Cuachíchitl

The Cuachíchitl, whom the Spanish called Guachichiles, held the widest territory of the Chichimeca peoples, from Zacatecas across San Luis Potosí to north-eastern Jalisco and north to Saltillo. Their Nahuatl name means red-painted heads, from the red dye on their faces and hair.

They were no single kingdom but a constellation of nomadic bands and chiefdoms across the arid plateau, feared as the most aggressive agitators of resistance to the Spanish mines and roads; their archers and mobile raiding parties made them a driving force of the Chichimeca War from 1550 to 1600.

The long fighting ended by negotiation rather than conquest: in November 1592 the leader Moquamalto surrendered to the friar Diego de la Magdalena and Captain Miguel Caldera, and the Spanish town of San Luis Potosí was founded on the spot, gathering Guachichil families with Tlaxcalan and Spanish settlers into mission neighbourhoods.