The Caxcan are an ethnic group who are Indigenous to western and north-central Mexico, particularly the regions corresponding to modern-day Zacatecas, southern Durango, Jalisco, Colima, Aguascalientes, Nayarit. The Caxcan language is most often documented as an ancient variant of Nahuatl and is a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The last generation of natively fluent Caxcan language speakers came to an end in the 1890s. Despite this having long been conflated by anthropologists with an extinction of the Caxcan people themselves, much of Caxcan culture has persisted via oral tradition. There is currently an ongoing revitalization of Caxcan language, scholarship, and culture. The Caxcan were a partly nomadic, partly sedentary people. Under their leader, Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion in 1540-42. During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". After the rebellion, they were a constant target of the Zacatecos and Guachichiles due to their ceasefire agreement with the Spaniards. Their principal religious and population centers were at Teul, Tlaltenango, Juchipila, and Teocaltiche. Over time, the Caxcans lost their culture due to warfare, disease, and marriage to non-Caxcans. Also, most of the Caxcans were sent into slavery by the Spanish to work in silver mines. During the colonial period, many Spanish (and some Basque settlers) had intermarried, or had relations, with the Caxcans making many Caxcan descendants Mestizos. The allied tribes and Mestizos settled the Caxcan lands in Zacatecas and Jalisco.

If your ancestors are from northern Jalisco, southwestern Zacatecas or western Aguascalientes, it is likely that you have many ancestors who were Caxcanes Indians. The Caxcanes Indians were a tribe of the Aztecoidan division of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic stock. Dr. Phil C. Weigand of the Department of Anthropology of the Colegio de Michoacán in Mexico has theorized that the Caxcan Indians probably originated in the Chalchihuites area of northwestern Zacatecas. After the collapse of the Chalchihuites culture around 900 to 1000 A.D., Dr. Weigand believes that “the Caxcanes began a prolonged period of southern expansion” into parts of Jalisco. Dr. Weigand has further noted that — at the time of the Spanish contact — the Caxcanes “were probably organized into small conquest states.” He also states that the “overriding theme of their history seems to have been a steady expansion carried by warfare, to the south.” Dr. Weigand also observed that the Caxcanes “appear to have been organized into highly competitive, expansion states. These states possessed well-developed social hierarchies, monumental architecture, and military brotherhoods.” The Caxcanes religious centers and peñoles (fortifications) included Juchípila, Teúl, Tlatenango, Nochistlán and Jalpa in Zacatecas and Teocaltiche in Jalisco. The Caxcanes played a major role in both the Mixtón Rebellion (1540-41) and the Chichimeca War (1550-1590), first as the adversaries of the Spaniards and later as their allies against the Zacatecos and Guachichiles. The cocolistle epidemic of 1584 greatly reduced the number of Caxcanes. In the decades to follow, the surviving Caxcanes assimilated into the more dominant cultures that had settled in their territory. Today, Dr. Weigand writes, “the Caxcanes no longer exist as an ethnic group” and that “their last survivors” were noted in the late 1890s.

The Caxcanes lived in the northern section of the state. They were a partly nomadic people, whose principal religious and population centers were at Teul, Tlaltenango, Juchipila, and Teocaltiche. According to Señor Flores, the languages of the Caxcanes Indians were widely spoken in the northcentral portion of Jalisco along the “Three-Fingers Border Zone” with Zacatecas. It is believed that the Caxcanes language was spoken at Teocaltiche, Ameca, Huejúcar, and across the border in Nochistlán, Zacatecas. According to Mr. Powell, the Caxcanes were “the heart and the center of the Indian rebellion in 1541 and 1542.” After the Mixtón Rebellion, the Caxcanes became allies of the Spaniards. For this reason, they suffered attacks by the Zacatecas and Guachichiles during the Chichimeca War. As a cultural group, the Caxcanes ceased to exist during the Nineteenth Century. The only person who has published detailed materials relating to the Caxcanes is the archaeologist, Dr. Phil C. Weigand.

The Caxcanes living in the vicinity of present-day Juchipila and Nochistlan in April of 1530 were visited by an army of intruders, led by Nuño Beltran de Guzmán. Guzmán, commanding an army of 300 Spaniards and 6,000 indigenous soldiers, had left Mexico City four months earlier to escape a political war with the great Conquistador, Hernán Cortés. When Guzmán’s forces entered the area, most of the Caxcanes faded into the surrounding hills of the Sierra de Nochistlán. The Caxcanes, themselves, had been newcomers to the area three centuries earlier. In the Twelfth Century, the Caxcanes had driven out another indigenous group, the Tecuexes, using armed force. The Spanish inhabitants seemed perplexed that they could not get the Caxcanes to labor for them but it’s possible that the Caxcanes had already heard about the abuses of the notorious encomendero system and did not want to subject themselves to a system that was so degrading. While the encomienda system was meant to establish a beneficial relationship between the Spanish encomendero and the community he was responsible for. However, in some areas, the system quickly degenerated into an abusive system rife with taxes and closely resembling slavery. So the Caxcanes resisted and did not cooperate. And, in July 1533, Guzman ordered that Guadalajara be moved south. The historian Peter Gerhard has indicated that as many as 50,000 Indians lived in the area at the time of contact, including approximately 6,000 families in Nochistlan. Eventually, the conquest of the area proceeded as it did in other adjacent areas of what we now call Zacatecas and Jalisco.

The Caxcanes were a tribe that migrated to Nuevo Leon from the central highlands of Mexico. They settled in the northern part of the state, establishing communities in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range. The Caxcanes were known for their agricultural practices, cultivating crops like corn and agave. They also had a sophisticated social structure, with leaders overseeing different aspects of tribal life. Although the Caxcanes eventually faced conflicts with Spanish colonizers, their cultural heritage remains an important part of Nuevo Leon’s history. The Cazcanes. The Cazcanes (Caxcanes) lived in the northern section of the state. They were a partly nomadic people, whose principal religious and population centers were at Teul, Tlaltenango, Juchipila, and Teocaltiche. According to SeÃ±or Flores, the languages of the Caxcanes Indians were widely spoken in the northcentral portion of Jalisco along the "Three-Fingers Border Zone" with Zacatecas. It is believed that the Caxcanes language was spoken at Teocaltiche, Ameca, Huejocar, and across the border in Nochistlan, Zacatecas.

Matlachines dance is a tradition of ours

In the pre-Hispanic context, Domínguez Cardiel points out that aspects of sedentary warrior tribes such as Guachichiles and Caxcanes must be taken into account, hence the use of the bow and arrow when this traditional dance from Zacatecas is performed. Regarding the clothing that the dancers wear, he explained that it is an evolution of tailcloths called nahuillas that are longer and are lined with objects that when shaken make that characteristic noise whose function was to scare away the enemy. For their part, monterillas are the used hats that in pre-Hispanic times were made with duck and quail feathers and which had the function of protecting warriors from the sun; The other part of the wardrobe is made up of crow's feet huaraches, a light shirt and socks. This is how the Dance of the Matlachines continues to be a legacy that could well be considered part of Zacatecan identity and pride; a dance made from symphonies of colors, sounds and movements that is the result of two worldviews.