The Poqomchiʼ are a Maya people in Guatemala. Their indigenous language is also called Poqomchiʼ, and is related to the Quichean–Poqom branch. Poqomchí is spoken in Baja Verapaz (Purulhá) and in Alta Verapaz: Santa Cruz Verapaz, San Cristóbal Verapaz, Tactic, Tamahú and Tucurú. It is also spoken in Chicamán (El Quiché).
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Alta Verapaz in the context of Qʼeqchiʼ
Qʼeqchiʼ (/qʼeqt͡ʃiʔ/) (Kʼekchiʼ in the former orthography, or simply Kekchi in many English-language contexts, such as in Belize) are a Maya people of Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. Their Indigenous language is the Qʼeqchiʼ language.
Before the beginning of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala in the 1520s, Qʼeqchiʼ settlements were concentrated in what are now the departments of Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz. Over the course of the succeeding centuries a series of land displacements, resettlements, persecutions and migrations resulted in a wider dispersal of Qʼeqchiʼ communities into other regions of Guatemala (Izabal, Petén, El Quiché), southern Belize (Toledo District), and smaller numbers in southern Mexico (Chiapas, Campeche). While most notably present in northern Alta Verapaz and southern Petén, contemporary Qʼeqchiʼ language-speakers are the most widely spread geographically of all Maya peoples in Guatemala.