The Indigenous History of El Salvador

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.

El Salvador in 400 BC to 200 AD

The make-up of El Salvador's indigenous peoples changed many times during the Mayan pre-Classic and Classic periods. But one of the key periods was from 400 BC to 200 AD, when El Salvador was the site of the most advanced Mayan cities at that time, along with the southeast coast of Mexico.

The Chol or Chorti Maya began building the Cozumel site at Chalchuapa by 1500 BC, at roughly the same time as Izapa on the Chiapas coast and the first Olmec cities in Veracruz, Mexico. This makes Chalchuapa one of the three most important archeological sites in El Salvador, along with Joyas de Cerén and Cihuatán, important sites in the much later Classic and Post-Classic periods.

By 400 BC, at least three other Mayan cities were established in El Salvador, Cara Sucia, near the Pacific Coast in far western El Salvador, San Andrés, in west central El Salvador, and Quelepa, in eastern El Salvador. Quelepa was a joint Potón-Chorti city and an important trading link with areas to the south. Potón is another name for the Lenca who live in El Salvador.

There are at least three other sites that may have also been established as Mayan cities by 400 BC: Tehuacán, near the Chichontepec volcano in San Vicente; Santa Leticia, in the west near Apaneca; and Las Matamaras, along the Sumpul River in far northern Chalatenango. None of these three sites are well studied, so it is not known when settlements and temples were first built. However, much of Tehuacán is quite similar to Quelepa, which seems to indicate a Potón Lenca-Chorti city that was contemporaneous to Quelepa.

Aside from Cozumel and Quelepa, and possibly Las Matamaras, none of the names used today of these sites was the original Mayan name. Cara Sucia, Santa Leticia, and San Andrés are all Spanish names. Tehuacán is a nahuat name, most likely brought by the Pipiles from the Puebla region of Mexico sometime between 600 and 900 AD.

The Chorti and Potón Lenca were closely allied people who shared at least two cities along with major trade routes. Certainly there were many bilingual residents of the two areas. Among the trade routes managed by the Potón Lenca were those involving the Cacaopera, the Uluas, and the Mangues. The Cacaopera are a Matagalpa people and had significant trade with inland parts of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The Mangues extended down along the coast of Nicaragua.

To the west of the Chorti were the Xinca people who were more prominently based in eastern Guatemala. Unlike the Lencas, the Xincas don't appear to have adopted the Mayan philosophy and way of life. Later, during the Classic period, the Pocomam Maya moved into this area, followed, later still, by a small migration of Quiche Maya.

Obviously, all of the groups mentioned extended far beyond the borders of present day El Salvador - the Lenca far into central Honduras, for example, and the Chorti into western Honduras and eastern Guatemala. Later, after the eruption of Ilopango volcano, the Chorti moved their primary eastern city from Cozumel-Chalchuapa to Copán, while other Chorti leaders moved to Tikal, Palenque and other Classic-era sites.