Guatajiagua

A long time ago, a statue of San Sebastián was brought from Morroñoso Hill in Morazán. It was a nice statue, and the citizens decided to make a tiny chapel for him.

The next morning, the citizens visited the tiny chapel, but they were shocked because the statue was not there. The statue had moved by itself to another place where there were some rocks.

No one understood how this had happened, but they brought back the statue to the tiny chapel. However, again, the next morning, the statue had moved back to the rocks. And the same phenomenon repeated for several weeks. No one had any idea what was happening or who was moving the statue. Some people believe a joker was playing with the statue.

After several weeks, some priests agreed that this was a clear sign that Saint Sebastian wanted to stay in that rocky place. There was no joker behind. Therefore, they decided to build a new temple there. The people were glad, and the statue never moved again.

Nowadays, the statue and the church are located in the Calvary neighborhood at the exit of Chapeltique and San Miguel. This church was the beginning of a new town called Guatajiagua (figure 1) in Morazan.

Figure 1. Guatajiagua.

Inspired by Miguel Ángel Portillo’s version collected by Ennis Arely Arevalo Girón, Lissette Amelia Gutierrez Paz, and Karen Liseth Mancia Bonilla in their thesis Cultura Popular de Guatajiagua.

Location: Guatajiagua, El Salvador

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