The location of the Lencas is the southwestern region of Honduras and the eastern region of El Salvador, in Central America. They have their main settlements in the Salvadoran departments of La Unión, San Miguel and Morazán.
These three settlements are on the border with Honduras. In the Honduran part they occupy part of the departments of Lempira, La Paz and Intibucá.
According to the writings of Spanish chroniclers and priests of the colonial era, it is estimated that the Lencas occupied the western, central and southern parts of Honduras. It is said that they had villages of up to 350 houses and they were the largest town in Honduras.
History and description
Each group lived in a well-defined and organized territory commanded by a cacique, and it is estimated that by the time of the Spanish Conquest up to 500 Lenca villages came into existence.
The pre-Hispanic Lencas were made up of the Care, Cerquín, Potón and Lenca groups. They did not have large ceremonial centers and their agriculture was based mainly on the cultivation of beans and corn, reaching about three crops per year.
Salvadoran historian Rodolfo Barón Castro stated that the Lencas are direct descendants of the Mayans.
According to this historian, at a certain moment the Lencas decided to settle in the territory of Honduras and go from the traditional Mayan nomadism to settle in those lands.
Location
Each of the four main Lenca groups mentioned above was located in a particular area of Honduras.
In the case of the care, they were located in Intibucá, La Paz, the northern area of Lempira and the southern area of Santa Bárbara.
For their part, the cerquín were settled in the central and southern areas of the department of Lempira and the southern part of Intibucá.
The Lenca group was based in what is now known as Tegucigalpa, specifically in the south of the Francisco Morazán department. They also occupied the eastern lands of La Paz and a good part of the department of Comayagua.
The rest of the Lenca group settled in the eastern valley and were neighbors of the Salvadoran Lencas.
In El Salvador the potón group was also located, but these were towards the west side of the Lempa river.
The Lencas today
It is estimated that the Lenca population is approximately 100,000 inhabitants, distributed in 100 communities between towns, villages and hamlets.
They inhabit the spaces of Intibucá, Lempira and La Paz. This corresponds to just a fraction of the space they occupied before and during the Conquest.
During the Spanish Conquest, it took a long time for the Lencas to assimilate and accept European culture.
They had struggles of up to 20 years, which in the end destroyed part of the culture and social organization of the Lencas.
The greatest battle that was fought between Lencas and conquerors lasted for more than six continuous months. Some 2,000 warriors fought against Spanish domination in the so-called Los Lencas Rebellion of 1537, and were defeated.
Little remains of Lenca culture today other than some peoples and the sense of identity of these 100,000 descendants.
The Lenca language has been considered extinct since the end of the 19th century, with only bits of it remaining in some words and phrases that are hardly known by the elderly.
Contemporary Lencas use Spanish as their native language, largely because of the discrimination they suffered in schools and society in general for many years.
References
- Ethnic groups of Honduras gruposetnicoshn.wordpress.com
- Wikipedia - Lenca en.wikipedia.org
- The Lencas in Honduras loslencasenhonduras.blogspot.com
- Territorial location of the Lencas loslencashn.blogspot.com
- XplorHonduras - Lenca Indigenous Group xplorhonduras.com
- EcuRed - Los Lencas ecured.cu
- History of Honduras - Ethnic groups: The Lencas historiadehonduras.hn