Nicarao (cacique)

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Nicarao, or Macuilmiquiztli (

Nahua group that inhabited western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica.[1][2][3] Based on research done by historians in 2002, it was discovered that his real name was Macuilmiquiztli, meaning "Five Deaths" in the Nahuatl language.[4][5][6][7] Macuilmiquiztli governed the Nicarao from his capital Quauhcapolca, in what is today the department of Rivas in southwestern Nicaragua.[8]

Macuilmiquiztli
, ruler of the Nicarao

Background

Nahuat-speaking tribe, and with the help of two indigenous interpreters who had come with González Dávila, he was able to have a discourse with the tribe's cacique, who has since been commonly referred to by the name Nicarao.[9]

San Jorge
.

According to a once-popular theory, the name "Nicaragua" was derived from a

portmanteau of the name Nicarao and the Spanish word agua which means "water", due to the presence of two large lakes and other bodies of water in the country.[13]

Name controversy

In 2002, through the research done by two Nicaraguan historians working independently of each other, it was discovered that the true name of the cacique was actually Macuilmiquiztli, which meant "Five Deaths" in the Nahuatl language.[9][12][14][15]

It is not known how the name Nicarao came to be associated with the cacique Macuilmiquiztli. It is possible that the Spanish conquistadors derived the name Nicarao based on the ethnicity of his tribe, which was composed of

Chorotega people
", to encompass a number of villages which had cultural and linguistic similarities despite being physically separated.

References

  1. ^ "The Kingdom of this world".
  2. ^ "The Aboriginals of Costa Rica".
  3. ^ "Las culturas indígenas y su medioambiente".
  4. ^ "Nicarao"
  5. ^ "Encuentro"
  6. ^ Sánchez, Edwin (October 3, 2016). "De Macuilmiquiztli al Güegüence pasando por Fernando Silva" [From Macuilmiquizli to Güegüence through Fernando Silva]. El 19 (in Spanish). Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  7. ^ Silva, Fernando (March 15, 2003). "Macuilmiquiztli". El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish). Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  8. ^ McCafferty and McCafferty 2009, p. 186.
  9. ^ a b Sánchez, Edwin (September 16, 2002). "No hubo Nicarao, todo es invento" [There was no Nicarao, it's all invented]. El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish).
  10. ISBN 978-0-88920-094-4
    .
  11. ISBN 978-1-317-32278-8
    .
  12. ^ a b c d "Encuentro del cacique y el conquistador" [Encounter of the cacique and the conqueror]. El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish). April 4, 2009. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
  13. ^ Sánchez, Edwin (October 16, 2016). "El origen de "Nicarao-agua": la Traición y la Paz" [The origin of "Nicarao-agua": Betrayal and Peace]. El Pueblo Presidente (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  14. ^ Sánchez, Edwin (October 3, 2016). "De Macuilmiquiztli al Güegüence pasando por Fernando Silva" [From Macuilmiquizli to Güegüence through Fernando Silva]. El 19 (in Spanish). Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  15. ^ Silva, Fernando (March 15, 2003). "Macuilmiquiztli". El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish). Retrieved April 12, 2017.


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