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San Jose Ojos de Agua, El Salvador
San Jose Ojos de Agua is a municipality is located in the department of Chalatenango in the North of El Salvador
The Municipality
Ojos de Agua is a municipality in the Department of Chalatenango, El Salvador. It is bordered to the north by by Honduras; to the east by Honduras and Nueva Trinidad; to the south by Las Flores and Las Vueltas; and to the west by Concepcion Quezaltepeque and El Carrizal. The territorial extension of the municipality is 34.12 km2. In 2005 the population of the municipality was 3,579 inhabitants. For its administration, the municipality is divided into seven cantones and 19 caserios.
History of Ojos de Agua
The civilization of El Salvador dates from the Pre-Colombian 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 Gulf of Fonseca (Embajada). In June of 1524 Captain Alvarado began a war of conquest against the indigenous people of Cuzcatlan (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 Jose Matias 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).
By law, on February 18, 1841, the populations of Las Vueltas, Ojos de Agua and La Ceiba formed one electoral area. The village of Ojos de Agua was designated as a formal town in 1867, although in 1855 the Presbyterian doctor Isidro Mendez declared it to be a town of the department of Chalatenango. From May 12, 1902 until April 23, 1906, Ojos de Agua annexed the canton El Zapotal, along with El Coyolar and Yurique, segregating them from the municipality of Las Vueltas. The canton El Portillo was also segregated from the municipality of El Carrizal. (Chalatenango Monografia del departamento y sus municipios. Instituto Geografico Nacional Ingeniero Pablo Arnoldo Guzman Centro Nacional de Registro. 1995.)
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 Marti, 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 . 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 . The Peace Accords were signed on January 16, 1992 (Embajada).
The department of Chalatenango was heavily impacted by the Civil War. Many people of Ojos de Agua 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 Caserios
Coyolar:
Coyolar,
Los Aparejos,
Los Navarro,
Casas Viejas
El Portillo:
El Portillo,
El Cerro Pelon
El Sitio:
El Sitio,
El Salitre
El Tablon:
El Tablon,
Valle el Pito
El Zapotal:
El Zapotal,
El Copinol
La Montonita:
La Montanita
Yurique:
Yurique,
Las Pavas,
Las Aradas,
El Mandadero,
San Francisco,
El Aceituno
Source: Chalatenango Monografia del departamento y sus municipios. Instituto Geografico Nacional Ingeniero Pablo Arnoldo Guzman Centro Nacional de Registro. 1995.
Observation of the administrative political division
According to the inhabitants, the caserios that compose canton Coyolar are now uninhabited. The El caserio El Sitio in canton El Portillo is known as Tierra Blanca (White Earth). The caseio El Copinol in El Zapotal is uninhabited, as are all of the caserios in canton Yurique.
Historia de Cantones y Caserios
According to the populace, the caserios that compose canton Coyolar are uninhabited. In canton El Zapotal the caserio El Copinol is uninhabited, as are all the caserios that compose canton Yurique.
According to the inhabitants, the municipality Ojos de Agua is named after the abundance of water sources in the area. Los Sitios was so named because people used to stay there (sitiaban--they surrounded) temporarily while taking care of their animals in the area.
El Coyolar was named by the people because the men there were very macho (or coyoludos).
Politics
There are two main political parties in El Salvador, whose roots lie in the Civil War . The main right-wing party is La Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Nactionalist Republican AllianceARENA), 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 Marti 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 . Since the Civil War the two have remained the countrys 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 stepsto act as a consequence of the historically created challenges, in order to make the party an organization of social fightersand to unify more the struggle for power (Comision Nacional de Educacion Politica 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 Ojos de Agua is Prof. Jose Raul Chinchilla Mejia, of the ARENA 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 . 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.
Patron-Saint and Other Traditional Festivals
Urban center: March 16-19, in honor of St. Joseph; July 16, in honor of the Virgin del Carmen; October 28, in honor of St. Judas Tadeo
Coyolar: August 14-15, in honor of the Virgin de la Asuncion (El Transito)
El Portillo: July 27, in honor of the Virgin del Perpetuo Socorro
El Sitio: May 3, in honor of the Holy Cross
El Tablon: May 15, in honor of St. Isidro Labrador; March 6, in honor of St. Anthony
El Zapotal: October 14-15, in honor of Jesus del Rescate
La Montonita: May 3, in honor of the Holy Cross and St. Anthony
Music and Dance
The popular music used to be ranchera and some boleros. Some commonly played instruments were violin, guitar and marimba. Sometimes people made instruments with their own hands, such as flutes made with the stems of papaya-tree leaves and bamboo twigs. Some people also made music with leaves from orange trees and coffee plants. Serenades were also frequent. Most of this music is no longer heard.
One of the traditional dances was called La Raspa; people also danced to ranchera music.
Agricultural Production
The production that has historically characterized the municipality is that of corn, beans, sorghum (maicillo), rice, and vegetables. They also produce indigo, and one can still find the remains of the equipment used to manufacture the indigo although it is no longer in use. The plant was crushed with water and then placed into a bottle, then the ink was prepared. They also grow hibiscus flowers.
Food and Drink
Traditional foods include beans, tortillas, metas, soups, sweets, and seeds. Other traditional foods and dishes include:
During the corn harvest people make different types of tamales, atole (a corn and milk-based drink), and corn on the cob.
There are many different types of types, such as sweet and savory, that can be made with different fillings, like meats and
vegetables, mainly potatoes. Pisques are big tamales that are made for people going on trips, so that they can carry them along.
Another typical dish is the balls of corn dough that are added to bean soup.
In this area people make candies and conserves out of various fruits.
Bean soup with young tender mango.
Mogo is a dish prepared out of tender bananas, which are ground and fried with sugar or salt.
Seeds of local plants, such as paterna and pan.
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.
Tourist Sites
The natural pool of La Piedra Larga, located in Sumpul River, is a popular bathing place
El Tablon is a beautiful place, surrounded by mountains and with a nice climate
The following hills: El Tule, El Zarzal and El Cebollal, are actually part of the same geographic formation and can be found in front of the urban center of Ojos de Agua.
The natural pool Rumbadota
The natural pool Coponte
Artisan Products
Historically, in the municipality people made pots, tortillas pans, yellow scented candles from vegetable wax, balls of string, hammocks, mortars and pestles, lead-tipped fishing nets, woven mats, and sugar cane mills.
They also know how to make an alcoholic beverage known as chaparro. This is now made clandestinely because it is illegal, although it is part of the cultural heritage of different villages. It is used as a cure for hangovers and anemia, because it revitalizes people since it is a highly potent drink.
Archeological Sites
In El Tablon there are stones with drawings
In El Cerro Vivo there are stones with drawings and house foundations near the clinic. In the house of Don Maximiliano Ayala there are stones with letters
In Piedra Larga there are pieces of pottery
In El Cebollal, La Montanona, and the zone of Naranjito there are obsidian and sparkling stones called piedra centella.
Citations
NOTE: Unless otherwise cited, all information extracted from Martinez Alas et. al. "Diagnostico Cultural Municipio de Ojos de Agua, 2005." Reprinted with express permission of the Unidad Tecnica Intermunicipal de La Mancomunidad la Montanona, who commissioned the report.
ARENA. 2007. Nuestra Historia. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
CIA World Factbook. November 15, 2007. [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/es.html El Salvador.] Retrieved December 5, 2007.
Comision Nacional de Educacion Politica. 2002. Historia del FMLN. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
Embajada de El Salvador en EE. UU. (Embajada), De la Civilizacion a la Independencia. 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. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
Martinez Alas, Jose Salomon, Aguilardo Perez Yancky, Ismael Ernesto Crespin Rivera, and Deysi Ester Cierra Anaya. 2005. Diagnostico Cultural Municipio de Ojos de Agua, 2005. El Instituo para Rescate Ancestral Indigena (RAIS): El Salvador.
Stahler-Sholk, Richard. 1994. El Salvador's Negotiated Transition: From Low-Intensity Conflict to Low-Intensity Democracy. 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.
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