The Pipil (Nahuat) people were governed by a chief (cacique), who was elected by the warriors. Other social groups included:
The nobles (pipiltun) and their women, who were dedicated to the living well, at the expense of the rest of the people.
The merchants (poshtecas), who along with their wives engaged in the exchange of products and took advantage of the journeys to learn about other tribes and then passed the information on to the warriors.
The artisans (amautecas) who, together with their wives, made textiles, ceramics and farming tools.
The slave men and women who were obligated to work the land of the warriors.
The commoners (macehualtin), who, along with their wives, made up the majority, cultivated the land that the cacique distributed to each family. They were also required to cultivate land for religious purposes, intended to support the priests and the temples.
Women were part of these social groups as companions to men. However, it is known that women actively participated in the production of artisanal crafts.
Translated from Historia de El Salvador by Equipo Maiz
María de Baratta was a Salvadoran musician and composer who was born at the end of the 19th century and died in 1978. She was also a folklorist and wrote an in-depth, 405 page, academic work on the culture of the indigenous people from Cuzcátlan in present day El Salvador. The book is dense and speaks of many aspects of the lives of the different tribes in the area, including ancient gods, customs, dress, language, and of course music and dance.
The ‘Dancer’ series of paintings takes her descriptions as references. I then flushed them out with to create portraits of people past.
The Izalco Indians, elegant, strong, and adorned in richly decorated costumes, bearing symbols of their theogony, dance in the town square. Their clay-coloured faces have the stillness of idols.
Their feet strike with rhythmic force, shaking the earth, and it appears to respond with each beat to the imperious calls that the sons of the earth execute. Their bodies are erect; they move as one, like a swaying tree; but their eyes, their sad and sullen eyes, gaze down at the ground, at the earth they call to with their feet and caress with their gaze.
In the mythical dances of our Indigenous peoples, the significance and symbolic value of their gestures, whether individual or in groups, had and continues to have enormous importance. Many of these gestures and figures in the dances speak to the Sun, to the Evening Star (Quetzalcoatl), to the God of Rain (Tlaloc); others are an invitation to the propagation of humankind, or to ward off the influence of evil gods, etc.
It is easy to understand why in all their theatrical entertainments (always dedicated to the gods of their culture, whatever the subject matter) our Indigenous peoples were so interested in dance and song.
Translated exerpts from Cuzcátlan Típico - María de Baratta
This painting was inspired by a creation story from the Taulepa Lenca people. It talks of Ish-Manaual, lovingly known as the Great Mother, after she had been lowered to down to earth to create humanity.
Blub blub blub, sounded the black pot of chocolate that Great Mother stirred regularly with a wooden stick. She was eagerly and wholeheartedly creating the most precious recipe. The scent of the concoction was so powerful that infused the air in the entire land. “A grain of this, a seed of that, a leaf of this, a bark of that,” said the big woman while pounding the grinding stone to form the dough. Some animals were very curious about the woman and her activities and so they decided to observe her overnight.
The underworld deities were jealous and, therefore, they sent bats as spies to the cave to find out the formula of the new creature so they could know its weakness and thus know how to destroy it once this new being had been created and placed on Earth. The secret spies of these demons were the bats. The bats and their lords were allies of the defeated sea serpent dislodged from the waters of Iltarán, the land made for the new people.
Kuilits, kuilits, kwilits, kwilits whispered the bats while hanging from the ceiling of the cave all night long. They often flew above the cave dropping their faeces or rotten fruit to contaminate the recipe. Since first creation, the nine lords of the night, constantly place traps for the people to self-destroy. These lords are the rulers of the nine regions of fear and they bring only illness to humanity. They were keen to sabotage the making of an enlightened being and had recruited the coward bats.
Undeterred, Great Mother rolled tobacco and made a cigar which she began to smoke. This sacred smoke scared the bats, who left screeching. She then wove the moulded net with ‘Wilkalá’, the eternal threads, and she placed it on a mat on the ground. This was going to help by giving the human a form and shape, as instructed by the sky deities before her departure from her heavenly home. When the morning star rose up in the east and the Alkaraban bird announced the ninth hour — the end of the night — Great Mother had finished making the dough as per the recipe.
From Ti Manauelike: The Lenca Taulepa Chief - Leonel A. Chevez
Atlacatl is an interesting character in El Salvadoran folklore. He is a warrior and a symbol of resistance for our people. However he also never existed and came about, most likely, from a mistranslation in an old manuscript. The character is closesly connected to fishing and water. The lure he holds represents how the he himself is a falsity, though it’s hard to tell whether it’s to a positive or negative outcome. Hurakán is how the Nahuat say hurricane, and I imagine that character with that level of ferocity. The machete, instead of spear, connects him to some of the issues that we have been having with youth violence here in Melbourne.
There a 2 poems which come at the character from differing angles, knowing and not knowing of his fictionality. The first is by famous Salvadoran poet Alfredo Espino (translated from Spanish) published after his death in 1928:
That Indian Atlacatl, with his figure of powerful biceps and upright chest, who in a legend would have been a bronze sculpture of Hercules.
He passed through life like a raging wind in the virgin jungle.
He died standing, like a tree wounded by a lightning bolt on the plain...
That Indian Atlacatl knew of love, that even on rocks flowers bloom and a wave crashes among the foam...
And such love of the indomitable Indian was like a flowering vine upon the bareness of a wall
ATLACATL - from Jicaras Tristes by Alfredo Espino
This is a modern poem from a writer aware that Atlacatl wasn’t a real figure:
You can hear the iron men
with spur & muzzle, hooves
clopping harder as they gallop
against gravel, heat like the snort
of an underground animal.
In the vein between the eyebrows
you can hear the pellet piercing
the jaguar pelt of a warrior.
What drove women to descend
into rivers, their long strands
of black hair along the bank,
what caused leaves to sink
to the bottom, central ridge break
into threads, minerals fossilized,
what parched the rows of corn,
the trunk of the moon shattered.
They say he stood on a headland
blowing on a seashell, disc
of the sun raging, a sound
that thickened the air, bruised it
to darkness, the entire contour
of Cuzcatlán a smoking volcano.
Now they leave only a statue.
On the national coins, their faded profiles
tarnished helmets, their forked beards
the color of grime.
ATLACATL by William Archila
These series of pieces was inspired by a story from the Taulepa Lenca people. They involve the warrior queen Antú Silán, she was the ruler of the tribes at the point when the conquistadors arrived. At this point in the story, Antú has used supernatural powers to communicate with the sky people deities in order to prepare the people and the physical land for the conflict to come.
Having secured the cargo in the sky, Antú summoned all tribal governors who, were her subjects and advisors. They met in a small valley, at the foot hill of Makuroa between Intipuca and Loma Larga). There, they held war council, a rare event.
In the royal decrees of the Lenca, the call to a war could only be uttered once the ruler of the nation (prince) has convened the grand council and, in their presence, the Queen of the Taulepa clan sanctions the war as just and necessary. The full gathering is called Arkatau, and echoes the gathering of the creation council.War, in the mind of the Lenca rulers, is an act where creation and destruction become one, changing things forever.
The war of resistance against the Casiyan (Spanish) was set in motion here. The queen told the governors that our nation was to live the longest eclipse in history and during the oath, all governors swore to resist until the end. A young governor from the northern regions asked the queen if she foresaw a victory while consulting the oracles. The queen, smiling at him, without saying a word, moved her index finger down, until it touched ground. Then she took the dusty finger and touched her tongue with it.
Her tongue showed the dirt on the tip, then she held her tongue out and showed to all present. Without words, all governors did the same. This was a secret language conveying that all present were going to die before any victory. It was a message that pre-empted that all the bodies seating in that meeting, were going to rest in the soil, before winning the war.
From Ti Manauelike: The Lenca Taulepa Chief - Leonel A. Chevez
Many of my generous friends modelled for these pieces, standing in as the govenors in the story. Here they represent a sense of unity, pride and connection with a tribe that is becoming truly global.
In 2025 I was commissioned to create a work for Mexican business Maíz y Cacao. Their mascots are the deities of corn and cacao and so I decided to paint them in human form as a diptych. I had such a good time researching them and portraing them in a more down-to-earth way, that when I finished I resolved to do the same thing with a couple of deities of the ancient Nauhat people. The Nahuat of El Salvador are direct descendants from an Aztec tribe that broke away from what’s now Mexico and made their way south to current day El Salvador. Because of this we share in many of the same deities - especially the big important ones. Tlaloc is one such god. He is very recognisable with his blue face, fangs and large round eyes. Here, I represent these features with face paint.
Tlaloc, the god of rain, fertility and water. He was widely worshipped as life-giver, and feared for his thunders and his powers over water. Known by his mask with large round eyes and long jaguar fangs. His name might come from the Aztecs but he is an older god, old as the main known settlements in ancient America, the Olmecas.
His helpers were the Tepeúa (children of the rain), who helped him to control the seasons and who found the most beloved corn in the entrails of the mountains.
From Tlaloc Myth - Eli Carmona
From what I have come across, Xochiquetzal appears much less in Nahuat myth than she does in Aztec myth, and is the godess of love, beauty, fertility, flowers and youth. In both mythologies she appears to be connected romantically to Tlaloc, though this doesn’t seem to last. For this reason the diptych can be swapped around, showing the lovers together or apart.
Xochiquetzal was also called Matlalcuaya, or the "Lady of the Blue Dress," she was the wife of Tlaloc and as such shared in his honors. Every year at the time when the milpas or corn plants showed the splendor of the harvests, the sacrifice of four young maidens chosen from the noble families of Cuzcatlán was made to the goddess: they were adorned with festive attire, crowned with garlands of flowers and carried on rich litters to the shore of the sacred waters of Lake Xilopango, where the sacrifice was made.
Translated from Cuzcátlan Típico - María de Baratta
The Salvadoran legend of La Sihuanaba (Siguanaba/hideous woman) says that the woman, originally called Sihuehuet (beautiful woman), was a peasant girl that ascended to queen using her charms (and a witch's brew) to lure into marriage Tláloc's son, Yeisun, who was a Nahuat prince. After marriage, when her husband went to war, she had affairs with other men, and Cipitío was the child of this relationship. Sihuehuet was a bad mother, neglecting her son, leaving him alone to meet her lovers. To inherit the throne she concocted a plot to use another magic potion to poison Yeisun during a festival, and so claim the throne for her lover.
As punishment, Tlaloc transformed her from Sihuehuet to La Sihuanaba. Now she roams the woods and riverlands searching for her son and luring unfaithful men to their deaths.
The mythical character of the Sihuanaba is known and feared by every Salvadoran. But lesser known is her original relationship with with the son of Tlaloc. The story falls into the very common ‘evil mother/woman’ trope while playing down any faults regarding the action of the husband. I wanted to even that aspect of the story out and portray the more human side of two people, both vulnerable, both with their faults.
Along with the Tlaloc and Xochiquetzal dipytch, this piece can be arranged with the figures facing each other in love, or facing away with disdain.
Of all the Nahuat mythological folk tales I’ve heard, this one and the one which tells the origin of La Sihuanaba are the two that I’ve come across most often. They are both also very strange because they start off one way then make a complete turn to end up somewhere totally different from the start.
Tellings vary slightly but this story starts off with a man who is unknowingly married to a witch. A lot of supernatural shenanigans ensue when he finds out but it results in him burying her head in the forest, then some children being born from the fruit of a tree that grows from the burial place. This painting is of the girl born from the tree.
The girl in the calabash (jicaro) was named Xochit Sihuat, "the flower-girl." In course of time she became one of the most beautiful women that have ever lived. Her black hair was very long, and she was ever encompassed with that fresh scent that emanates from a woman on leaving the bath. "No man shall ever touch me," she said, "but after I am dead all the people in the world shall take delight in the glorious strength of which I am possessed." She died quite young, a virgin as she had vowed, and on her grave there sprang up a plant called ‘yet’ (tobacco), which has a finer aroma and is possessed of diviner qualities than any other plant in the world.
From Mythology of the Aztecs of Salvador by C. V. Hartman