Federico Stories

During the 1800s, there was a woman living in San Vicente. She had an abusive relationship with her husband, who didn’t respect her. Her husband was an alcoholic man who drank every night, at least two bottles of “Agua Ardiente.” He yelled at her all the time because she was not as beautiful as her sister, and she was not as good at having sex as she was. Her life was miserable, and it didn’t matter what she did, it was never enough. Five years later, her husband abandoned her with her sister, who was better at everything. She didn’t know what to do; in these times, divorce was a terrible sign. Her life was socially finished, and she was more miserable than ever. She looked like a normal Indian with dark skin, black eyes, and short and curly hair. Nothing special and her age limited her to start a new life. After many months, she considered committing suicide because she didn’t have any social life, and her family isolated her from her group too. She was forced to become a lone...

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...