Arcatao, retroguardia of Lempira and the FMLN
inspiration of the Maya, the Lenca, and the Bloque Popular (social movement)
Anyone who has been to Arcatao knows that it is a magical place. It is a place alive with the spirits of those who have gone before. Every tree and rock seems to ooze wisdom, humor, strength, and a humble confidence. So many great leaders of the revolutionary movement have come from Arcatao - Violeta Menjívar, Facundo Guardado, and María Chichilco, to name only a few. Perhaps going back to the beginning will help to explain why.
In Arcatao there is a story about the creation of the town that a long time ago a priest came to people living on a nearby mountain, Iremón, and eventually convinced them to move down to the valley where Arcatao is now located, involving some theatrics of the mysterious moving of the statue of the town's patron saint.
There is likely to be truth to this story, but it might not have been Catholic priests, as is currently believed. The line of the Potón-Lenca royalty, based in Sesori, San Miguel, traces its lineage back to 900 A.D., when the Chorti Maya city of Copán was collapsing at the end of the Maya Classic period, due to overpopulation and resource depletion. The Chorti people, including leaders and scientists, moved in many directions, including a significant migration to western Chalatenango. One Chorti group went to Sesori and joined with the local Potón Lenca to reinvigorate the Lenca civilization.
The Lenca story says that the civilization was created by founding many towns, stretching from La Unión in the east to eastern Chalatenango. Three towns were created in Chalatenango - Potonico, Guancora (now renamed Comunidad Ignacio Ellacuría, and Arcatao. Who settled these towns? Generally, there may have been a few educated Chortis from Copán who moved to each town in order to provide direction and teach people more advanced agricultural techniques, astronomy, and the rhythm of Mayan life. However, most of the people would have been from the surrounding hills, including La Cañada, Gaulcimaca, and Iremón. The Lencas sent out organizers to live among people, learn from them, but also to help teach and guide them. The social movement of the masas (people of the corn) was already being created in 10th Century AD.
So, it may have been a Chorti or Lenca priest, not a Catholic priest, that helped to found the town 1,100 years ago. However, there is a vague clue that Arcatao may be even older than that. The Salvadoran archeologist and historian, Antonio R. Arocha, has a map in his book, El Salvador, La Antigua Patria Maya, of the Mayan temples and towns that were built in El Salvador, each representing a region and together being a federation of regions. One of the 12 sites on the map is Arcatao. Unfortunately there is no narrative or explanation.
A second source, the entry for Arcatao on Wikipedia in Spanish, says that there are Mayan ruins, including a temple, on top of the Iremón mountain, eight kilometers south of Arcatao. No source is listed for this information. I checked on google earth and I didn't see any temple on Iremón, so I’m not so sure. More importantly, the Mayans were not know to build religious sites on the tops of mountains.
Finally, a third source also points to this possibility. In colonial times the Spanish bishops kept detailed records. In the 17th century El Salvador was part of the Diocesis of Guatemala. The Bishop would make the rounds to various portions of the Diocesis and one year ventured to Suchitoto. From there the Bishop went 10 leagues to the northeast and there visited an old indigenous community where there were also the ruins of a Mayan religious site. Each league for the Spanish was 4.2 kilometers, approximated by how far one can walk in one hour. Arcatao is located approximately 36 kilometers (8.5 leagues) northeast of Suchitoto, but I would guess it would take more than 8 1/2 hours to make that hike, even with a mule.If there are Mayan ruins in the Arcatao area, they would have to date from the Classic Maya period (400 to 800 AD) or earlier, since the Lencas in the post Classic period (after 900 AD) were not known to construct ceremonial religious sites. I believe that if there is a large Mayan site in Arcatao it is not located up on the mountain but underneath the town’s central plaza and Catholic church. Every time that I have trudged up the steep approach to the plaza I have been reminded of the steep pyramids at Copán and Chalchuapa.
For those who have travelled extensively in Latin America it is typical to hear stories of the Spanish building churches or cathedrals on top of the ancient ruins of holy indigenous sites. This was obviously to wipe out the old religion and replace it with the new, hoping that the veneration for the old religious site would stay associated with the place and the new religion. Could it be that the Bishop who visited the area of Arcatao in the 17th Century ordered that a church be built on top of the old Mayan ruins that may be located there? Perhaps the goats that roam the churchyard know the answer.
One time when I was visiting Arcatao, a Mayan merchant of clothing and cloth ventured into town and stayed for many days. I was struck by how this man arrived in the first place, but even more so by how at home this man was and how he seemed to know the town. It seemed as if it wasn’t by chance that Arcatao was on the trade route of this Mayan merchant. Maybe Arcatao is part of an ancient trade route been Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
One more history of Arcatao is worth telling. In the first century of Spanish occupation, the local viceroy kept meticulous records of the Spanish settlers in order to exact heaving tributes to go to the King of Spain. There is record that Arcatao was settled by Miguel Diaz. In 1548 he was growing cotton, cutaras (can someone translate?), and algarpatas (plant to make rope) there. There is an unclear reference that Arcatao may also have been called ‘Xuzclan’, a Mayan name. It could be that ‘Xuzclan’ is its Chorti Maya name, while ‘Arcatao’ is clearly a Lenca name.
The Spanish colonial records of the 1540s also state that Arcatao was in the area that recently been at war. This clearly refers to the efforts of the Spanish to subjugate the indigenous peoples. To call it a war means that the subjugation of Arcatao was not a simple, quick process. The Chorti Maya, based out of the area of Nueva Concepción, Tejutla, and Citalá were known to have fought against the Spanish from about 1527 to 1530, when they were defeated. However, the Lenca, led by a joint female-male command of Antu Silan Ulap and Lempira, also fought the Spanish in Honduras and El Salvador from 1528 to 1537. Because Arcatao was primarily a Lenca town and because of its proximity to many Lenca towns in Honduras, I think that the reference to war in Arcatao was part of the war that Lempira fought.
Some of the roots of the struggle for social justice that are so strong in Arcatao are linked back to Lempira and the struggle by the Lenca against the Spanish occupation – roots that Arcatao shares with the current struggle of the people of Honduras for social justice and true democracy against a coup government and those in the international community who support its farcical electoral process.
Today, Arcatao, as described in a community blog, is part of the rural organized communities of El Salvador, CRIPDES, perhaps similar to the Lenca federation that it was part of 1,000 years ago. It received support in the past from Copán and Sesori, today it is supported by the Madison Arcatao Sister City Project.
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