The Guachichiles settled a large region of Zacatecas; as well as portions of San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, and northeastern Jalisco; south to the northern corners of Michoacán; and north to Saltillo in Coahuila.

Considered both warlike and brave, the Guachichiles played a major role in provoking the other Chichimeca tribes to resist the Spanish settlement.

The historian Philip Wayne Powell wrote:[1][2] These warriors were known to fight fiercely even if mortally wounded and were a key component in the Spanish defeat during the Chichimeca Wars.

The children learned to use the bow at walking age and the hunters were such good shots that if they missed the eye and hit the eyebrow they would be extremely disappointed.

The Chichimeca were nomadic making them very mobile and experts of the rough vegetation filled (mostly cactus) land in which they always looked for hiding spots.

“His long use of the food native to the Gran Chichimeca gave him far greater mobility than the sedentary invader, who was tied to domesticated livestock, agriculture, and imported supplies.

The nomad could and did cut off these supplies, destroy the livestock, and thus paralyze the economic and military vitality of the invaders; this was seldom possible in reverse” (Powell 44).

“He sent spies into Spanish-Indian towns for appraisal of the enemy’s plans and strength; he developed a far-flung system of lookouts and scouts (atalays); and, in major attacks, settlements were softened by preliminary and apparently systematic killing and stealing of horses and other livestock, this being an attempt, sometimes successful, to change his intended victim from horseman to foot soldier” (Powell 46).

They first selected the place of attack, preferably a desert but mountainous plain, a rock, a ravine, a swamp, or they simply waited until it was midnight.

Since 1550, Guachichil, Guamares and other Chichimecas assaults began to be registered, so Viceroy Don Luis II de Velasco commissioned Herrera to punish the robbers.

Under the protection of mining wealth, the city of San Luis Potosí was born in November 1592 and its foundation occurred when the fierce Cuachichil Indian named Moquamalto surrendered to Fray Diego de la Magdalena, and Captain Miguel Caldera, in the place we now know as the square of the founders.

[3] Rosa Herminia Yáñez Rosales [es] suggests that it was closer to other Chichimeca languages, like Zacateco, Chichimeco Jonaz, and Guamare.