Purépecha

Purépecha country centres on the lake basin of Pátzcuaro and the volcanic meseta west of it. Mexico's 2020 census counted 142,469 speakers of Purépecha, a language isolate with no demonstrated relative anywhere in the Americas.

From Tzintzuntzan, the city of hummingbirds on Lake Pátzcuaro's shore, the Purépecha state ruled western Mexico with metallurgy the Aztecs envied; imperial armies broke against its frontier at Taximaroa, and the round yácata pyramids of the capital still stand above the lake. The state fell to the Spanish without the battle it never lost to Tenochtitlan.

The living culture is famous across Mexico: the night of the dead on Janitzio island and around the lake, the artisan towns where each village holds a craft, copper hammered at Santa Clara del Cobre, guitars at Paracho, and a language revitalisation movement with its own new-year fire ceremony, kept since 1983.

This is an introduction, the first layer. A full collection, like the Mapuche collection that opened this atlas, follows as research and review are completed for each people.