Anexos

2.1.1 Topography and hydrology

The Huasteca Potosina study region (Figure 2.1) is located along the boundary where the flat to gently undulating Gulf Coastal Plain, which continues into Veracruz state to the Gulf of Mexico (100 km east of the geodata analysis area), meets the Sierra Madre Oriental, a series of linear late Cretaceous limestone ridges that rarely exceed 800 meters in elevation. To the southwest into Querétaro state, these ridges grade into more imposing mountains, including the 2500-meter-elevation Sierra de Xilitla, which is composed mainly late Jurassic to early

Cretaceous mudstone and shale. At the junction of the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Sierra Madre Oriental lie the Eocene sandstones of the Chincontepec formation. In some sections the

sandstone is hidden or eroded, while in other sections it appears as jumbled low hills extending about 20 km eastward into the plain; the Sierra de Tancanhuitz is one of these hilly areas (Cossey 2011, 270; Suter 1980, 20-23).

The entire Huasteca Potosina geodata analysis area is within the super-watershed of the Río Pánuco,“the fourth largest river in Mexico by volume of runoff, and the sixth largest river basin in Mexico by area” (Arbingast 1975). This river is only called the Pánuco along its final approach to the Gulf, the site of Mexico’s first oil boom in 1911 (Brown 1993, 114). Further upstream, the river’s two principal tributaries are the Río Santa María-Tampaón and the Río Moctezuma. About two-thirds of the geodata analysis area is within the Santa María-Tampaón watershed, and the rest within the Moctezuma watershed. A tiny portion is in the watershed of the Tempoal, the third principal tributary of the Pánuco. Maps show the sources of these three major tributaries as far to the southwest, in the Mesa Central (high central plateau) of Mexico. The upper Río Moctezuma, for example, drains a northern portion of the Mexico City

metropolitan area (Wolf 1959, 6). Due in part to the porous nature of limestone, several smaller but regionally important tributaries arise or re-emerge at the Sierra Madre/Gulf Coast boundary, including two within the study area: the Río Oxitipa-Coy and the Río Huichihuayán.

Figure 2.1. Huasteca Potosina study region: Watersheds, rivers, and topography. Numbers indicate RAN document study núcleos. Teenek, Nahuatl, and Pame language areas labeled in gray. (Topography adapted from INEGI 2000).

2.1.2 Vegetation and land use

The original and potential vegetation of the Huasteca geodata analysis area (Figure 2.2) includes several tropical forest types near their northern extremes of their ranges in the

Americas. Selva mediana subperrenifolia, medium-canopy humid tropical forest with some dry- season deciduous trees, is found in much of the Gulf Coastal Plain and limestone ranges. Selva baja caducifolia, low-canopy tropical forest dominated by dry-season deciduous trees, is found in the northern and western extremes of the study area. Bosque mesófilo de montaña, cloud forest (a blend of tropical and temperate species, many endemic), is located in a small area where the Sierra Xilitla generates orographic rainfall.

I developed Figure 2.2 by starting with a 1:1 million-scale national shapefile of 28 vegetation classes created by the Mexican federal biodiversity research and policy organization (CONABIO 1999). From my fieldwork, I knew that this coverage understated anthropogenic disturbance, so I modified the coverage by georeferencing current GoogleEarth true-color (visible spectrum) air photography at 1:100,000 scale, and using it to identify patches which were discernible as agriculture.

The map shows a high degree of human alteration, especially in the Gulf Coastal Plain, where agriculture – particularly cattle ranching, but also extensive sugarcane cultivation (Tucker 2000, 28) – has eliminated most of the humid tropical forest. Large forest patches are now mainly restricted to the rocky soils and steeper slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental. It should be noted that the distinction between “forest” and “anthropogenic land use” is often vague. For example, some continuous-canopy forested areas are better described as complex orchards, including the traditional te’lom system still practiced by some indigenous landowners (Alcorn 1983), and others are secondary forest mosaics with isolated temporary agricultural plots.

Figure 2.2. Huasteca Potosina study region: Land use and land cover, 2010. Teenek, Nahuatl, and Pame language areas labeled in gray. Numbers indicate RAN document study núcleos. (Vegetation adapted from CONABIO 1999).

2.1.3 Indigenous and mestizo populations

I created the map of indigenous and non-indigenous (mestizo) language speakers and of specific language areas (Figure 2.3) from 2005 census data using methods described in section 3.5. I present the raw population totals in chapter 7.

The map shows two indigenous core areas. The first is a large area of Teenek and Nahuatl speakers occupying the westernmost strip of the Gulf Coastal Plain, the low sandstone hills of the Chincontepec formation, and the first ranges of the Sierra Madre Oriental. Within this continuous zone, the spatial division between the Teenek area to the north and the Nahua13 _area to the south is quite sharp, with only a few small areas of overlap. Considering how the two groups share most culture traits, and that the dividing line does not correspond to a major physical barrier but rather cuts across the low hills of the Sierra Tancanhuitz, the clarity of the spatial differentiation surprised me.

The Teenek, sometimes known as the “Huasteco,” speak a geographically isolated language within the Maya family. Before the arrival of the Nahuas around 145814 _{and the later} encroachment of the colonial Spanish, the Teenek probably occupied most or all of the

vernacular “Huasteca region.” The Nahuas speak a descendant variant of the Uto-Aztecan language of their Mexica forebears. The Nahuatl-speaking region which begins within the study area continues southward and southeastward another 80 km, and is not contiguous with the largest Nahua area of “central dialects” in the states surrounding Mexico City (Lastra 1986).

The second cohesive indigenous language zone in the geodata analysis area is occupied by Pame speakers deeper within the rugged Sierra. Pame is the northernmost of the Oto-Manguean languages, most of which are spoken in Oaxaca state, including Zapotec and Chinantec. Its closest linguistic relative is Otomí, spoken mainly in the state of Querétaro. The Pame-speaking zone once continued well into the mountains of Querétaro south of the Río Santa María, in an area known as the Sierra Gorda, but it is only spoken in a few villages there today (Gómez Rendón 2008, 231).

13 _{“Nahua” is the ethnic group’s demonym, and “Nahuatl” is their language.}

14 _{Additionally, the Toltec residents who settled in parts of the Huasteca in the 9th century may have spoken a} variant of Nahuatl (Kaufman 1976, 115).

Figure 2.3. Huasteca Potosina study region: Indigenous, mixed, and mestizo population areas; and, specific indigenous language areas. Numbers indicate RAN document study núcleos. (Sources: INEGI 2005b; INEGI 2006a).

These indigenous language areas are surrounded by speakers only of Spanish, some of whom may self-identify as indigenous or practice indigenous culture traits besides language. The Within the geodata analysis area, these rural mestizos occupy the rest of the Gulf Coastal Plain, as well as much of the Sierra Madre Oriental beyond the Teenek, Nahua, and Pame cultural core areas. The one large city in the study area, Ciudad Valles, is majority mestizo, while the towns of Tamazunchale and Xilitla are about evenly mixed. The largest towns with a majority of

indigenous speakers are Tancanhuitz and Aquismón.