Federico Stories

Long ago there was a powerful oligarch in the lands of the Barra de Santiago in Ahuachapan. This influential businessman called Pachacutec engaged his only daughter, Chasca, with the Zutuhil Prince. Chasca was a really beautiful girl with a magnificent smile, body, and hair. She was the star of the city, and everybody wanted to date her. However, Chasca never loved her future husband or any other men in the city. Chasca’s pure heart belonged only to a poor and young fisherman called Acayetl. He delivered the tastiest fish during her 15th birthday, and it was love at first sight. This fisherman lived on Zanate Island. Weeks later, Chasca visited Acayetl every night, and they sang and danced as if there was no end.  Acayetl loved her, and he enjoyed every minute they spent together as if it was the last one.  Plus, from time to time, Acayetl sang to  Chasca  while they were sailing on the coast, and she danced on the top of it. However, one cold night when Ch...

Long ago, when the Maya people used to live in El Salvador, at the end of a dry season, some Indians discovered an uncommon animal near a river, which was massive and was half-pig and half-snake (figure 1). The Indians tiptoed and tried to approach it, when, suddenly, they heard a dark squawk, and the animal slid on the river and started to rain. After this, a new wet season began, and they named it the Cuyancua or the Cuyancuat. Figure 1. The Cuyancua, the half-pig, and half-snake animal. ¹ Following this first encounter, the Cuyancua became more prevalent in their lives.  It began to  appear to  announce the wet season or to predict rains, tropical storms, hurricanes, La Niña, and floods, among other water phenomena in some unexpected cases. Nowadays, you can see Cuyancua in the north of Izalco. Here, the citizens say when dusk is falling, they listen to a very dark squawk and feel strong turbulence under the earth, which panics all Indian families...