Native people from El Salvador

Ethnic Relations
Different types of ethnic Mayan group: Chortis and Pocomames Lenca group: Potones and Taulepas Ulua group: Cacaoperas Xinca group Chorotega group Pipiles group

Mayan group
The Mayan is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Mayan influence can be detected from Honduras, Guatemala, Northern El Salvador and to as far as central Mexico.

Lenca group
The Lenca are an indigenous people of southwestern Honduras and eastern El Salvador. They once spoke the Lenca language, which is now considered extinct. The pre-Conquest Lenca had frequent contact with various Mayan groups as well as other indigenous people of Mexico and Central America. Lenca are often mistakenly identified as being related to the Mayan peoples. This is because the Lenca language shared some similar features with major neighboring language families of Mesoamerica, but there is no documented evidence of genetic similarities.

Ulua group
They reside in Cacaopera municipality from Morazan, is a small group and not found information about their costumes.

Xinca group
The Xinca are a non-Mayan indigenous people of Mesoamerica, with communities in the southern portion of Guatemala, near its border with El Salvador, and in the mountainous region to the north. Their language (the Xinca language) is generally classed as a language isolate with no demonstrated affiliations with other language families, although a relationship with Lenca has been proposed.

Chorotega group
The Chorotega people (alternatively, Chorti Mayan or Chorti) are one of the indigenous Mayanpeoples, who primarily reside in communities and towns of southeastern Guatemala, northwestern Honduras, and northern El Salvador. Their indigenous language, also known as Chorti is a survival of Classic Choltian, the language of the inscriptions in Copan.

Pipiles group
The Pipils are an indigenous people who live in western El Salvador. Their language is called Nahuat or Pipil, related to Nahuatl. Evidence from archeology and ethnohistory also supports the southward diffusion thesis, especially that speakers of early nahuat languages migrated from northern Mexican deserts into central Mexico in several waves. However, in general, their mythology is more closely related to the mythology of the Mayan peoples who are their near neighbors.

Emergence of the Nation

Before the Spanish conquest, the area that is now El Salvador was made up of two large Indian states and several principalities. Most of the area was inhabited by the Pipil. Spain's first attempt to conquer the area failed as the Pipil forced Spanish troops to retreat. In 1525, the district fell under the control of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, a colony of Spain, which retained authority until independence in 1821.

During the colonial period, the Spaniards replaced the communal property of the indigenous population with a system of private property. The encomienda system obliged Indians to work for the Spanish in order to pay a large tax. At the top of the colonial hierarchy were the Peninsulares , Spaniards born in Spain. Under them were the criollos , Spaniards born in the Americas. The mestizos were people of mixed Spanish.