Coyotl

Coyotl

Coyotlacatl Coyotec
An 1845 illustration of the peoples of Yztac Tlalocan depicting Oxidentals as well as coyotecas.
Regions with significant populations
Zacapican, Pulacan
Languages
Primarily Nahuatl Various native languages
Religion
Predominantly Cozauist; religious minorities including Sarpetisms and syncretism with indigenous beliefs.

Coyotl and the less common coyotlacatl and coyotec are terms used in the Nahuatl-speaking world to denote a person of mixed heritage. Originally used to describe those of Oxidental and Malioan parentage, the usage of the coyotl label expanded significantly in the 20th century and now applies to all peoples who have some indigenous Zacapine heritage mixed with any non-Oxidental ancestry. The related term coyohuic, coined in the 1940s in Angatahuaca, describes the process of miscegenation and cultural exchange which was accelerating in the immigrant districts of the major Zacapine ports of that era. All of these terms were originally pejorative in nature, being used to differentiate between the pure-blooded lineages of Oxidentale and the mixed-race population often born in the overseas territories under the bi-continental rule of Aztapamatlan. This connotation began to reverse towards a more positive meaning at different times across the Aztapaman empire. In modern day Pulacan, where the majority of the local population were native Malioans or mixed Oxidental-Malaioans, the coyotl identity was embraced much earlier than in the Aztapaman homeland in modern day Zacapican, where use of the term as neutral label without any negative connotation would only be seen in the 20th century some decades after the fall of Aztapamatlan.

Etymology

The principal meaning of coyotl in Nahuatl is of course referring to the coyote canine species. However, it often had a wide array double meanings as with many other terms in the indigenous languages of Oxidentale. The original auxiliary use cases of coyotl were to refer to strangers and foreigners, as well as to physical objects of some mixed nature. For example, cotton mixed with other fibers to create a mixed textile material would be called cotton coyotl (ichcacoyotl). Referring to people of mixed heritage as coyotl, however, was relatively uncommon and unorthodox until the 15th century. Coyotlacatl is a compound simply meaning people of a mixed nature and coyoteca is an unorthodox variant with this same meaning.

History

Origins

The first people to be subject to the term in any regular way were the descendants of the pochtecayotl merchants of the Aztapaman trading outposts in Malaio who had become cut off from the homeland as a result of the widespread disruption caused by the Siriwang Eruption and subsequently integrated into the local communities in order to survive. These first coyotl, the originators of the modern Pulatl mixed Nahua-Tzhuana identity, had mixed parentage but still preserved the Nahuatl language and a version of the indigenous Aztapaman religious system by the time that Aztapamatlan re-established contact and began its conquest of the region. For centuries afterward, the coyotl were primarily a Nahua-Tzhuana or more broadly an Oxidental-Malaioan ethnic grouping living in the Aztapaman Malaio territories and speaking a Nahua-based creole. The term would not see widespread use in the Aztapaman homeland until after the Zacapine Revolution, during the major waves of immigration to Zacapican in the 1920s and 1940s. As a result, coyotec which was at one time interchangeable with coyotl and coyotlacatl would start to be used exclusively to refer to the mixed-race Pulatl as a way to differentiate their identity from the new coyotl of Zacapican.

20th century Zacapican

In the first half of the 20th century in Zacapican, millions of immigrants from overseas and especially from eastern Belisaria began to pour into Zacapican drawn by the promise of a better life and newfound wealth in the Xallan Gold Rush. Simultaneously, the country was undergoing an urbanization process of unprecedented scale which was drawing further millions of indigenous Zacapine groups from their homelands into the burgeoning industrial cities where the would find housing and work in the same hastily assembled calpolli-wards the foreign immigrants were settling into. This unintentionally laid the groundwork for coyohuic processes to begin, largely as a result of the Xolotecate era policies of rapid industrialization coupled with a general disinterest of the local authorities to enforce any kind of segregation policy. It would take many generations for the coyohuic to become widespread and even dominant across the urban demographics of the so-called "migrant cities" like Angatahuaca and Quitzapatzaro, affecting some demographics more than others. For example, the Biele immigrants who arrived as early as the first wave established more insular ethnic enclaves in Angatahuaca and other Zacapine cities, which kept inter-marriage and cultural exchange to a minimum compared to other groups such as the Lushyods who assimilated much more readily and transformed into the coyotl subgroup of Lush-Nahuas.

Modern coyotl

The coyotl people of the modern day enjoy a central position in the national identities of many post-Aztapaman states, namely Zacapican and Pulacan. The original Nahua-Tzhuana coyotl of Pulacan are now one of the most populous demographics of the country together with the non-mixed indigenous Tswana themselves. As a result, the Nahua-speaking Pulatl coyotec identity forms a large part of the overall cultural makeup of Pulacan. Likewise in Zacapican, more than half of the population in the modern day has some mixed heritage of indigenous Zacapine groups with immigrant demographics, making Zacapican another country in which the coyotl form a majoritarian demographic.