Chatinos


The Chatinos are an indigenous people of Mexico. Chatino communities are located in the southeastern region of the state of Oaxaca in southern central Mexico. Their native Chatino language is spoken by about 23,000 people, but ethnic Chatinos may number many more. They call themselves qne-a tnya-e and their language Chaq-f tnya-b.
Chatino populations are found in the following Oaxacan municipalities, mostly in the area around Juquila: Santos Reyes Nopala, San Juan Quiahije or KichinA kiqyaC, San Miguel Panixtlahuaca, Santiago Yaitepec, Santa Cruz Zenzontepec, San Juan Lachao, Santa María Temaxcaltepec, Santa Catarina Juquila and Tataltepec de Valdés.
The region that the Chatinos inhabit is rich in natural resources. Traditionally many Chatino people have been involved in agriculture, which depends very much on the climate, so some Chatinos have had to emigrate to the corners of the district of Juquila to work on coffee plantations. Most Chatino communities have public services, and there are runways for airports in many municipalities. Federal bilingual schools, high schools, and telesecundarias have been established.
The traditional authorities of this people are organized in a system based on civil and religious roles, in which advice from elders is treated as the greatest authority. They believe in the Holy Grandmother, the Holy Father Sun, the Holy Mother Earth, and the Holy Mother Moon. In addition, they worship the deities of water, wind, rain, the mountain, and fire.

Chatino language

Chatino language is an indigenous Mesoamerican language, which is classified under the Zapotecan branch of the Oto-Manguean language family. The Chatino have close cultural and linguistic ties with the Zapotec peoples, whose Zapotec language is the other member of the Zapotecan languages.
According to Campbell, there are three main Chatino languages, which exhibit varying degrees of mutual intelligibility: Zenzontepec Chatino, Tataltepec Chatino, and Eastern Chatino.