsuits, and mission records preserved in the Archivo General de la Nación and provincial archives. Subsequent imposition of the encomienda system, missionization efforts by orders like the Dominican Order and Franciscan Order, and integration into colonial tribute networks transformed Tecuexe social landscapes as recorded by administrators such as Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and chroniclers like Gonzalo de las Casas.
Although the Tecuexe ceased to exist as a distinct polity, their demographic and cultural legacy persists in toponyms, local crafts, and genetic and linguistic admixture among populations of Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Aguascalientes. Contemporary regional identities, municipal histories, and archaeological conservation projects engage with Tecuexe heritage alongside narratives of the Caxcanes and Guachichil people, while museums and universities in Guadalajara and Zacatecas curate artifacts and research. Scholarly work by historians and archaeologists connected to institutions such as the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and regional research centers continues to reassess Tecuexe contributions to the cultural mosaic of northern Mesoamerica.