The Folk of El Tular
An El Tular Snapshot from Jose Figueroa
Celedonio Hernandez and Maura Perez
Aged 89 and 90 respectively are two original inhabitants of El Tular, Municipality of Cuisnahuat, Department of Sonsonate
The Hernandez couple are natives of El Tular, they have enjoyed 63 years together and have two daughters. They live in the community in a house which shares a small parcel of land with the houses of their grandchildren.
Celedonio: “Before Cuisnahuat (the local town) came into being it was called the Apancoyo region. There were just the high hills, and, in the rivers, plenty of crustaceans. Where the football pitch is now there was a lot of Tule (a type of riverside cypress) and that’s why this was called El Tular.
When we were little there were only 8 or 9 houses and 7 families. They were Doroteo Reyes, Fabian Hernandez, Pedro Figueroa, Agustin Perez, Alberto Perez, Leoncio Cinecio and Jacob Pintin. Those were all the families. After their houses there were no more until you got to Los Clara (a large extended family several miles away).”
Celedonio and Maura are among the few grandparents who still speak Nahuatl, the uto-aztec language of the native people, the Nahuatl-Pipiles. He told me that the Nahuatl they use is not the same as that of other communities in their Department of Sonsonate. There are concentrations of native people, who speak it as their first language. “Some of the older women still dress in their traditional heavy skirts”, he told me, “and they keep many of the ancient customs, and the young people are very respectful of their elders, and they dress very formally”.
“When you see those young lads and lasses dressed, their bodies are covered. But here these days the youth go about in shorts and flimsy things. They never shut up and hardly ever show respect. They just go around listening to weird music, and looking at things in mobiles. Youth is very much changed today. I remember my dad saying to me, ‘The time’s going to come when everything will fail, then there will be no fish, and the land will cease to produce and we shall have nothing. And look, the rivers are practically dried up. Today we can only grow rubbish, the land is disappearing through erosion and using all those chemicals.’ And I remember my dad also said, ‘A time will come when man will fly.’ And Look. Within a few years we saw the first aeroplane and now everyone travels by air. Amazing!”
Maura also returned to the good old days. “About three months ago” she told me, “I was very ill, with dysentery. But he went off and found me the herbs in the jungle and he made a poultice with them and a little to drink. And that cured me and here we are! Around here in what little is left of the woods there are plenty of medicinal herbs. In the past our grandparents didn’t go to hospitals, they only had herbs for a cure. In San Lucas (a nearby village) a lot of the people still go up the hills gathering herbs.”
The Hernandez Perez couple keep several domestic animals like turkeys and hens, which they also eat, and they get a little economic assistance from their grandchildren.
