A Folktale from Nicaragua provided by Wilberth Medrano 2008
The town of
“Around 1530, the Spaniards carried out a well-armed expedition into Nicaraguan territory in order to extend their domain and increase their wealth. During that incursion, the Spaniards managed to subdue the Indians of Sébaco that lived by the Moyuá Lagoon. The chief of the tribe, once vanquished, presented the conquistadores with deerskin pouches filled with nuggets of gold.
“The news in
“On arriving in Sébaco, the young man met the beautiful daughter of the cacique and romanced her with intentions of seizing the wealth of her father. The young Indian fell lost in love with the Spaniard and as proof of her love, let him know where her father kept his riches. There are those who say that the Spaniard also fell really in love with the young Indian maiden.
“The cacique, on hearing about the affair between his daughter and the foreigner, made his opposition to the relation clear and they were obliged to run away. But the cacique tracked them down and faced off against the Spaniard, killing him. Then he locked up his daughter, though she was pregnant, in a cave in the hills. Other versions have it that the Spaniard locked up his Indian lover after seizing the treasures.
“The legend tells of how
“In some places it is told that when
Legend has it that
There are many other tales left to tell in which the history of our ancestors is interplay between reality and fiction, the visible and the hidden, the mysterious and the day-to-day. The comings and goings of other cultures that clash with the rooted beliefs of our forebears from the Conquest to modern times has made us into a people that creates its own myths and legends as a defense from those other cultures and as an expression of our own.
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