Nicarao people

Nicarao

Nahua community in Rivas, Nicaragua.
Total population
20,000+
Regions with significant populations
Western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica
Nicaragua	Estimated 20,000[1][2]
Costa Rica	~1000
Languages
Nawat, Nicaraguan Spanish
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Nahuas, Pipil people, Mexica

The Nicarao are an Indigenous Nahua people who live in western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} They are the southernmost Nahua group located in southern Mesoamerica. They spoke the Nahuat language before it went extinct in both countries after Spanish conquest.^[10][11]

The Nicarao are descended from Toltecs who migrated from North America and central and southern Mexico over the course of several centuries from approximately 700 CE onwards.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]} This branch of the Nahua originated in Chiapas, which was inhabited by Nahuat-speaking Toltecs for hundreds of years before they migrated further into Central America.^{[21][10][22][23][24][25][26][27]} Around 1200 CE, the Nicarao split from the Pipil people, moved into what is now Nicaragua, seized most of the fertile lands in the area, and at some point eventually separated and formed their own chiefdoms.^[28][29][30] The migration of the Nicarao has been linked to the collapse of the important central-Mexican cities of Teotihuacan and Tula, as well as the Classic Maya collapse. The Nicarao settled throughout western Nicaragua, inhabiting Rivas, Jinotega, Chinandega, Nueva Segovia, Masaya, Carazo, Madriz, Matagalpa, Esteli, Leon, Granada and Managua. In addition the Nicarao controlled Tiger Lagoon, Lake Xolotlan, Lake Cocibolca, and the islands of Ometepe and Zapatera.^{[19][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]} Ometepe and Zapatera were also considered sacred to the Nicarao. The Nicarao also settled in Bagaces, Costa Rica after displacing the Huetar people who were already there, resulting in tribal warfare between the Nahuas and the Huetares which lasted until Spanish arrival.^[38][39]

The Nicarao referred to western Nicaragua as Nicānāhuac which means "here lies Anahuac" in Nahuatl and is a combination of the words Nican (here),^[40] and Ānāhuac, which in turn is a combination of the words atl (water) and nahuac, a locative meaning "surrounded". Therefore the literal translation of Nicanahuac is "here surrounded by water".^{[41][42][43][44][45]} This was a geographical endonym that referred to the large bodies of water that surrounded the land the Nicarao inhabited, the Pacific Ocean, lakes Cocibolca and Xolotlan, and the rivers and lagoons.^[46][47] Similarly, the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan was also surrounded by water, which they referred to as Cemanahuac.^[48][49] This establishes a connection between pre-Columbian Mexico and Nicaragua.

As a Mesoamerican group, the Nicarao shared many blended cultural traits with both indigenous North American and Mexican belief systems as well as their Toltec parent tribe, including an identical Toltec calendar, similar pottery and effigies, similar organizational treaties, the use of screenfold books, the worship of the Great Spirit and closely related sky deities, Nagual mysticism, the practice of animal and Tonal spirituality, and expertise in medical practice.^{[50][51][52][53][54]}