Amuzgo people

The Amuzgo people are an indigenous group which primarily lives in a region along the Guerrero/Oaxaca state border in southwest Mexico. Most of these people live in or near four municipalities: Xochistlahuaca, Tlacoachistlahuaca and Ometepec in Guerrero and San Pedro Amuzgos in Oaxaca. The origin of the Amuzgos is not known, but their language is similar to the Mixtec and their territory overlaps that of the Mixtec region. In the past, they dominated a larger area, but Mixtec domination, followed by the Spanish and the arrival of Afro-Mexicans pushed the ethnicity into the more inaccessible mountain regions and away from the coast. The Amuzgos maintain much of their language and dress and are known for their textiles handwoven on backstrap looms with two-dimensional designs which can be complicated. The Amuzgo area is very poor with an economy mostly dependent on subsistence agriculture and handcraft production.

The Aztecs referred to them as Amoxco, the origin of the word Amuzgo. One interpretation has it meaning "place of books" probably referring to an administrative center which was then generalized to the people. Another states that it means "people of tin." Yet another states that it means "among mountains" which originally referred to one community and became generalized.

The name of for the Amuzgo people varies by community. For example, the word for Amuzgo in San Pedro Amuzgos is "Tzjon Non" meaning "people of the textiles or thread." In Santa María Ipalapa, the word is Tzo'tyio, which means "river of shrimp." Another name for the Amuzgo is Ñ'anncue or "people in the middle referring to islands in the middle of the ocean which folklore indicates as origin.

The Mixtecs call them "Ñuuñama" which means "people of totomoxtle (dried corn leaves)."

The Amuzgo people are generally found in a 3,000km2 region which straddles the border of the Mexican states of Guerrero and Oaxaca, near the coast. The number of ethnic Amuzgos may be as high as 50,000, with about eighty percent living in the state of Guerrero. The Amuzgos are the largest indigenous group in their region but there are also communities of Mixtecs and Nahuas as well as mestizos and Afro-Mexicans. The main Amuzgo communities (in order) include Xochistlahuaca, Tlacoachistlahuaca, Cosuyoapan, Zacoalpa, Chochoapan, Huehuetono, El Pájaro, Las Minas, Cerro Bronco, Guadalupe Victoria, Guajentepec, and Pueblo Nuevo in Guerrero with San Pedro Amuzgos and Santa María Ipalapa in Oaxaca. Xochistlahuaca, Tlacoachistlahuca and Ometepec are from Nahuatl and mean "place of flowers," "place of tlacuache grass" and "between two hills" respectively. The Amuzgos refer to this area as Suljaa´. The municipal seat of Tlacoachistlahuaca is dominated by Amuzgos and mestizos with Mixtecs in the rural areas outside it. The Amuzgos in Oaxaca are one of a number of indigenous groups found in small communities inside the Mixtec region.

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