Las Vueltas 2382334 214890616 2008-05-25T19:41:32Z PipepBot 4984067 robot Adding: [[it:Las Vueltas]] [[Image:El Salvador-Chalatenango.png|thumb|Location of [[Chalatenango Department]].]] '''Las Vueltas''' is a [[Municipalities of El Salvador|municipality]] in the [[Chalatenango Department]] in the North of [[El Salvador]]. NOTE: Unless otherwise cited, all information extracted from Martínez Alas et al. "Diagnostico Cultural Municipio de Las Vueltas, 2005." Reprinted with express permission of the Unidad Tecnica Intermunicipal de La Mancomunidad la Montañona, who commissioned the report. ==Municipality== Las Vueltas is a municipality in the department of Chalatenango, El Salvador. It is bordered to the north by Ojos de Agua; to the east by Las Flores; to the south by Chalatenango; and to the northeast by Concepción Quezaltepeque. The territorial extension is 36.83 km² In 2005 the population of the municipality was 2,101 inhabitants. For its administration, the municipality is divided into 6 cantones and 35 caseríos. ===History of Las Vueltas=== The civilization of El Salvador dates from the PreColombian Era, from around 1500BC, according to experts (Embajada). On May 31, 1522, the first of the Spanish, under the leadership of Captain Pedro de Alvarado, disembarked on the Isla Meanguera, located in the Golf of Fonseca (Embajada). In June of 1524 Captain Alvarado began a war of conquest against the indigenous people of Cuzcatlán (land of precious things). After 17 days of bloody battles many people died but the Spanish were not defeated, so they continued their conquest (Embajada). During the following centuries the Spanish maintained their control, with European families controlling tfhe land and the native and African slaves (Lonely Planet). Towards the end of 1810 the Priest José Matías Delgado, with the support of many people, began a rebellion (Embajada). After years of struggle, the Central American Independence Act was signed in Guatemala, on September 15, 1821 (Embajada). According to the information preserved by tradition, Las Vueltas was founded in 1765 by emigrants from Chalatenango. By legislative decree on May 12, 1902, the then municipality of La Ceiba was abolished and changed into a cantón in the municipality of Las Vueltas. By this same law Las Vueltas los canton El Zapotal to Ojos de Agua. A new law, that of April 23, 1906, reinstated El Zapotal as part of Las Vuelas and also moved the prosperous cantones of La Ceiba and La Laguna to Chalatenango. Another legislative decree, on April 8, 1943, moved these two cantones out of the jurisdiction of Chalatenango and also shifted the cantones of El Zapotal and El Coyolar to Ojos de Agua. Due to the repression of the landowners, in 1931 farmers and indigenous citizens began a rebellion (Lonely Planet). The army responded by killing 30,000 people, including the leader of the rebellion, Farabundo Martí, in a bloody act that was later referred to as La Matanza (The Massacre) (Lonely Planet). But the people remained unhappy with the government. This began a movement organized around lefist guerillas to combat the repression violence (Stahler-Sholk, 1994:2). The government responded with violence, and the Death Squads were formed, which eventually killed and tortured thousands of people (Foley 2006). More political instability and the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980 sparked the beginning of the Civil War (Lonely Planet). This war, which lasted 12 years, resulted in the death of an estimated 75,000 people and the displacement of thousands more (Stahler-Sholk, 1994:3). The Peace Accords were signed on January 16, 1992 (Embajada). The department of Chalatenango was heavily impacted by the Civil War. Many people of Las Vueltas were forced to abandon their homes becaues of the violence. But beginning the early 1990s, and especially after the Peace Accords, the people have returned to repopulate the municipality. ==Cantones and their Caseríos== Conacaste: Conacaste, El Arrozalito, La Hondurita, Chilguaste, El Zurron, Los Jobos El Sicahuite: El Sicahuite, El Cacao, El Potrero, Tierra Blanca, El Tablón La Ceiba: La Ceiba, El Caulote, Los Menjivar, El Limón La Laguna Seca: La Laguna, El Picacho, Vallecito, La Quebrada, El Chorizo, Sitio El Amate, Sitio El Copinol Los Naranjos: Los Naranjos, San Antonio, Plan del Barro, Los Amates San José: San José, El Cordoncillo, El Balcon, Tierra Blanca, San José El Amatillo, La Ceibita, El Descanso, El Portillo, El Roblar ===Observation of the administrative political division=== According to the inhabitants, the caseríos La Hondurita, Chilguaste and El Zurrón of cantón Conacaste only exist in name, since they are currently uninhabited. The same is true of El Cacao, Tierra Blanca and El Tablón in cantón El Sicahuite. In La Laguna Seca only La Laguna and El Picacho are inhabited, the rest are not currently populated. In Los Naranjos, the caseríos San Antonio and Los Amates are also uninhabited. In cantón San Jose only the caserío San José El Amatillo is currently inhabited, the rest are abandoned. Many of these caseríos were abandoned during the war; many of those that are now inhabited were abandoned during the war but repopulated after the Civil War ended ===History and Names of the Cantones and Caseríos=== According to the inhabitants of the caseríos La Hondurita, Chilguaste and El Zurrón ofcantón Conacaste no longer exist except in name, because they are uninhabited. The same is true of caseríos El Cacao, Tierra Blanca and El Tablón in cantón El Sicahuite. In cantón La Laguna Seca only the caseríos La Laguna and El Picacho still exist, the rest of the caseríos are uninhabited. In cantón Los Naranjos, caserío San Antonio and Los Amates are uninhabited. In cantón San José there is only one existing caserío, called San José El Amatillo; the rest are uninhabited. Many of these caseríos were uninhabited during the Civil War; other places were also left behind, but the inhabitants returned and repopulated after the end of the conflict. El Sicahuite was named because there are a lot of sicahuite trees in the area. El Conacaste was named for a large conacaste tree in the local tree. Los Naranjos was so named because orange trees (naranjos) are cultivated in abundance. ==Politics== There are two main political parties in El Salvador, whose roots lie in the Civil War (Foley 2006, Stahler-Sholk 1994). The main right-wing party is La Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Nactionalist Republican Alliance—ARENA), founded on September 30, 1981, and was in power during the last few wars of the Civil War (ARENA 2007). The Frente Farabundo Marti para La Liberacion Nacional (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front--FMLN)the socialist party, is the direct descendent of the guerrilla troops that fought against the Salvadoran government, and was legally constituted as a political party on September 1, 1992 (Stahler-Sholk 1994:3). Since the Civil War the two have remained the country’s principal political parties, still divided by the left-right binary. Today ARENA describes itself as a party in whose “forming principals express that a democratic and representational system, which guarantees the freedom of action and the consequences of individual peaceful goals, are the quickest and stablest path to achieve integral development of the nation” (ARENA 2007). The FMLN “has began to take steps…to act as a consequence of the historically created challenges, in order to make the party an organization of ‘social fighters…’and ‘to unify more’ the struggle for power (Comisión Nacional de Educación Política 2002). Other political parties in El Salvador include The Christian Democratic Party, The United Democratic Center, and The Party of National Conciliation. The mayor of Las Vueltas is Rosa Cándida Alas de Menjívar of the FMLN party. ==Religion== 83% of the population of El Salvador identifies as Roman Catholic, and the other 17% identify as “other” (CIA World Factbook). But in the last few years the population of Catholicism has been reduced (USBDHRL). There is a lot of Protestant activity in the country, and El Salvador has one of the highest rates of Protestantism in Latin America (Soltero y Saravia 2003:1). There is no doubt that religion plays an important role in the lives of many people. Patron-saint and other religious festivals are still very important and celebrated in almost all of the municipalities in the country, and almost all the cantones have their own patron-saint in whose honor the festival is celebrated. Fiestas Patronales Urban center: February 10-12, in honor of the Virgin de Concepción; October 10-13, Anniversary of the repopulation of the municipality. El Cantón Conacaste: December 18, in honor of the Virgin de los Remedios El Cantón Los Naranjos: July 15-16, in honor of Virgin del Carmen. El Cantón El Sicahuite: June 20-21, in honor of San Luís Gonzaga; May 13, in honor of the Virgin de Lourdes. Cantón San José, caserío El Amatillo: March 19, in honor of San José de la Montaña. Cantón La Ceiba: June 13, in honor of San Antonio de Padua. ==Music== Before the popular music was ranchera and vals. Some of the popular instruments used to be guitars, violins, accordions, and marimbas. This music is now no longer heard. ==Agricultural Production== The people of Las Vueltas grow corn, beans, and sorghum. The majority, if it is a good crop, is for family sustenance; little is sold. The fields also produce melons, cucumbers, squash, etc. ===Food and Drinks=== Traditional foods include beans, tortillas, metas, soups, sweets, and seeds. Other traditional foods and dishes include: # A variety of pupusas (stuffed corn tortillas) # Tamales # Coffee of corn of sorghum # Soups made with local vegetables # Sweetened ayote, a local squash # Atole of fruits # Natural fruit juices of local fruits, such as nance The majority of the ingredients used to make these foods and drinks are natural and are grown in the area. They also form part of the biodiversity that, in some cases, is threatened or in danger of extinction. Nevertheless these habits are less common as more people eat commercially produced foods. ==Touristic Sites== # Sumpul River, where it enters in Cantón El Conacaste # El Volcán / El Conacaste and la Bola, are known as “the boiler” because there is natural hot water. # Above Tamulasco River there are various natural pools: varias pozas: La Sirena, la poza de las Golondrinas, el Cajón ==Archaeological Sites== # In Sicahuite there is stone art and archaeological material. # In Plan de Barro there is stone art. # In Las Vueltas and El Conacaste there is stone art. ==Citations== ARENA. 2007. “Nuestra Historia.” [Online] http://www.arena.com.sv/. Retrieved December 6, 2007. CIA World Factbook. November 15, 2007. “El Salvador.” [Online]. https://www.cia.gov/ library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/es.html. Retrieved December 5, 2007. Comisión Nacional de Educación Política. 2002. “Historia del FMLN.” [Online] http://fmln.org.sv/portal/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=1. Retrieved December 6, 2007. Embajada de El Salvador en EE. UU. (Embajada), De la Civilización a la Independencia. [Online]. http://www.elsalvador.org/home.nsf. Retrieved December 4, 2007. Foley, Michael W. 2006. Laying the Groundwork: The Struggle for Civil Society in El Salvador. Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. 38 (1): 67-104. Lonely Planet. “El Salvador Background Information.” [Online]. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/central-america/el-salvador/essential?a=culture. Retrieved December 3, 2007. Martínez Alas, José Salomón, Aguilardo Pérez Yancky, Ismael Ernesto Crespín Rivera, and Deysi Ester Cierra Anaya. 2005. “Diagnostico Cultural Municipio de Las Vueltas, 2005.” El Instituo para Rescate Ancestral Indígena (RAIS): El Salvador. Stahler-Sholk, Richard. 1994. El Salvador's Negotiated Transition: From Low-Intensity Conflict to Low-IntensityDemocracy. Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. 36 (4): 1-59. US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (USBHRL). November 8, 2005. “International Religious Freedom Report 2005.” {{coord|14|06|N|88|53|W|display=title|region:SV_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki}} [[Category:Municipalities of El Salvador]] [[it:Las Vueltas]]