The Indigenous History of El Salvador

Visit of Lenca Leader, Antonio Chevez

The Lenca are one of the oldest First Nations in the Americas. They have lived continuously in eastern El Salvador since about 8,500 BCE and are a sister people of the Maya. Following the collapse of Copan in the 9th century, the visiting Lenca royalty returned to eastern El Salvador and re-formed the Lenca nation. This royalty, led by Princess Antu Silan Ulap, initiated the resistance against the Spanish conquistadores in 1526, continued by Lempira.

We were fortunate to have a member of the Lenca royalty visiting the San Francisco region early last week, Antonio Chevez. Antonio currently lives in Australia, having been forced into exile soon after El Salvador's civil war ended in 1992. While staying close to his spiritual roots, Antonio takes a modernizing position for indigenous, saying that the Maya and Lenca were at the cutting edge of technology for thousands of years so why shouldn't they continue to accept and develop new technologies. In addition, the Lenca were always known for their ability with language, collectively speaking most languages in the Americas, so modern Lenca should be speaking the world's major languages. The Lenca were also among the primary traders in the Americas, bridging the gap between North and South American products.

The Lenca people and especially the royalty have maintained the traditions through oral history. Antonio was raised by his grandmother and heard many oral traditions and histories growing up, including the creation story. He assumed they were the stories everyone heard.

One of those stories is the Moloilu, a sacred reading, done in a group, which leads to enlightenment, attaining duality. We read the Moloilu with Antonio. It speaks of the 13 levels of heaven and Akú, the provider god. In Ch'orti' Maya, Moloilu (morohiroh) means "open-eyed gathering."

Antonio described the Lenca story of the creation of humans. The creation grandmother had atol (corn paste) and cacao paste, but these were not sufficient to create humans, so she called on her animal friends:

• First came the armadillo which gave a spine and structure to humans
• Then the rabbit gave sexual organs to humans, as well as joy, laugh, and dance
• Next the jaguar gave its belly to humans, as well as speed and a beautiful spotted pelt
• The fourth animal to help creation grandmother was the turtle which gave humans its heart as well as love
• Then the monkey came to give its fingers and toes, writing, math, and wisdom
• Finally the eagle flew in and made a nest on the head of human-in-formation. He left strings inside the head which are the dreams, deep thoughts, and angst that humans have.

Ideally humans are born which each of these six animal spirits. Typically people are strong in two of the six, and these combinations make up the personality types. If a child is too strong in one, the parents and elders will take actions to diminish it. And if a child is weak in one area, parents and elders plan activities that will strengthen that animal, including contact with the actual animal.

Finally, Antonio spoke of the human sacrifice cult in Mexico from about 1300 CE to 1525 CE. This was a cult of the Aztecs and their predessors, including the Tapanec and Mexica. In my own research I have identified the Tapanec and Mexica as coming from the northwest coast area of Nayarit and Mazatlan, Mexico ("Mazatlan" later became "Aztlan"), and were an ancient Quiche Maya remnant who lost some of the Quiche ways over the years.

As the Tapanec and Mexica came to power they enforced the human sacrifice cult. Many neighboring groups suffered great losses and many fled, causing a flow of Nahuat refugees to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. In El Salvador the Nahuat were called Pipil and settled in the west of the country while the Lenca remained in the east.

A Place to Start: the Golfo de Fonseca

When we last left the six Mesoamerican clans on the run, en guinda, they had escaped from the cave, the Gruta del Espíritu Santo, near Corinto, El Salvador, in about 8800 BC and acquired three essential gifts from three gods of Oriente: the tobacco leaf, to satiate people's hunger; a doubled-over raft to cross rivers and provide shelter; and a flint stone to make fire. The clans include the lineages that would become the Mayas, Olmecs, Mangue-Zapotecs, Toltecs, Chibchans, and Cacaoperans, but we'll get to that later.

The six founding families were encamped at the convergence of the Rio Torola and the Rio Lempa, but after some years - maybe a generation or two - the leaders found a better place of refuge. Visible from the eastern shore of present-day La Unión were seven islands and a few smaller ones in the Golfo de Fonseca, which is shared by El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

The sea level was going back down during the mini Ice Age from 9000 to 8500 BC, allowing access to at least some of the seven islands, left [click to enlarge] including Isla Tigre (balam) during low tide. Isla Tigre is characterized by a large volcano, with an elevation of 760 meters (2400 ft). Isla Tigre along with two other islands, Isla El Garrobo and Isla Coyote, are in Honduras. The remaining four islands are in El Salvador: Isla Zacatillo, Isla Martín Pérez, Isla Conchagüita, and Isla Meanguera. Isla Meanguera is one of the largest islands but is the furthest out into the ocean, so it may have been the last inhabited.

The Popol Vuh tells us that the Mayans built a citadel. It is likely that the citadel was either the volcano itself of Isla Tigre or a structure built at the top of the volcano. Google Earth reveals traces of an ancient structure at the summit, right [click to enlarge]. The Popol Vuh also says that the Mayans could see the sun rising over the water at this citadel and that would have been the case on this island.

What evidence is there that these seven islands, and Isla Tigre in particular, are one of the places of origin of the Mayan people? The Popol Vuh provides several place name clues that are consistent with the islands in the Golfo de Fonseca:

• The name 'tigre' for the main island. There are not likely to have been tigers (jaguars) on this island. Rather the name came from the fact that three of the six families came from the jaguar room of the Xibalba cave and were therefore named the jaguar families.
• Tulan Zuyua - This is the name given to the place of origin in the east. On the mainland of Honduras, close to the present-day entrance to the Isla Tigre, is a village called El Tular. To'or means 'near' in Ch'orti and the 'r' would be changed to 'l' in Quiche; ha means water or ocean. So perhaps Tulan signifies 'near the ocean'. On the other hand, many have thought tulan refers to reeds. However, I believe that confusion was caused by the earlier encampment near the reeds at the confluence of the Lempa and Torola (reed) Rivers. Assuming Tulan means "near the ocean", we find that Suyey means 'foundation' or 'base' in Ch'orti. Therefore, 'foundation near the ocean' is a plausible meaning of Tulan Zuyua.
• The place name wuqub' pek, wuqub' siwan often accompanies the name Tulan Zuyua. Dennis Tedlock (Rev. Edition, English translation of the Popol Vuh, 1996) translates this as "seven caves, seven canyons." Without questioning the number seven, I believe that pek and siwan are both referring to the seven islands in the Gulf of Fonseca. In Ch'orti' Maya, pek means knobs or flat objects. That could be a reference to the islands.
• The phrase siwan is even more suggestive. Si means "set of objects" and wa'an means "rising" or "standing." Considering that the islands would have appeared to have been rising during this time period, while the ocean was declining, due to the mini-Ice Age, this is a plausible description of the seven islands.
• Many of the nations mentioned above have creation myths that originate near the ocean. This is true of the Mayans, the Lencas, the Miskito (one of the "Iloc"), and Diriamba (one of the Mangues). The Lencan creation myth is specific to the islands in the Golfo de Fonseca. The Miskito creation myth speaks of being near the ocean and of another people, i.e. the Mayans, which lorded over the Miskito. This is consistent with the Popol Vuh.

The Popol Vuh also tells us that when the six families arrived to Tulan everyone spoke the same language. However, while at the Tower of Balam on Isla de Tigre, the speech of the different families began to differentiate. This would have been especially true of Sutz' Tam and Sutz' Iloc, as they decided not to follow the Mayan way of life, even though both came out of the Sutz' (bat) room of the cave, like the Quiches.

The Sutz' Tams moved south and became the Ngabere, Buglere, Boruca, Talamanca, Pech, Dorasque, Rama, Votic, Kuna, Chibha-Motilon, Bari, Chimila, and Arwako. The Sutz' Ilocs became the Miskito, Sumu, Matagalpan, and Cacaopera people. The origin of the Chibchan languages on these islands helps to explain why the Lenca language is about midway between Chibchan and Mayan.

The islands provided the Mayans and other Mesoamerican peoples with a refuge from the Xibalbans, who were afraid of water. But the Mayans had another calling which was hard to fulfill from the islands - that is agriculture. They learned from watching the birds, the coyotes and other animals, which ate seeds and nuts. They began to realize that they could cultivate those plants themselves. But to do that they needed to be on the mainland, back in the fertile land of El Salvador.

The Rooms and Colors of the Corinto Cave

The Mayans, and by extension, many other people, emerged from a cave called Xibalba, a place of great suffering. We know that this cave is not just allegorical, due to the fact that the word Xibalba means, 'those men who are afraid of water' and that the Mayans fled eventually to islands, including Teopan and Teotipa in far western El Salvador. Teopan is located in Lago Coatepeque whose name in Chorti was Tammakchan, 'deep inside the rainbow', where rainbow means 'stopping up the rainstorm'. On the islands the Mayans perfected corn by hybridizing it with teosinte grass, which means 'plants in a row on an island'.

By looking up place names in the online Chorti' Maya dictionary, I have been able to locate a cave in eastern El Salvador called La Gruta del Espíritu Santo near the town of Corinto. Corinto means 'place of game sacrifice' in Chorti Maya. Before moving on to what the Popol Vuh says happened to the civilizing people once they left the cave of Xibalba, it will be helpful to describe the cave. All of the people who can trace some of their lineage back to the Mayans will share some of these specific cultural icons.

The Popol Vuh describes five sections in the cave, the first being the Dark 'House', which appears to be where the leaders stayed as well as guests. Next is the Razor House, perhaps in reference to pointed rocks or stalagmites. Then is the Cold or Whistling House, in obvious reference to a draft that whistles as it blows in. This area would have been several degrees colder then during the Ice Age period. The next room is the Jaguar House. As I mentioned in a previous post this might refer to those who will later be forced to fight for the entertainment of the cave leaders. Finally is the Bat House, which is probably a literal reference to an area where bats flew around.

The Popol Vuh tells us that three of the four original Mayan came out of the Jaguar House and I will demonstrate that one also came out of the Bat House. In some versions of the Popol Vuh description there is a sixth fire or smoke house, an obvious reference to a cooking space. The cave people would have kept a constant fire going since it was so difficult to start a fire. Consistent with the Popol Vuh, the Bradshaw Foundation documented that the cave consists of several galleries or sections.

The Bradshaw Foundation also says that there are five paint colors on the cave drawings in the cave. These are the same five colors mentioned throughout the Popol Vuh and to this day used by the Mayans in their ceremonies: white, black, yellow, red, and green. My guess is that the colors represented clans or groups of leaders.

When the Popol Vuh mentions the roads to Xibalba and calls them the white, black, yellow, and red roads, it may be the road for which a particular color clan is responsible for controlling. Later, probably after the Mayans left the cave, green paint was added in the cave. It is only in a later passage of the Popol Vuh that the green road is mentioned. The green road is the one of choice. This would seem to be a reference to going off-road, through the woods, to avoid the Xibalba marauders. Even today one can hear Central Americans make a joke about taking the green road when going off a beaten path.

Raphael Girard, who lived among the Chortis for a long time, documented a near-forgotten play called 'the History' performed at Christian feast days very close to the summer and winter solstice celebrations. In the play, the Mayans are opposed to a white giant and a black giant. And move around as if stars and planets. The Mayan 'king' has a gold crown with ten points, a yellow cloak, rose or red trousers, and a blue 'bonnet' with a long (30 cm) red veil hanging over his face. There are other solar and celestial symbols on his clothing. First the white and black giants battle each other, with the black giant winning. In the end the Mayan king is able to defeat the black giant.

While Girard considers this to be entirely metaphor, I believe it corresponds to glimmers of human history: that the white giant represents the leader(s) of the humans as they crossed over the Bering Strait. That as they progressed down toward Central America, there was a struggle for power and that the black giant represents the victor clan which established a legacy of control over the entire traffic of the isthmus between North and South America, the Central American isthmus. The black giant clan had their base out of the Gruta cave in Corinto, El Salvador.

The Bradshaw Foundation found that some of the drawings had feathered headdresses. Some had an elongated left wrist - perhaps a club reference. At the very deepest point in the cave is a large black and white hand, using the black rock with white paint stenciled around it. The symbol of those who controlled the cave.

This cultural reference also existed in El Salvador until recently. During the 1970s, prior to the armed conflict in El Salvador, the death squads used the drawing of either a black or white hand, 'El Mano', to identify the house of somebody that they intended to kill. When your house was selected it was said that you were fingered out.

It appears from the references in the Popol Vuh of lights, fireflies, and torches that the Mayans were able to demonstrate knowledge of the heavenly skies to the Xibalbans. The Xibalbans counter with their own somewhat simple knowledge of the skies, a white dagger, which I would guess is the sun. It would appear that although the Xibalbans may have been cruel, they were intelligent.

Ultimately it was a test of knowledge rather than a test of strength, that allowed the Mayans to free themselves of the cave. Each time that they visit the cave it is for several days and there are references to staying up all night. This would have been necessary to watch the night skies, in order for the Mayans to demonstrate their prowess of astronomical knowledge.

It would appear that the specific knowledge that the Mayans developed that allowed their freedom was the ability to track Mars and predict when it would turn retrograde in the sky.

One can imagine the conversation, "We don't need to do anything differently. The sun will come up tomorrow. That is our reality. Why sit there and count to 20 by painting on your fingers and toes. See our hand, this is our counting. If you think you have a better system than us, go back where you came from. If you think you're so hot, make the stars stand still."

In the razor room the razors are moving back and forth but the Mayans are able to make the razors stand still. This was done by developing the 260 day calendar and the Mars long-count calendar. It was not brute force but an astronomical calendar, pulled by the gravitational force of the center of the galaxy, the void in the Milky Way, the tree of life in the sky, that led to the liberation of one of the world's earliest people. This is the 'ball game equipment' of the Mayans. Game on!

Transforming the Gods

The beginnings of the Mayan religion were tumultuous. As the Chortis, the Mayans along the Pacific Coast, became more adept at agriculture - hybridizing corn, beans, and squash, and introducing yuca (manioc), peanuts, and cacao from areas to the south - adoration was given to Mother Earth, ix, who provided all good things. The Chortis named corn, ixim, which means something similar to 'fruit of Mother Earth'. Corn came from teosinte, ixim ka, 'wild fruit of Mother Earth'. 

But as people ate more corn, a disease appeared (pellegra - a niacin deficiency) and destroyed entire villages. Leaders became lesioned, weak, demented, and died. After many deaths, much sacrifice, the gods seemed to reveal a solution to help the Mayans overcome the awful disease - soaking corn in ash. A new creation narrative was developed to explain how this happened, gods were transformed, and new language was created.

While still female, Ix was transformed from mother earth to jaguar god, the spotted (lesioned) god that came from the underworld, the land of death. This was done through creating the legend of Ixbalanque - the spotted (lesioned) jaguar hero twin. Balan means jaguar - clearly the linking of ix and balan in this hero twin was a way of transforming this god from the generous and beneficent Mother Earth to the clever and death-dealing jaguar. Likewise, it is likely that at this time Ixbalba, also written Xibalba, came to mean 'the underworld'. The new theology and philosophy was carried with the Mayans to help convince neighboring peoples to trust their new discovery of the cure for the diseased corn. And it clearly worked, as civilization spread at a tremendous pace from 1500 to 1300 BC.

Everyday language was transformed as well. A new word was created for corn, nar, to differentiate it from the diseased corn, ixim, the corn of the jaguar god. The term nixtamal, the process of soaking corn in ash or lime, was created and means "to cure the corn of the disease ix." Ix refers to pellegra, the disease of spots, the disease of the lesioned jaguar god of death. Nir means 'to cure' in Chorti and nian means 'none' or 'not any'.

The Popol Vuh, Theology in a Time of Disease

[Este mismo cuento en español.]

I have discussed how the early Chorti Mayans of coastal El Salvador and Guatemala discovered or highlighted the discovery of soaking corn in ash in about 1500 BC, and their promotion of this discovery led to one of the fastest civilization expansions in the history of the pre-modern world.

However, this expansion was only possible with an ideology or theology attached to it. By about 1700 BC, the Chortis were rapidly advancing due to improved agriculture from constantly improving corn and bean production through selective hybridization. In addition, their efficiency at fishing and ocean harvesting was greatly enhanced by their discovery of the 13 to 14 day tidal cycle, which led to the creation of the Tzol'kin calendar.

Finally, their correlation of eclipses with 52-day periods of slack tides and very poor fishing, allowed them to begin long trade journeys to central Mexico, the Veracruz coast, the Peten, and the Yucatan without missing out much on the best fishing. On these trade trips, the Chortis, the master agriculturalists, were always pushing the latest corn hybrid and encouraging more corn production. Corn seed from the most recent harvest was likely one of their major trade products on these trips.

Yet, by 1500 BC or just before then, they faced a major crisis in the legitimacy of their leadership. That was because the very same Chorti elite, those who consumed the most corn, were becoming diseased. They became weak and they became lesioned, with bloody sores all over their bodies. Not only that, but the people in their communities and the people who they convinced to give up hunting and gathering and produce more corn were also becoming diseased. They didn't know yet about pellegra (also called pellagra), the disease caused by niacin deficiency common among those who rely on corn as a staple in the diet.

But due to this disease, throughout Mesoamerica people were rejecting Mayan leadership, rejecting corn and the agricultural lifestyle, and reverting to hunting and gathering. Neighboring peoples who relied on hunting were defeating the weakened Mayan and mocking their diseased leaders. No doubt, civilization was delayed by hundreds of years by pellegra. The Chortis had discovered what seemed to be a cure, but many did not believe them. That is, they did not believe until the Mayans developed a story, a narrative, that explained meaning and truth, despite the scourge of pellegra. This narrative is best described by the Popol Vuh, the sacred text relayed by the Quiche after the arrival of the Spanish.

The early chapters of the Popol Vuh read like a description of the symptoms of pellegra and in each case the conclusion is that the creator beings failed. That is, it wasn't the fault of the people who became diseased nor was it the fault of the Mayan leaders who promoted a new lifestyle. One chapter describes humans who were dry, with no sweat and no blood. Dry is also a word meaning extreme skinniness in Mesoamerica and weight loss and weakness is one symptom of pellegra. Another chapter describes the rain washing away the substance of the skin and organs of the humans - a symptom of pellegra is the wasting away of the skin.

Yet another chapter goes into horrid detail of symptoms of dementia, with the animals speaking back to the humans, even the corn grinding stones - the metates and manos - speaking back and saying that they would grind up those who usually did the grinding. Dementia is one of the advanced symptoms of pellegra.

The Popol Vuh explains that all of these attempts to create human beings failed. A new attempt to create humans was made and it was successful. In this way, the Mayan creation story is parallel to the Poton Lenca creation story of central and eastern El Salvador that I have already described. Ixbalanque, one of the hero twins (the other is Hunahpú) in the Popol Vuh, represents the diseased leader who had lesions all over his body.

By associating this hero, Ixbalanque, with the jaguar, the most powerful animal in the Mesoamerican ecosystems, but also an animal with spots (similar to lesions), the Mayans were legitimizing their diseased leadership. The jaguar people are the powerful people with the lesioned leadership. Many people had to die before the gods revealed the secret of corn soaking, thus the concept of sacrifice was incorporated into the cosmology.

Most importantly, the Popol Vuh reassures people that it is not the fault of the people in the first agricultural villages that they were hearing voices, that they were lesioned, that they were weak and dying. Nor is it the fault of the corn or the agricultural way of life. Rather, it was the fault of the creator beings. Now they had finally succeeded with a new being, a being made of corn dough, corn that has been cured of the disease by soaking it in ash. The narrative of the Popol Vuh helped to convince both the Chorti Maya villagers and neighboring peoples to trust the diseased Chorti leadership and to accept the strange new practice, sent by the gods, of soaking corn in ashes.

[PostScript, Jan. 27, 2010. To remember those who died in this epidemic and to give thanks for the one true answer to overcoming it, the Mayans put a touch of ash on their foreheads.]

Put the Lime in the Coco

Something revolutionary happened 3,500 years ago in the Americas. It led to an ALBA of sorts - a giant fair trade alliance. And it spread civilization quicker than almost any other event in human history.

In Mesoamerica 1500 BC there was only one location with village life with any signs toward civilization, along the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Guatemala, and El Salvador, due to developing a counting and calendar system to track the high tides and allow for much greater fishing production. This advanced knowledge of the tides did little to grow a civilization since it was irrelevant to inland peoples and the tides along other parts of the coast did not follow the same pattern.

Yet, by 1400 BC, there were populated villages moving very quickly toward civilization in at least seven locations, in addition to the Pacific coast: northern Peten of Guatemala (Mirador), central Chiapas (Chiapa de Corzo), Olmec Gulf coast of Veracruz (San Lorenzo and Laguna de los Cerros), Oaxacan valley (San Jose Mogote), central Mexican valley (Tlapacoya and Tlatilco), Morelos Valley (Chalcatzingo), and northern Guerrero (Teopantecuanitlan).

This is also about the time that the Huastecan Mayan and Yucatecan Mayan language groups split off from the main line of Mayan languages. Another sign of quick dispersion of culture.

By 1500 BC, the peoples of Mexico and Central America had been growing squash for at least 5,500 years, corn for 5,000 years, and beans for 2,000 years. Corn was slowly evolving as it was continually hybridized to select the biggest cobs. But most people were still living in isolated groups, gaining much of their limited protein from fishing or hunting and gathering.

Scientists now know that corn produces a condition called 'pellegra', a type of malnutrition when people use corn as a staple crop. Pellegra was a major health concern in places like northern Italy in the 18th and 19th centuries and in the American south - over 1,300 pellegra deaths were counted in South Carolina as recently as 1915. That is because unsoaked corn, by itself, has a noted lack of the B vitamin niacin and amino acids lysine and tryptophan. Pellegra causes confusion, weakness, dermatitis and skin lesions, insomnia, dementia, and death. All things that could keep a civilization from forming. Beans also have lysine and tryptophan and together with corn makes a complete protein, but this wasn't enough to overcome the niacin deficiency of corn.

Soaking corn in ashes or in lime slake (calcium oxide) before cooking the corn releases the niacin when consumed and increases the lysine and tryptophan. How did the early Mesoamericans discover this? The very early corn had an extremely hard encasing, just like the grass it was hybridized from, teosinte. It could only be consumed by popping it or roasting it. In addition to releasing important nutritious elements, soaking corn in ashes or lime also breaks down the hard encasing of the corn kernels, making it possible to mash the corn to make it into masa, which could then be used to make atol, tamals, tortillas, and pupusas. One day, some uncooked corn kernels must have been left out in a gourd or ceramic container, some ashes accidently placed on top, and then it rained. In the morning, the family noticed very soft corn, perfect for mashing. Something that doesn't happen just with water soaking. And the tradition was born. Within a generation or two, the health benefits of the soaking would have also been noticed. Yes, tortillas are linked to higher civilization.

In the Nahuat language, this is called nixtamal, leading to the English word nixtamalization. Nixtamal probably comes from the Mayan - ix or ixim is corn in Mayan, and in Ch'orti Maya, grinding the soft corn is called muxi uixim. Corn mash, which is much easier after the nixtamal process, is a shared root word in all Mayan languages that separated at about 1500 BC. In addition, there are early Olmec drawings of tamals, which would be much easier to make after soaking the corn in ash- or lime-water. While the exact date is not known, I believe that it is such an important discovery that it would lead to a huge expansion in village life and population density. This leaves the most probable date of 1500 BC.

It Took a Directiva to Create the World

One of the surviving creation stories from El Salvador is the Lenca creation story. It is a story about Akú, the creator who is frustrated in his/her efforts to create the world. Nothing seems to go right while Akú is working alone. But as soon as Akú forms a council, the Kanel, or directiva, he/she begins to make progress. In fact, each Kanel is given a consort. I read this to be a directiva. So, not only does Akú create a directiva but then each directiva (Kanel) member is part of a directiva themselves.

After five days of fruitless work, Akú created the four divine beings that were collectively called, Kanel to assist in surveying the measurements of the first square of the universe called Anamerike or Ajkmerike. The task was so great that an assisting consort was created for each one of them. Together, they celebrated council and after meditating on the task at hand, in unanimity they decided to create a circle of time.

This is so Salvadoran! If you can’t get something done, call a meeting. For those of you not familiar with the rural organized communities of El Salvador, such as those of CRIPDES, let’s just say that directivas kick butt. They get things done. One person in charge of each thing happening in the community and each one representing a certain portion of the community. The directiva brings the community together and organizes the collective action, whether that is working in the fields, forcing the army to leave the community, or campaigning against domestic violence.

I really like how the Lenca creator is not able to create the world, at least not right away. Akú tries many different things until finally something – the directiva – works. The story provides some clues to the most valued attributes among the Lenca: humility, patience, experimentation, teamwork. “Akú made a mountain but this crumbled on itself.” How many creation stories include such a clear admittance of failure. The Lenca are not afraid to fail, to learn, to try again, this time with a team.

First posted, Dec. 9, 2009 on BlogBox