El Nayar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
El Nayar is a municipality in the Mexican state of Nayarit. The population was 26,649 in 2000 in a total area of 5,100 km². The municipal seat of Jesús María had a population of 1,783 in 2000. El Nayar is the home of the Huichol and the Cora Indians.
El Nayar is the largest municipality in territorial dimension in the state. Its area makes up 18.46% of the surface of the state.
Contents |
[edit] Origin of the Name
The name of the municipality is in honor of the tribal chief Cora Naye, Nayar ó Nayarit, caudillo, legislator and king; defender of his tribe who successfully maintained the Huacica ó Xécora kingdom. Nayarit was named leader of the Cora around the year 1500. During his reign he was able to resist the Spanish incursions into the mountains and preserve his kingdom. When he died his remains were preserved and venerated in a cave in the mountains.
[edit] Geography
Location and Municipal Boundaries
The municipality of El Nayar is located in the northeastern portion of the state of Nayarit, between the extreme coordinates 21º 25 and 22º 40 latitude north and the meridian 103º 58' y 105º 03’ longitude west. In the north there are boundaries with the municipality of Acaponeta and the state of Durango; in the south with the municipalities of Tepic, Santa María del Oro and la Yesca; in the east with the states of Jalisco and Zacatecas and in the west with the municipalities of Santiago Ixcuintla, Acaponeta, Rosamorada and Ruíz. See map of state at [1] and [2]
Population Centers
The municipality is made up of 466 places, among which the most important are: Jesús María with 1,520 inhabitants; Mesa del Nayar with 857; Santa Teresa with 827; Los Gavilanes with 546; San Francisco with 537; and, Huaynamota with 528. These settlements have 19% of the total population of the municipality, the rest being distributed among 460 very small and disperse settlements. This is the most rural of all the municipalities in the state and the one with the most scattered population.
Terrain
The municipality is located in the Sierra Madre Occidental and its surface is rugged. The main mountains are: Cerro Dolores with 2,480 mts, Los Tecolotes with 2,360 mts, El Aguila with 2,220 mts, Los Cuervos with 2,140 mts, La Silla with 2,040 mts and la Sierra del Nayar with 2,020 mts. The plateaus with valleys make up 13.49% of the territory, the valleys with hills making up 0.66%, the valleys with canyons 4.08%; and the mountains, 81.77%.
Rivers
The municipality has the following rivers: Rio San Pedro, which irrigates a surface equivalent to 62% of the municipal territory, and the Bolaños-Huaynamota with 11% of the surface of the municipality. There is also the reservoir of Aguamilpa, opened in 1997. See [3] . This reservoir is located below the confluence of the waters of the Río Grande de Santiago and the Huaynamota.
Climate
The main climate is hot subhumid with rains falling in summer. There is also a temperate climate at higher elevations with rains in summer. The rainiest months are from June to September. The average annual rainfall is 754 mm. The average annual temperature is 25 ºC.
Land Use
Land use in agriculture is carried out in a very small area, only 0.66% of the total surface of the municipality. The main crops are maize, bean and fruit trees. The zones of pasture make up 14.21% of the area, with raising of cattle one of the most important activities. Forests and jungle cover most of the territory with 58.58% and 34.55%, respectively. The logable species are little exploited.
[edit] Socio-demographic Profile
Ethnic Groups
The main ethnic groups are the Cora and the Huichol with 10,515 and 6,349 inhabitants respectively (1995). Another group is the Tepehuana, with only 18 inhabitants. These three ethnic groups make up 81.8% of the population over the age of 5. El Nayar has 49% of all the indigenous language speakers of the state. Of the total population of 21,948, 18,215 were members of the indigenous population. 12,103 of this population could speak Spanish and 5,809 could not.
Demographic Evolution
In 2000 there were 26,649 inhabitants, in 1995 there were 24,903 and in 1990 the population was 21,100. The annual population growth rate between 1990-95 was 2.98%. The population of the municipality in the years 1970 and 1980, was 11,232 and 20,016 inhabitants; nevetheless from 1980 to 1990, the population grew only 1,084 inhabitants. The population density in 1995 was 5 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Religion
In 1995 81.0% of the population practiced the Catholic religion, 5.5% declared no religion, and 10.5% were groups in several religions, mainly Protestant Pentecostal.
The local religion is Catholic, although there is an age old syncretism. Although the figure of the priest is quite unusual, the people enter the church to pray with devotion and to do the ritualistic dances during the celebrations. They leave small offerings in front of figures of Jesus Christ and the saints. The offerings consist of paper flowers, small tamales, vessels with pinole and cotton tufts.
[edit] Social Infrastructure
Education
The municipality had 155 schools in 1995, of which 58 were pre-school, 88 primary, and 9 secondary. There is a public library in Jesús María. The rate of illiteracy was 46.27%, the highest in the state and one of the highest in the country.
Dwellings
In 1995 the municipality had a total of 4,110 dwellings, of which 4,063 were private. The average number of occupants was 5.7. 86% of the dwelling had dirt floors, 54% had adobe walls and 20% wooden walls. Only 34% had electricy, 29% had piped water and a tiny number had drainage.
Quality of Life
- Number of dwellings in 2000: 4,716
- Number and percentage of dwellings with an independent bathroom: 1,001, 21%
- Number and percentage of dwellings with an exclusive kitchen: 2,894, 61%
- Number and percentage of dwellings with a television: 482, 10%
- Number and percentage of dwellings with a fridge: 154, 0.3%
- Number and percentage of dwellings with a washing machine: 45, 0.009%
- Number and percentage of dwellings with a telephone: 9, 0.0019%
- Number and percentage of dwellings with an automobile or truck: 163, 0.03%
- Number and percentage of dwellings with a computer: 3 (insignicant)
All statistics are from the 2000 census provided by the National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Data Processing (INEGI)
Communication
In 1995 the municipality had 187.8 km. of roads, of which 97% were gravelled. There were 18 landing fields, one for each of the main settlements, making the plane the most important means of transport.
[edit] Economic Activity
Agriculture in the municipality is seasonal and is based mainly on the cultivation of maize (corn), with 3,440 hectares being planted in 1997. This made up 0.67% of the total municipal surface.
The people are farmers, planting corn (maize), beans, squash, and cucumbers in steep hillside plots. Burning is used to clear undergrowth, plows and planting sticks being the chief cultivating implements. Most families keep a cow for milk and cheese, and sheep are sometimes kept for wool; however, very little meat is eaten. Other barnyard animals are also kept, and hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild foods augments farming. Neither the Huichol nor the Cora commonly live in villages but, rather, have households in the countryside clustered in loose groups of 1 to 12; these are called rancherias. Community centres consist of a church or Huicholtemple, public buildings, sometimes schools or jails, and houses that are kept by some families to live in when they are at the centre. The rancherias may be quite isolated from such community centres.
Animal Raising
The 1995 census reported the following numbers: cattle 9,793 head, pigs 5,178 head, horses, mules, and donkeys 3,018 head. There were also 28,849 head of poultry and 458 beehives.
Fishing
There is fishing in the Presa Hidroeléctrica de Aguamilpa.
Industry
The only industry of any note is a few sawmills, which employed about 200 people in 1995.
Economic Active Population by Sector
The EAP made up 17% of the municipal population with the age of 12 or older. It is distributed in this way: primary sector 69%, secondary sector 11.0% and tertiary sector 16%.
[edit] Tourism
Monuments
The municipality has several historical monuments, among them the Franciscan church of Jesús María, of rustic architecture dating from the end of the eighteenth century; the rustic church of Huaynamota, built by Franciscans in the nineteenth century; the house of the Traditional Governor in the village of Santa Teresa, built of walls of stone and covered with a structure of wood and palm; the ruins of the Franciscan church of Santa Teresa; the church of San Juan Bautista, located in San Juan Peyotán, built in the nineteenth century; the church of Santísima Trinidad and its annexes- priests house and school of evangelization, built in the seventeenth century.
Dances, Festivals, and Traditions
The festivities of the Cora and Huichol and very important. The Cora carry out the celebration of the Cora Holy Week with La Judea, whose ritual acts are celebrated in Jesús María y Santa Teresa.
In the Huichol culture, each family has rituals and dances for an infinity of gods that represent the forces of nature and a mixture of Catholic and indigenous traditions. The most important are those of the rain, the purification of the corn fields, the corn cobs, the sun, peyote, toasted corn, and tortillas of raw corn.
These festivals are not celebrated on specific dates, but carried out according to the requirements of their agricultural production. Other festivals celebrated are: the curing of the land, of the dead and the decoration of the gods.
Handicrafts and Dress
Simple pottery is still made, particularly among the Cora. Weaving on the native backstrap loom is still done. The principal articles made are sashes, carrying bags, and wool blankets. Other crafts include cord making and embroidery.
Dress is traditional or semitraditional: men wear muslin shirts and pants, sandals, and hats but may add embroidered sashes and shoulder bags and assorted jewelry; women wear long muslin skirts down to their ankles, long-sleeved purple and bright pink blouses, sandals, and a cape (quechquemitl) over the head or the shoulders. In recent years, the men have modernized their clothes and they usually dress in cowboy type denim pants boots and a Texan-style hat. Nearly all the men, however, carry highly colored Cora cotton knapsacks. Very few of them wear the traditional, wide-brimmed hat with the semi-spherical bowl.
Customs
Ritual kinship is an important social institution among the Huichol and Cora. Resembling that practiced elsewhere in Middle America, it involves the choice of godparents at important points in the life of a child or in the lives of his parents. Both the Huichol and Cora are nominally Roman Catholic and practice some Catholic rituals. Patron saints are often identified with native gods, however, and native pagan religious ceremonies play a central role among both groups. Both also use peyote in certain rites.
[edit] Government
Jesús María was originally part of the state of Jalisco and became a municipalilty in that state in 1851. In 1944 the name El Nayar was officialized with the municipal seat in Jesús María, but now part of the state of Nayarit.
The municipal government (Ayuntamiento) is formed by a mayor (Presidente Municipal), 1 Síndico or legal advisor, and 7 Regidores or councilmembers, of which 5 are elected by a simple majority and 2 are from proportional representation. Each one has a substitute. All are elected for three years.
The first Presidente Municipal was elected in 1940 and the acting President at the time of writing was Florentino Canare Peña, elected for the period 2005-08.
