To tell the story of pre-Hispanic Nicaragua is to tell of two ancient stories and two relatively modern stories. The first ancient story is that of various peoples running away from the beginning of the first-born sacrifice regime in the Gulf of Fonseca from about 8300 BCE to 8200. Many ethnicities and several generations ran, but two ran for Nicaragua, including the Miskito who had been early Kiche people and the Chibchab people who had been early Olmeca people. Some of the Chibchab remained in Nicaragua, including the Poto and Rama, while others migrated further south. The second ancient story occurred in about 7200 BCE, and while it was a global event, it affected the Poto along Nicaragua’s northwest coast, among others. Many coastal Poto were swept out to sea; most perished, but two women survived all the way to Mexico’s central coast, one to Guerrero and one to Michoacan. The woman who landed near Acapulco, Guerrero, landed near where a few days earlier a sole Kiche man from El Salvador washed ashore. These two together became the Otomi. When the beginning Otomi culture initiated a first-born sacrifice regime, like the Kiche, the Poto side of the Otomi rebelled. Some ran into the hills to escape and became the Tlalpaneco. Much later the Tlapaneco would re-enter Nicaraguan history.
The next major migration into Nicaragua was the result of the end of Mayan development in 800 CE. The Kiche/Kakchiquel forces in Mexico and Guatemala attacked their enemies without restraint, including the peoples of Puebla, centered at Cholula, mainly the Purepecha and Cholu. Some of the Cholu fled overland to Chiapas while others fled by boat to Nicaragua, becoming the Chorotega or Choluteca people. The Chorotega settled along the Pacific coast in Nicaragua. About 250 years later events in Mesoamerica took a turn when the Pipil overturned the Toltec-Cihuatan in El Salvador. The Pipil attempted to live together with the defeated Toltec but in the case of the Kiche/Kakchiquel members of the Toltec, it was not easy. In about 1200 CE, the Kakchiquel warriors left to settle the less controlled Nicaragua, becoming the NIcarao.
The Nicarao were likely the aggressors in Nicaragua, forcing many Chorotega to flee north to Honduras and others to flee south the Costa Rica. But more than the Chorotega, it is likely that the Miskito were the primary target of the Nicarao, as they were former Kiche/Kakchiquel, albeit from 10,000 years earlier. At that time the Kiche were enforcing a first-born sacrifice regime on all other groups as well as themselves. The Miskito were a group of Kiche who rejected the sacrifice regime and fled from the Gulf of Fonseca to northeastern Nicaragua. But memories were long in the Americas. The Nicarao knew that the Kiche/Miskito had fled Kiche violence rather than conform to the norms of Kiche sacrifice culture. The Miskito heartland on the north Atlantic coast of Nicaragua was quite distant to the Nicarao in southeastern Nicaragua. For the Nicarao, the most accessible Miskito were the Matagalpa, those who much earlier had discovered cacao. It appears that the Matagalpa were heavily victimized by the Nicarao. Some Matagalpa fled to eastern El Salvador and became the Cacaopera. Cacaopera is cacao op per ra is “Cacao workers tired of the dancers.” Matagalpa is the origin of cacao. Dancers in the name refers to the Nicarao, carrying on an ethnic marker from the Kiche/Kakchiquel. The Cacaopera insist that they are Mayan and it is their Kiche roots from 10,200 years ago that they remember.
The Nicarao also were the aggressors against the Poto people of northwestern Nicaragua. Most of Poto fled to east-central El Salvador, next to their half-cousins, the Lenca, sometime between 1200 and 1500 CE. They became the Poton Lenca. The Poton Lenca were also half-cousins to the Quelepa Lenca who had fled from Mexico to eastern El Salvador several hundred years earlier.
While various people were fleeing the Nicarao, one group migrated to Nicaragua in order to detain the plans of the Nicarao. These were the Subtiava, who moved from Mexico to northwest Nicaragua, which, in part, was their ancestral home. The Subtiava were a group of Tlapaneco, who in turn were a split off from the Otomi, who in turn were a mix of Poto and Kiche from the time of the tsunami (~7200 BCE). The Subtiava were returning to their Poto origin area. The Tlapaneco split from the Otomi very early, likely before 6000 BCE, opposing the first-born sacrifice regime of the early Otomi. The Tlapaneco continued living in the mountains of Guerrero while the Otomi migrated further north in Mexico. Subtiava is su ub ti av va or “listen on the plain for those who open with the swings at the body.” Both su and ub are ethnic markers for the Kiche/Kakchiquel, indicating the Kiche origin (in part) of the Tlapaneco.
The Subtiava lived in present-day Leon. While the name Leon likely does date from the time of the Spanish, it likely does not refer to a place in Spain but rather refers to the Subtiava. In the first language it is le on or “former paddlers,” with the spelling of paddlers could only refer to the Kiche/Kakchiquel in the Americas. Or, as things work out, the name Leon could refer both to a place in Spain and to the Subtiava. The Subtiava were likely referring to the Spanish settlers of Leon.
Telica is an active volcano that has been erupting for at least the last 500 years. Telica is an example of several names that the Subtiava gave to the first Spanish settlers of Nicaragua. Telica is tel li ik’ ka or “beside the beginning of the ridge to the sky.” This indicates the beginning of the Telica eruptions, the first two of which were 1527 to 1529. “Ridge to the sky” seems to indicate the Telica eruptions. The dates coincide closely with the arrival of the Spanish in 1524 when they founded Leon. Telica has a double meaning referring to the Spanish, which is te el li ik’ ha or “foreigners from the trees by the river next to the Sky.” The origin place of the foreigners is not Spain but rather where the Spaniard Indo-Europeans came from before the massive Indo-European migration to Spain and Europe generally between 1800 and 1200 BCE. Common in Russian and European names is the phrase “trees by the river,” which refers to the early “Indo-European” culture based along the Yenesei River. Further consolidating this meaning is the additional phrase “next to the Sky.” At the beginning, in about 7500 BCE, a Sky man (Cuscatlan) accompanied a Wall man (Itza) against his will from Canada to Siberia to begin the Indo-Euporean culture. It was the descendants of the Sky man who later freed many Indo-European people from the bondage of their leaders. The name Telica cleverly proclaims that the Subtiava knew who the Spaniards were and where they came from – a history that the Spaniards themselves had long forgotten.
It appears that the Subtiava also named Esteli at about the same time, to the northeast. Esteli shares the teli two syllables with Telica. Esteli is es te el li or “observe beside the ones from the trees at the river.” It uses the same “trees at the river” as Telica, referring to Siberia. But Esteli also had a cleverer double meaning. The Subtiava combined a Spanish meaning with first language meanings, much the same way that Nahuatl meanings were at times combined with first language meanings. With Esteli it is este el li or “beside the foreigners from the east.”
Telica would indicate that the arrival of the Subtiava coincided with the beginning of the eruptions – the “ridge to the sky” – of Telica. The name Telica has a double meaning – te el li ik’ ha, which is “beside the lake of the foreigners from the trees of the Sky.” This would appear to refer to Lake Managua, lake of the Nicarao (foreigners). The trees of the Sky would indicate El Salvador, where the Sky people (Pipil) lived. The name Telica is similar to Esteli, indicating that these two names were likely named at the same time by the Subtiava. Esteli is es tel li which is “observe the ridge beside.” But it is also es te el li or “observe the trees of the foreigners beside.” The trees beside would indicate the cacao trees of the Matagalpa nearby. The Subtiava used Esteli as a place from which to prevent the Nicarao from attaching the Matagalpa.
A name for the mountains that begin at the northern edge of Lake Managua with the Mombotombo is the Maribios range. Mombotombo is a prominent volcano. Its primary meaning describes the volcano – mo om bot to om bo or “trapped foam forced out of the sacrificed foam hole.” However, the double meaning speaks to the origin of the Subtiava people. It is “force out those trapped in the hole.” There is a history from Guerrero of the early history of the Otomi where a rebel group that rejected the sacrifice regime was captured and placed in a cage-like structure. The neighboring Purepecha came to the assistance of the rebel group and helped them to escape. This rebel group became the Tlapaneco, one part of which became the Subtiava. Contained within the name Mombotombo are the letters otom, a shortened version of Otomi. Otomi is a combination of the Poto (Oto) and the Kiche, represented by Mi. By leaving off the last syllable in Otomi, i.e. Otom, in the name Mombotombo, the Subtiava were rejecting the Mi (cat) ideology, the sacrifice regime of the Maya.
Maribios, the mountain range that includes Mombotombo, is mar ri ib bi os or “beside the ocean where companions (spirits) were set down.” This is in recognition of the many Poto (Rama) who were killed in the tsunami of about 7200 BCE, in contrast to the Poto woman who survived floating all the way to Acapulco and became the female founder of the Otomi and Tlapaneco.
La Chimbarona is a village about ten kilometers southwest of Leon. The name describes the arrival of the Spanish and makes it clear that the Subtiava, and others in Mesoamerica, knew the history of the Spaniards. La Chimbarona is la ach chi im bar ro on ha or “large boats of the tired ones previously freed at the river by the Turtles.” The river is referring the Yenesie River of Russia. The Spaniards, like most Indo-Europeans, were freed from very difficult conditions at or near the Yenesie River by the Phoenicians between 1900 and 1200 BCE. The Phoenicians were Sky people, which would also make them Turtle people. The Subtiava knew the history of the Spaniards that the Spaniards themselves had forgotten. What might make the name La Chimbarona even more amazing is the letters chimb or chimp and the syllables baron. The Subtiava embedded two Spanish phrases to insult the Spaniards – the “chimp barons.”
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