Nahuatl language in the United States

[citation needed] During the last decades, the United States has carried out many educational initiatives aimed at teaching Nahuatl as a language of cultural heritage.

[3][4] In California, Nahuatl is the fourth indigenous language of Mexico that is most present in the state's agriculture, behind Mixtec, Zapotec and Triqui.

[12] Another educational institution, Academia Semillas del Pueblo, is a charter school in Los Angeles where the Nahua language and culture are taught to students of all ages.

[14] Historically, there began to be Nahuatl communities for the first time in what is now the United States from the Tlaxcalan colonization in the north of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

[14] On the other hand, Nahuatl is used by inmates in prisons in New Mexico, California and other states to speak in code, an issue that has greatly concerned officials.

[18] In New Folsom, California, staff intercepted a Nahuatl dictionary, which shows the adaptation of the meaning of many words that ended up forming inmates' slang used when they speak the language.

[19] In addition to these two terms, some of the words, variations and meanings of this argot are: kalpolli (school), siwatl (lady), kwilonyotl (punk), ixpol (northerners), kanpol (southerners), kawayoh (heroin), makwawitl (war club), malinalli (marijuana), mika (brother), toka (snitch), momo (your hand), kimichimi (spy), tekoni (speak), tla (yes), ma (no), ti (you), tlilli pol (blacks), topileh (law), towia (soldier), itstolli (shank), awilnema (intercourse), wel (good), mixchiya (wait), mixpantsinko (salutations), yakatl (point), pochtekatl (trader), pilli pol (small person), oktli (pruno), kan (south), pilli (senor) and kalli (cell).