Borrado

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The Borrado are now extinct North American Indians who lived in southwest Texas and neighboring Mexico . They were one of several hundred ethnicities belonging to the Coahuiltec tribal group and who shared a common language, Coahuilteco , and a similar culture.

Name and area of ​​residence

The name comes from the Spaniards and refers to their stripe-shaped body painting. There were two Indian groups that were referred to by this name. One group lived in western Texas, the other in southern Texas and neighboring Mexico. The second group inhabited a large area in the 17th and 18th centuries that stretched from Saltillo in southeast Coahuila to the east via Nuevo León to Tamaulipas . In the later 18th century they were found in southern Texas, especially on the coast and in the area of ​​the lower Rio Grande . Several times during the 18th century, Borrado appeared in the registers of three missions in San Antonio , in Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Concepción de Acuna , in San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, and in San Juan Capistrano .

Way of life and culture

There are only two descriptions of the Coahuiltec's way of life, dating from two different centuries. The first is by Cabeza de Vaca and describes his time with the Mariame in southern Texas, with whom he lived for 18 months between 1533 and 1534. The second source is Alonso De León's general description of the Indian groups he met before 1649 as a soldier in Nuevo León.

In Alonso De León's description, the names of various Indian groups appear, for example Borrado, Pinto , Rayado and Pelone , all of which could be counted among the hunters and gatherers. Most of their settlements were small and their locations were changed frequently. A settlement consisted of about 15 houses arranged in a semicircle and 8 to 10 people lived in each house, so that the settlement had about 150 residents. The houses were round, covered with grass or cane, and had a low entrance. Each house had a small hearth in the middle, the fire of which was mainly used for lighting. The fire was lit with a wooden drill and the residents slept on grass or animal skins.

Livelihood

Deer, rabbits, rats, birds and snakes were hunted, but not toads and lizards. When a hunter had killed a deer, he would mark the path from the animal back to the camp so that the women could carry the carcass into the camp. The hunter only received the animal's fur, while the rest was cut up and distributed. The hunting weapons were a bow and arrow and a curved wooden club that served as a walking stick, weapon and tool and was always within reach at night. By torchlight in the night men and women shot fish with bows and arrows, they also used nets and caught fish by hand on the overhanging river bank. In winter they ate different types of tubers and roots, especially the roots of the agave (genus Furcraea ). In the summer they looked for the fruits of cacti and mesquite beans. Agave leaves were baked in the oven for two days, the fibers were chewed, spit out small pieces, and then collected and dried. In times of hunger, the pieces were ground up and eaten. The Indians also ate the flowers of the cacti, as well as the green and ripe fruits, which were eaten fresh or dried. Mequite pods and beans, which were in abundance, were eaten green or dried. The Indians ground the beans in a wooden mortar and stored the flour in bags. They also knew of salt, which they added to their diet, and knew at least one plant, the ashes of which they used as a salt substitute.

dress

In Nuevo León there were surprising differences in clothing, hairstyle and face and body painting in individual groups. The men were barely dressed, not even on their lower bodies, and sandals were only worn when hiking in thorny terrain. Women covered the abdomen with grass and sometimes a kind of shirt made of two slit animal skins. A third one was attached to the back of the skin, which reached the floor and was provided with a hem. Inside were pearls, shells, animal teeth, seeds and hard fruits that made noises when dragged across the ground. Both men and women had long hair that fell to their waist and was held together with leather straps. The pelons combed their hair from their foreheads and tied them in a crest on top of their heads to tuck feathers into. Rods and bones were used to decorate the ears, nose and chest. Ethnic identity could be recognized by the type of tattoos on the face and body. In the face, straight lines ran from the bridge of the nose up over the forehead, while the entire body was covered with broad, straight or wavy lines, probably the reason for the Spanish name.

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