Alegria Lagoon Siren

Many moons ago, in a place not so far from San Juan Canton. It used to live a girl of magnificent beauty and impressive smile. She lived with her parents, brothers, and other relatives in a small wooden cabin. Her name was Xiri, which means “Star.” She belonged to the Lenca tribe.

The Lenca tribe was very calm and smart. They were never involved in any wars with their neighbors until the Tecolucas-Nonualcos attacked them by surprise to conquer and seize all their lands, women, and gold. It was a bloody war, which unfortunately they lost.

Lamani led this war and was the most powerful shaman of those times. He was a ruthless and cruel ruler who kidnapped Xiri because he fell in love at first sight. He saved her from the war.

However, it was not the same luck for her family, who died immediately after the archers had invaded her hometown. In addition, when the war was ongoing, the Tecapa Volcano erupted with great fury, as if the gods thought this was enough! The eruptions continued for many weeks as if it was the end of time.

Lamani tried to gain Xiri's affection, but she always rejected him and never accepted his love, for all he did to conquer her lands.

One day, he got tired of Xiri’s rejection and attempted the last trick and pretended he could read the future, took out the entrails of a dog, and supposedly read the entrails and said that a humane sacrifice was necessary to calm the fury of the volcano. Precisely, a beautiful maiden or she should get married to him.

She rejected his proposal, and the graceful Xiri was chosen as a sacrifice to stop the lava flow and the eruptions that threatened to devastate the town. While Xiri was going to die in the river of lava, a turquoise-browed motmot began to sing.

The bird song was so deep, melancholy, and convincing that the volcano began to calm down sharply. It stopped throwing lava, rocks, and smoke. Suddenly, the bird song was so copious that it gave shape to what we know today as the Alegria Lagoon.

After the volcano had stopped, Xiri was transformed by the gods into a graceful siren (figure 1), which the locals attribute many disappearances of several young people, who have dared to swim in the sulfurous waters of the lagoon (figure 2).

Figure 1. The siren. ¹

Figure 2. The Alegría Lagoon. ²

According to locals, the Tecapa Volcano erupted in the 12th century. At that time, Tecapa was born as a town, or what we know today as Alegria. It was also called Guaymitique at that time, which means, “the place where the winds whistle.”

Credits:
¹ Armando Urquillo 2017 - 2018.
² C. Lozano 2014 - 2018.
Location: Laguna de Alegria, El Salvador

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