How do the Navajos contribute to Mexico?

Answer 1

Although the areas of what is now Arizona and New Mexico and Utah in which the Navajo live were nominally part of the Spanish new world colonies they never were in fact never under direct control. Navajos never lived willingly in the area that is now Mexico. They were however victims of an extensive slave trade in Spanish New Mexico especially in the Santa Fe area and were sold south into what is now northern Mexico and even further. Chihuahua, Parral, Veracruz, the Yucatan, and Havana, Cuba were some of the places Navajo slaves were sold. This went on for at least 200 years. Over the years thousands were sold into slavery, especially women who were valued for their weaving skills and for domestic servants. Thus Navajo weaving patterns and techniques influenced northern Mexican styles. This continued even into the American period in the late 1880s. Most were captured by Comanche, Ute or Mescalero Apache or by Spanish New Mexicans and sold, often as children. In New Mexico some of these captives descendants who had lost their tribal roots became known as Genízaros or Coyotes. In the late 1700s they were about 1/3 of the population. They were settled on land grants in communities to act a buffer zone between Spanish settlers and tribal peoples. The towns of Belén, Tomé, Valencia, Carnué, Los Lentes, Socorro, and San Miguel del Vado, Albuquerque, Atrisco, Santa Fe, Chimayó, Taos, Abiquiú and Las Vegas all had large Genízaro populations. In 1837, they joined with Pueblo peoples and revolted against the Mexican government in the Chimayoso revolt. They killed the Mexican Governor and all the Mexican troops and elected José Angel Gonzáles as their leader. Much of the population in these areas today are their descendants. In 2007 the New Mexico legislature recognized them as indigenous people.